Sparky wins free gourmet burgers for a year

Exeter’s original gourmet burger restaurant is celebrating selling its 60,000th meal by saying thank you to the customer who bought it.

Electrician Shane Howe took his girlfriend Amy Hudson to Urban Burger, on Queen Street for dinner.

And after being served his order, the 37-year-old was told he had just bought the 60,000th meal, and had won a free burger every month for a year.

Shane, who lives in Exeter, changed his booking time several times before coming in and, unwittingly, hitting the ‘landmark’ figure.

Shane said: “I thought it was a wind up first off. I’d been re-arranging the table all day and kept changing the time we were coming in, so I thought I must have been getting on everyone’s nerves and that it was a joke. I love it at Urban Burger - the service, atmosphere and the food. The food is amazing. We eat there lots. I enjoy the whole place really.”

Launched by Garth and Melissa Pearse in September 2012, Urban Burger has become famed for its array of gourmet burgers made with 100% Devon beef, and enjoyed by the likes of Exeter Chief and England Rugby stars Jack Nowell and Sam Hill. It reached

Garth Pearse said: “We’re delighted for Shane. When we told him he’d just won 12 months of dining with us, the expression on his face was truly a joy to behold.

“We’ve had a busy summer and wanted to say thank you to our loyal and new customers. It’s a tough market in Exeter and so we strive all the time to serve up wonderful food and a great experience at a fair price. People want quality and that’s what we give them. We’re grateful that we have such wonderful customers who appreciate good food.”

In recent months Urban Burger has revised its main menu and also launched a new Smokin’ Shack, with beef, pork and chicken cooked in a newly-imported American ‘smoker’.

In 2010 Garth and Melissa, who live in Tedburn St Mary, bought Exeter Sausage & Grill. But just a month after opening, Melissa was diagnosed with breast cancer. She made a full recovery and the couple opened Urban Burger, Exeter’s first gourmet burger restaurant, in 2012.

“We knew there was a gap in the market,” said Melissa, who worked for 15 years in marketing in Dublin, Manchester and London, before moving to Devon with Garth.

“We did our research but of course what matters the most is the product, the service and the experience you create for your customers. That will always be at the forefront of how we do things at Urban Burger.”

Garth and Melissa swapped London for Devon in 2005, first running the Thorverton Arms, in Thorverton, outside Exeter.

Garth, who worked in hospitality in London throughout the 1990s and then became a recruitment consultant for the same industry, says passion for food is crucial to everything they do.

“Where it is sourced from, how it is prepared, cooked and presented – it’s all fundamental to creating a wonderful culinary experience,” he said.

“Of course it has to taste fantastic and fill you up good and proper too. All our ingredients come from 40 miles of Exeter and we work closely with Greendale Farm to ensure we use the best meat. We do it all – develop our own recipes, combinations, fries, dips, desserts. You have to be obsessive about it, and we are!”