OnlyBurger is cookin’.
The Food Network will announce Sunday whether OnlyBurger, a popular mobile vendor often seen on campus and around Durham, has won a place on one of its shows. Should OnlyBurger be offered a slot on the second season of “The Great Food Truck Race,” it will be awarded $10,000 and a chance to compete for the $50,000 grand prize.
Starting Aug. 28, customers nominated food trucks from around the country to compete on the show and then voted for their favorites online. OnlyBurger was enrolled in the competition after it was nominated by an anonymous customer, and as of Sept. 10 when voting closed, the rolling burger joint found itself in first place.
Although Lauren Mueller, the Food Network’s public relations manager, wrote in an e-mail that the leaderboard did not necessarily reflect who won the competition, co-owner Brian Bottger said he was confident OnlyBurger had won. The truck had been ranked highly throughout the competition, he added.
“The amazing thing for us was that we literally started in fifth place,” Bottger said. “[Then] we were basically in third and second place [the whole time], and then on Sept. 10 at midnight, the contest ended and we were in first place on the leaderboard.”
If OnlyBurger wins a spot on the show, it will be one of seven trucks to race across the country trying to sell different food products. Each team will be given a limited budget for ingredients and then sent off to sell their product in a designated city, according to the Food Network’s website. At the end of each episode, the teams will report their profits and the truck with the lowest earnings will be eliminated.
Bottger explained that if OnlyBurger comes in first, the majority of the original $10,000 cash prize will be put back into the business.
“The rest of [the money after taxes] we’ll put into the truck; its way overdue for new equipment and maintenance,” he said. “I’d love to be able to give my staff a little bit of a bonus too, but we’ll worry about it when we actually win it.”
But if OnlyBurger is selected and chooses to participate in the show, its participation in “The Great Food Truck Race” would likely cost the company more than it would win.
“The winnings from the contest would probably not even cover the losses from not being here in Durham,” he said. “Essentially they’d take our business and have to drive it halfway across the country and then drive it back. We’re [also] getting ready to open a store here in Durham, and we [would] have to figure out how to open a store from on the road.”
Despite the financial challenges involved, Bottger said that if given the chance, OnlyBurger would still compete.
“Financially it’s not a winner, and of course the odds aren’t great to win the whole contest, but we feel like it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to be on the show and get some national publicity for OnlyBurger and our business,” he said.
OnlyBurger employee Nolan Brodalksi said he was optimistic about the truck’s chances on the show.
“We’re going to win,” he said. “[On the show], I’d imagine we’d be pretty hardcore. I don’t think [the other trucks] would give us much of a challenge.”
The mobile vendor used Twitter, Facebook and promotional handouts to encourage customers to vote. Barbara Baker, a regular customer, said becoming OnlyBurger’s friend on Facebook helped remind her to support the truck in the competition and that she voted “religiously every day.” Sophomore Michael Blum said he learned about the competition by following OnlyBurger on Twitter and that he would watch the show if it were a contestant.
“If OnlyBurger is in it, I’ll watch it for sure,” he said. “It’s great food, and it’s cheap.”
Regardless of the outcome, though, Bottger said he was pleased with the publicity the company has received by participating.
“Even if we don’t win the contest, we still come out ahead,” he said. “We’ve had a great time and we’ve gotten national exposure—[in that respect], we’ve already won.”
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