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00:00:00 [MUSIC]
00:00:13 Where's my action? I want an action.
00:00:14 And action.
00:00:16 [MUSIC]
00:00:23 This one's green.
00:00:24 What's going on with it?
00:00:25 Meet the Burger Baron super fans.
00:00:28 I invited them here to help me understand their obsession with
00:00:31 the curious little fast food chain in the heartland of Alberta, Canada.
00:00:36 Is this what you always order?
00:00:37 It's all my favorite things from Burger Baron's.
00:00:39 The mushroom burger with what I assume is Camel's mushroom soup.
00:00:42 I really love the onion rings.
00:00:44 I love the sauce.
00:00:45 Nice fat crispy fried eggs.
00:00:47 [MUSIC]
00:00:49 We just need to be quiet for a minute.
00:00:51 Quiet on set.
00:00:51 Lock it down.
00:00:54 I'll be eating over here.
00:00:56 Could you describe Burger Baron to someone who's never heard of it or
00:01:01 been there before?
00:01:02 The broken down dirtiest look.
00:01:05 [LAUGH]
00:01:06 Can't say that, it's true.
00:01:09 You roll into town and you look for the dirtiest place that has a beacon of
00:01:14 hope shining on it with a weird little man, go eat that burger.
00:01:18 The man on your shirt.
00:01:19 That's right, the dirty little man on my shirt.
00:01:21 What I've noticed about Burger Barons is that sometimes they look a bit tatty.
00:01:26 They need a coat of paint.
00:01:27 But they can still put out that darn good mushroom burger.
00:01:31 It's like a classic diner burger, but all of them are gonna be a little bit
00:01:35 different cuz of the way they've all drifted apart from each other.
00:01:38 The best part about Burger Baron is the people.
00:01:42 They've always been very polite, friendly, enthusiastic, and
00:01:45 willing to go the extra bit.
00:01:48 That looks pretty good.
00:01:49 Can I have a bite of that?
00:01:51 Absolutely.
00:01:51 Yeah?
00:01:52 Sorry guys.
00:01:54 We can do this.
00:01:56 We're bubbled up.
00:01:57 It's my dad.
00:01:58 Child care.
00:01:59 Yeah.
00:02:00 Actually, that's my father-in-law.
00:02:02 This is my dad.
00:02:05 That's my mom.
00:02:05 And this is the grand opening of the Burger Baron in High Prairie.
00:02:10 Our Burger Baron.
00:02:13 Ladies and gentlemen, we're officially opening the new Burger Baron.
00:02:17 [APPLAUSE]
00:02:18 The restaurant changed our lives forever.
00:02:21 It moved us up from the working class to the middle class and
00:02:24 made it possible for my parents to live out the immigrant dream in Canada.
00:02:27 That's me in the middle.
00:02:29 As you can tell, I really love the food.
00:02:33 [MUSIC]
00:02:36 It wasn't until I got older that I realized my parents weren't the only
00:02:40 barons on the prairies.
00:02:41 There were dozens of them spread around small town Alberta.
00:02:45 And other than that one mushroom burger everyone loved,
00:02:49 they didn't seem to have anything in common except for one thing.
00:02:54 All of them, every single one was owned by Lebanese immigrants like my parents.
00:03:01 [MUSIC]
00:03:11 [MUSIC]
00:03:21 The minute you say you have a Burger Baron,
00:03:36 the first thing anybody will ask you, are you Lebanese?
00:03:38 Nobody really knows who the owner is.
00:03:40 The Lebanese people came, took it, and made it the company that it is.
00:03:44 Is it cultural appropriation?
00:03:46 I don't know, it doesn't say Burger Sheik.
00:03:48 [LAUGH]
00:03:50 [MUSIC]
00:03:58 It's one of the most recognizable and beloved brands in the prairie province of
00:04:02 Alberta.
00:04:03 With over 25 completely independent locations spreading from north to south,
00:04:08 and one in BC.
00:04:10 The Burger Baron restaurants that were and are landmarks across the prairies.
00:04:15 Alberta's known for like ranching, rednecks, jacked up pickup trucks, but
00:04:20 then there's all these Burger Baron stores that are run by Lebanese families.
00:04:25 There is people, I'm sure, that thought maybe we were doing something legal.
00:04:30 It's almost like the burger mafia.
00:04:32 Their pensions for big houses and
00:04:33 nice cars might make the barons look like mafioso.
00:04:37 But if there's one thing this mob isn't, it's organized.
00:04:40 There is no actual system.
00:04:42 Everybody's kind of doing their own thing with Burger Baron.
00:04:46 Which might explain how it became more of a meme than franchise.
00:04:50 [MUSIC]
00:04:55 So what's going on here?
00:04:57 How did a loose network of Arab immigrants become a cabal of
00:05:00 burger empresarios?
00:05:02 It's a territorial business.
00:05:05 My burger is better than his burger.
00:05:07 >> My dad is Burger Baron.
00:05:09 >> Your dad is Burger Baron.
00:05:11 No, my dad is Burger Baron.
00:05:12 >> No, my dad.
00:05:13 >> My dad was Burger Baron before your dad was Burger Baron.
00:05:16 [MUSIC]
00:05:26 It was once an international brand with more than 100 locations in its history,
00:05:33 spread across 11 provinces and states.
00:05:36 And there was even one in Lebanon.
00:05:38 But the Burger Baron's heyday is no more.
00:05:41 Even before the pandemic turned the restaurant business upside down,
00:05:48 Burger Barons were closing at a steady clip.
00:05:50 >> We need somebody to take over the business who's enthusiastic about it.
00:05:54 >> This Burger Baron will not be passed down to me,
00:05:56 I can guarantee you that, or my brother.
00:05:59 >> I am sure they will die off 20 years from now.
00:06:01 Maybe we'll have one left.
00:06:03 [MUSIC]
00:06:09 >> With the rise of big box chains and foodie culture, and
00:06:12 a second generation chasing their own dreams,
00:06:15 is there really a future for the Burger Baron?
00:06:18 [MUSIC]
00:06:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:06:39 >> Kelly Saab interview, take one.
00:06:44 [MUSIC]
00:06:47 So you're gonna be looking at me.
00:06:49 [MUSIC]
00:06:57 >> Kelly Saab interview, take two.
00:07:00 >> I'm the owner of Burger Baron and Rocky Mountain House.
00:07:03 I got this business around 2015.
00:07:07 We went through a rough road due to economy, recession,
00:07:12 neglection, and it wasn't in great shape.
00:07:15 So I had to work it out all the way from scratch.
00:07:19 I graduated in Beirut as a Hospitality Management.
00:07:25 And I worked in different places down there, but
00:07:28 this business needs sort of a stability in the country.
00:07:34 [MUSIC]
00:07:37 When the war started,
00:07:38 we were just in the middle of the peak time of the night at nightclub.
00:07:43 >> After years of calm, Israel assaulted the Lebanese capital with air missiles,
00:07:48 in retaliation for a guerrilla attack that killed eight Jewish soldiers.
00:07:53 >> Everything was just like gone in seconds.
00:07:56 One of my cousins knows some people that lives in Edmonton and
00:08:01 they have a couple successful restaurants and they were hiring people from overseas.
00:08:07 They got my number and then they contacted me and
00:08:09 we did all the paperwork needed and I get approved.
00:08:14 >> Little did Kelly know,
00:08:17 he'd been invited to learn the trade secrets of the Lebanese burger mafia.
00:08:22 It was basically destiny that one day he would have his own Burger Baron.
00:08:26 Why do you think it's Lebanese dominated?
00:08:28 >> It was owned by maybe two, three brothers and
00:08:32 some cousins or friends, opening their own in a different towns.
00:08:38 And that's how it's just turned to be like all Lebanese.
00:08:42 >> Kelly's not wrong.
00:08:43 It did start with two or three brothers and some cousins or some friends.
00:08:47 And they were immigrants, just not Lebanese.
00:08:50 They were Americans, Irish Americans, named the McDonalds.
00:08:54 That's McDonnell.
00:08:55 >> My name is Terry McDonald.
00:08:59 I'm the son of Jack McDonald, who started the Burger Baron in Canada.
00:09:04 I've heard different stories about they've started it.
00:09:09 It infuriates me.
00:09:11 It's just not true.
00:09:14 It's not even close to it.
00:09:16 It's just out now lie and I don't like it.
00:09:19 That's not the case.
00:09:21 My dad started that, period.
00:09:23 He had a lot of different businesses over the years.
00:09:26 When I was very little, the family went up to Alaska and
00:09:31 he was building homes for the government.
00:09:33 He had a lumber yard in Great Falls.
00:09:36 He was always on a new idea.
00:09:39 There was a place in Great Falls, Montana called the Burger Master.
00:09:44 It was my dad's inspiration and he went and talked to him about it.
00:09:50 He said, I wanna do something in Canada.
00:09:52 Would you guys show me how to do this?
00:09:54 He spent a couple weeks with them, just learning the ropes, and
00:09:57 then decided to move from there to Calgary.
00:09:59 >> Fast food era goes back a long way.
00:10:05 It was when the car became important.
00:10:08 Not just one car in the family either, but two cars, more cars.
00:10:13 That's what drove the fast food era.
00:10:17 It was easy.
00:10:19 It was relatively inexpensive to get burgers for everybody.
00:10:23 And everybody could find what they wanted.
00:10:24 I mean, find me a child that doesn't like French fries.
00:10:28 We all love French fries and burgers.
00:10:31 >> By 1957, a new McDonald's was opening every two weeks in America,
00:10:37 more than tripling from just the previous year.
00:10:40 On track to have 100 golden arches up by the end of the decade,
00:10:43 Jack saw an opportunity to build the McDonald's of the North.
00:10:47 >> There weren't a lot of fast foods up there then.
00:10:51 When he first built the Burger Baron in Calgary, the first one,
00:10:55 he went to a sign company and said, I've got this place, the Burger Baron.
00:10:59 I'm gonna need signs.
00:11:00 And the guy said, well, do you want me to design one for you?
00:11:03 And dad said, yeah, by all means.
00:11:06 So he then drew up the Baron, the little fat guy,
00:11:10 colorful, smiley face Baron, and stuck with it.
00:11:14 >> Jack was so confident that he had the next McDonald's that he simultaneously
00:11:18 built a second location 200 kilometers away in Lethbridge and
00:11:22 brought his brother Mandy up from Montana to run it.
00:11:25 They opened them on the same day.
00:11:27 >> They had a five or six speaker system.
00:11:31 And then past that was another six or seven capacity in the lineup for cars.
00:11:37 It would have been two or three blocks long at least until they closed at midnight.
00:11:43 It was neat to know that this was happening to our family,
00:11:46 that this is a big success.
00:11:49 >> Jack invited more relatives up to run his burger joints.
00:11:53 And when he ran out of family members to go into business with them,
00:11:56 he took his next big step.
00:11:58 >> The financial statements were so strong,
00:12:00 it was just easy to sell franchises.
00:12:04 In the 50s and 60s, it really was, everybody knew the Burger Baron.
00:12:09 >> It was a phenomenon with its own championship baseball team, race team,
00:12:13 beauty pageant contestants, and quite possibly the world's biggest burger on
00:12:18 order.
00:12:20 >> The sauce, that was one of the secrets.
00:12:23 He didn't give it out to anybody, not even the franchisees.
00:12:30 They would supply each of the restaurants with the Baron sauce, and
00:12:34 so the recipe wasn't on the can.
00:12:36 >> With McDonald's still a decade away from opening in Canada,
00:12:41 Burger Baron might have been the fastest growing restaurant chain in the country.
00:12:46 In just over three years, it grew to have 30 locations in six provinces and
00:12:50 two states.
00:12:51 But not everyone wanted a Burger Baron in their backyard.
00:12:55 [MUSIC]
00:13:00 >> We'd hang around there and see if we could meet ladies or
00:13:03 if likely be a fight or something, you could watch or get in.
00:13:06 So we had an opportunity to meet the Who.
00:13:08 When they were on a tour, we wound up taking Keith Moon and
00:13:12 the road manager of the Who out to the Burger Baron.
00:13:16 We were kind of long-haired hippies, and
00:13:18 these two carloads of what we called grease balls came in.
00:13:22 And for some reason, Keith Moon wanted to go pick a fight with these two carloads
00:13:27 full of these local guys, and we, this is not a good idea.
00:13:31 [LAUGH]
00:13:33 Maybe in England, but if we try that, we're gonna get stomped out.
00:13:36 [LAUGH]
00:13:37 >> Whether it was litter or toxic masculinity, people were quick to forget
00:13:41 about all that riffraff once they had a taste of Jack McDonald's secret
00:13:45 mushroom burger and sauce.
00:13:47 The company introduced it on Valentine's Day 1961, and
00:13:51 it was love at first sight.
00:13:53 >> The first time I wrote about Burger Baron, I had been given an assignment
00:13:58 to go out and gather up three or five burgers, bring them back to the journal,
00:14:03 and we would test them for quality.
00:14:05 So off I went in my little Ford Pinto,
00:14:07 I would have had maybe a McDonald's burger, likely an A&W.
00:14:11 And I needed one more, so whatever burger joint I drive past, that's it.
00:14:17 It happened to be a Burger Baron, and I sailed in and
00:14:21 ordered the mushroom burger, and the mushroom burger won hands down.
00:14:25 I have to say it was the sauce.
00:14:27 That mushroom sauce is important, it's iconic.
00:14:32 First time I tasted that mushroom sauce, I was eight years old again,
00:14:38 back in my mom's kitchen, and I can see her opening that can of mushroom soup.
00:14:42 [MUSIC]
00:14:52 I'm mad for these mushroom burgers.
00:14:56 [MUSIC]
00:15:02 >> My father made mistakes, and some were big ones.
00:15:07 Number one, moving way too fast.
00:15:09 Number two, training, staff.
00:15:11 He didn't train the new franchisees well enough, and
00:15:16 the franchisees didn't train their staff well enough.
00:15:20 And that was a big problem.
00:15:23 >> There is a company that we call a franchisor.
00:15:27 So they're the ones who have the secret processes, or the trademark, or
00:15:31 what have you.
00:15:32 And they sell the rights to use those to a franchisee.
00:15:37 And the franchisee then gets to use the secret processes.
00:15:41 Maybe it's the secret mushroom burger recipe.
00:15:45 They get to use the logo.
00:15:46 And in exchange for that, they have to pay either a regular fee,
00:15:51 or usually part of their profits, to the franchisor.
00:15:53 And they also have to maintain certain standards.
00:15:56 >> But the restaurants weren't run properly.
00:15:58 The franchisees would add menu items.
00:16:01 Then you get a lot of menu items, and then the speed goes down.
00:16:06 Quality isn't the same.
00:16:08 >> Jack had lost focus on the two things that made it an immediate success,
00:16:12 good food and fast service.
00:16:14 He invested all his energy into the brand, co-signing on expansions in major cities
00:16:19 with franchisees who couldn't afford it on their own,
00:16:22 all because he wanted to beat the other big chains to the punch.
00:16:26 Betting on making Burger Baron a household name,
00:16:29 Jack put his last chips on two Montreal locations.
00:16:32 And when they went down, Jack was on the hook with creditors.
00:16:36 >> The Burger Baron companies had gone through a bankruptcy process
00:16:39 and voluntary liquidation under the Companies Act.
00:16:42 >> I don't remember any legal matters.
00:16:46 When they divorced, Mom and my sister and I moved to Lethbridge.
00:16:50 So I assume that's when it was all starting.
00:16:53 Maybe he was embarrassed or ashamed.
00:16:56 You know, everything was falling down.
00:16:59 With the franchise, it had intellectual properties such as the Little Baron.
00:17:05 And the name, of course.
00:17:06 Those are intellectual properties that you protect.
00:17:10 And without protecting it, people are going to try and use it.
00:17:15 >> You have to sue to enforce intellectual property.
00:17:19 But if the company that has the right to sue for trademark infringement
00:17:23 no longer exists, and that IP hasn't been transferred to some other entity,
00:17:29 then you're in a situation where everybody can use that IP
00:17:34 and there's nobody who is going to be enforcing their right
00:17:37 to exclusive use of that logo or that name.
00:17:40 >> In fact, at that point, Dad gave all of them the recipe to the sauce.
00:17:46 And he didn't charge them any franchise fees anymore.
00:17:51 Without that recipe, they'd all been in a lot of trouble.
00:17:55 >> By finally sharing his secret processes with the other Barons,
00:17:59 he'd given them legal permission to keep the brand alive.
00:18:02 But in the mid-60s, as McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's
00:18:06 prepared aggressive expansions into Canada, the writing was on the wall.
00:18:11 The chain couldn't survive without someone who cared about it as much as Jack.
00:18:16 It needed a white knight in shining armor, but it got a brown knight instead.
00:18:22 >> My name is Rudy Keraldeed.
00:18:24 I started with the Burger Barons in 1965.
00:18:28 After that, I built bigger places.
00:18:32 I have about seven locations of my own.
00:18:35 Before I came to Canada, I only lived 18 kilometers from Beirut.
00:18:41 It's a very good memory.
00:18:43 >> 6,000 feet above sea level in the land of Lebanon
00:18:47 stand the world-famous cedar trees, the emblem of the country
00:18:51 and one of its most precious relics.
00:18:54 >> It's the golden days of Lebanon.
00:18:55 It was a very famous spot for tourists.
00:18:59 You could swim and ski at the same time of year.
00:19:04 It was beautiful.
00:19:06 My dad used to own a truck.
00:19:09 He used to travel to Palestine, to Jordan, Syria.
00:19:14 As a child, we know what's happening between the Arabs and Israel.
00:19:20 It was, of course, miserable for everybody, especially for the Palestinians.
00:19:28 >> The Paris of the Middle East was starting to unravel
00:19:30 as the country struggled with influxes of refugees and rebel factions.
00:19:35 Rudy and his younger brother Sal wanted out before things worsened.
00:19:39 But most of all, they just wanted to go to the Western promised land.
00:19:45 >> I thought the West is the exact perfection of humanity.
00:19:49 This is how strong Hollywood is.
00:19:52 >> The brothers' only connection to North America was an uncle in Saskatchewan
00:19:55 who'd migrated decades earlier in the 1920s,
00:19:59 following thousands of other Lebanese in the North American prairies
00:20:02 living as homesteaders, fur traders, and most of all, peddlers.
00:20:07 >> They had small carts drawn by horses.
00:20:12 They were selling different kinds of grains, cloth, and trinkets of all kinds.
00:20:19 That Levantine ethic emphasizes independence.
00:20:25 It's an ethic that emphasizes capitalistic enterprise.
00:20:31 They went into business for themselves.
00:20:33 >> For the Lebanese prairie peddlers, the destination was always the same.
00:20:38 They worked until they saved enough to open a permanent business
00:20:41 and start bringing family members out West from Lebanon,
00:20:44 a process of chain migration that created some of North America's
00:20:48 oldest Arab communities today.
00:20:50 >> One of the things that I found really interesting about Lebanese people,
00:20:52 I mean, who have been in the province over 100 years,
00:20:55 have been integral to a number of different communities here.
00:20:59 And it shows some of the challenges that not only they,
00:21:03 but other immigrant communities have faced in terms of providing for themselves financially, right?
00:21:09 I mean, you look at the history of restaurants on the prairies,
00:21:13 and you see immigrant groups who have been excluded from more mainstream routes to financial success,
00:21:21 starting with Chinese restaurants, Lebanese restaurants.
00:21:24 How many small towns have little Greek restaurants?
00:21:28 >> My uncle used to get a restaurant and a small hotel and a general store.
00:21:34 He got me into Canada with my brother, so we both came in 1957.
00:21:43 >> When I came to Saskatchewan, I said to myself, "What the devil am I doing here?
00:21:49 There's nothing I saw in the movies."
00:21:51 And it was like you would, just a heavy heart like you wouldn't believe.
00:21:56 >> It's an adventure for me.
00:21:58 >> He worked with my uncle for a while, and I only stayed there for about three months.
00:22:02 When I came to Calgary, I felt better, but not that much better.
00:22:06 >> To me, I was, in my mind, restaurants.
00:22:09 [ Music ]
00:22:18 >> The first shop in Winnipeg.
00:22:20 >> Okay.
00:22:20 >> Just as a worker in a restaurant, it used to be famous with the spaghetti and meatballs, two Greek brothers.
00:22:27 That was in Calgary.
00:22:29 I have two partners, and I was a third partner.
00:22:32 When I was in Calgary, there was a manager of Safeway, and he told me there's a Burger Baron for sale in Edmonton.
00:22:40 So I came right away to Edmonton.
00:22:43 >> Really?
00:22:43 >> I didn't hesitate, yeah.
00:22:44 >> When you were in Calgary, you must have loved Burger Baron.
00:22:47 >> I never tried it before.
00:22:48 >> You never tried it before you bought it?
00:22:51 >> I heard about it.
00:22:51 It's a busy place.
00:22:53 I only care about, he says he was taking about 100,000 a year.
00:22:59 >> You didn't need to taste the product, because the product was obviously --
00:23:02 >> I know, the business is good.
00:23:03 That's what he told me.
00:23:04 >> The money was the product.
00:23:06 >> This is the first Burger Baron I bought in 1964.
00:23:11 In these days, I was making $1,000 a day.
00:23:15 When I came, I put a mushroom burger for sale.
00:23:20 It's lined up to 75th Street, from 60th to 75th.
00:23:24 And they got the police directly traffic, you know?
00:23:28 >> Did you have to pay the police for that?
00:23:30 Or you just paid them the burgers?
00:23:31 >> Just free hamburgers.
00:23:32 >> Yeah, free hamburgers.
00:23:33 >> Yeah.
00:23:34 >> Rudy initially didn't know he'd bought into an orphan franchise of a company and collapse,
00:23:39 but he couldn't have been happier with the realization.
00:23:42 It meant he was free to expand and do as he wished.
00:23:45 Change the logo, make up new burgers pandering to local pride, or possibly concoct a story
00:23:51 about inventing the chain two years before Jack McDonald.
00:23:54 >> This is not a Burger Baron.
00:23:56 >> So this shouldn't say Burger Baron?
00:23:57 >> No.
00:23:58 >> I thought my father was the inventor of Burger Baron until I was 15 or 16.
00:24:02 I realized, well, maybe there's another side of the story.
00:24:07 My name is Jamal Kamaldin.
00:24:09 I am the son of Rudy Kamaldin, a.k.a. the Godfather.
00:24:15 He always wore a three-piece suit to the restaurant, and that had a lot to do with him growing
00:24:20 up from humble beginnings.
00:24:21 He grew up watching the big movie stars, Cary Grant and Dean Martin on Singer.
00:24:27 They always had nice suits, cigar, wine.
00:24:29 I mean, that explains why he likes suits, cigars, and wine so much these days.
00:24:35 And then he always had the big cars, the big Cadillacs with the continental kits, gold-plated,
00:24:40 trimming all over the place.
00:24:41 And they called my father the Godfather growing up.
00:24:44 >> And like a true Godfather, Rudy worked hard to recruit the right people to help run
00:24:48 his empire.
00:24:49 >> That's Fauzi, you know, the cow's skin he was.
00:24:53 >> I came here in '69 to go to university.
00:24:55 He had to go to Lebanon for a few months.
00:24:59 He asked me just to do very little things like deposit the money, pay the suppliers
00:25:05 and the girls.
00:25:07 So I thought to myself, I'll work and save some money and get back to university.
00:25:13 That didn't happen because you get a bug of this kind of business.
00:25:17 You know, you love it.
00:25:22 >> The Kemaldeen Empire got help from Alberta's newly discovered oil reserves and a wave of
00:25:26 Canadians racing west to cash in on a middle-class dream.
00:25:30 But another global event would soon spread that empire beyond anyone's imagination.
00:25:35 >> My name is Nazim Kemaldeen.
00:25:46 I came from Lebanon back in 1976.
00:25:48 It was a civil war.
00:25:51 We had applied to come to Canada just before that broke out.
00:25:54 And then it didn't get approved until after the war started.
00:25:58 It was my family and my cousins, Khaled Kemaldeen family.
00:26:05 >> Their uncles Rudy and Sal had pitched in to get all their immediate relatives to safety
00:26:09 in Canada, six families in all.
00:26:12 But the danger was highest for young males like Nazim and Khaled.
00:26:16 Militants representing the minority Druze faith were recruiting teenagers to help fortify
00:26:21 Mount Lebanon against other religious factions, turning them against friends and neighbors.
00:26:26 >> Lebanon is divided by religious groups.
00:26:31 The Maronites, the Sunni Muslims, the Shia Muslims, the Druze, and the political system
00:26:39 tries to appeal to different groups.
00:26:43 They established an unwritten constitution that the president of the country will always
00:26:49 be a Maronite, that the prime minister of the country will always be a Sunni Muslim,
00:26:55 and so on.
00:26:56 >> Whenever you have a system that is based on religion, some groups may feel aggrieved.
00:27:06 >> My best friends are Christians.
00:27:07 My best friends, they're Muslims.
00:27:08 Like, we grew up together in that area, you know?
00:27:11 And suddenly, each one have to disappear.
00:27:13 We lose friends from school, even about maybe three or four of them.
00:27:16 Like I was close friends with you in school, you know, they just died in a war, you know?
00:27:21 >> Your only way out is the water.
00:27:24 >> So we had to leave on a boat to Cyprus.
00:27:30 It was in the evening sometimes, and that boat was supposed to be 100 people max, but
00:27:36 there was over 250 on that boat.
00:27:40 I remember sitting on the deck outside, and water was coming in from the sea.
00:27:49 We got stopped by the Israeli boats.
00:27:56 Palestinians were in there, and they were just ripping out papers and throwing them
00:28:01 in the sea.
00:28:02 But we got to Cyprus.
00:28:03 I said, "Why there is no bombs here?"
00:28:04 I was young.
00:28:05 I thought myself the war was all over the world.
00:28:06 I miss my friends.
00:28:07 I miss my family.
00:28:08 I try to leave, to go back to my friends and that.
00:28:09 But somebody, they catch me, my family, and they get me back.
00:28:10 So they took my classmate, the Lebanese classmate, and they kept it with them.
00:28:11 So you know, they took my classmate, and they kept it with them.
00:28:12 So you know, they took my classmate, my family, and they kept it with them.
00:28:13 So you know, they took my classmate, my family, and they kept it with them.
00:28:14 So you know, they took my classmate, my family, and they kept it with them.
00:28:21 More than a dozen close relatives awaited them in Cyprus, along with their uncle Sal,
00:28:26 who was helping prepare the family's exodus.
00:28:29 But they quickly learned the sectarian conflict had followed them across the sea.
00:28:33 Our visa was in a Canadian embassy, and the lady was Lebanese, the one she take people
00:28:39 in and out.
00:28:40 Christian, right away go.
00:28:41 The Druze, Muslims.
00:28:42 You're not allowed to go.
00:28:43 The Muslims, you're not refugee.
00:28:45 You have to bribe.
00:28:46 And we said we have no money.
00:28:47 How are we going to go?
00:28:48 My uncle went to the embassy and talked to the council.
00:28:52 If it wasn't for him, we won't be here.
00:28:56 My father and uncle brought a lot of people from overseas, mostly family, maybe 25 people.
00:29:03 They all stayed at our house, and I really remember enjoying all the action and all the
00:29:09 parties you'd have there, sometimes over 100 people.
00:29:13 With every drink of water, with every bite of food you'd eat, it was always on my mind
00:29:19 how to get back.
00:29:22 My heart was there, and my mind was there, but my body wasn't.
00:29:27 I didn't go to school here.
00:29:29 We had to work and support the family, support the house.
00:29:33 Of course, mom and dad can speak the language, so we are the main supporter, me and my brothers.
00:29:39 I've been with Burger Bands since I was 13 years old.
00:29:42 And I worked with Uncle Sam, and my brother used to work with Uncle Rudy.
00:29:48 And then we finished from one place, we go to close another place.
00:29:53 Everybody was helping everybody.
00:29:54 Every one of them have a Burger Band, you know, and all, if not him, it would be his
00:29:59 son or not his son, his daughter, you know.
00:30:00 The Burger Band gave lots of opportunities for us.
00:30:04 Rudy's apprenticeship wasn't just for close relatives.
00:30:06 He gave away the company's trade secrets to anyone who asked, and encouraged them to do
00:30:11 for their families what the Burger Baron did for his own.
00:30:15 My name is Jamil Amin Shahir.
00:30:18 I got involved with the Burger Baron restaurants in 1977.
00:30:27 I owned one restaurant, and I stayed there for about 16 years.
00:30:32 And then I had enough.
00:30:36 Rudy Kameldir was there.
00:30:38 Initially, he was the man who invited us to go and visit Canada.
00:30:42 I was a captain with the Middle East Airlines, flying the heavy jets, Boeing 707.
00:30:48 And because of the war, I had to decide to go to Canada and try to start a new life.
00:30:56 I resigned from Middle East Airlines to go and become a pilot there.
00:31:01 I tried with several companies, but unfortunately, they wouldn't hire me.
00:31:06 They claimed that they probably eventually would fly to Israel and be in Lebanese and
00:31:14 wouldn't be allowed to go there.
00:31:16 There was about four or five restaurants belonging to people from the Shahir family in Alberta.
00:31:23 And I saw how big the business is.
00:31:26 It wasn't just the Burger Baron that immigrants co-opted.
00:31:30 Based on the Kameldian's success, a suite of Arab-owned diners had cropped up under
00:31:34 some crafty names like Wemby's, Dairy King, B&W Dairy King, and The Big M.
00:31:42 Though that one didn't last long after The Bigger M sued.
00:31:46 All, of course, had their way with the mushroom and Baron burger recipes.
00:31:51 I bought my restaurant in Rathasken from my cousin, Tufi, and his brother.
00:31:56 I had spent at least one full month training, learning new things.
00:32:02 Can you imagine somebody literally on top of the world coming down to start in the kitchen?
00:32:09 I didn't like it.
00:32:10 I gave it all I could.
00:32:13 With Burger Baron, there was a great deal of prosperity that occurred in the community
00:32:21 as a result of selling fast food for people who need it.
00:32:27 And people were needing it at that time.
00:32:31 My first restaurant I opened in Lebanon before I came to Canada.
00:32:37 It was in 1981.
00:32:39 It's Lebanese food.
00:32:41 I ran that place only one year because Israel come to Lebanon in 1982.
00:32:49 Was a war where my restaurant is and lots of damage, all the bullets and the bomb, everything.
00:33:01 I had a job in Beirut, Lebanon with a consolidated engineering company.
00:33:08 I worked in there as a financial analyst and we had a good life.
00:33:13 There was a bomb in our building and we are down in the basement and the bomb comes in
00:33:21 the building and collapsed on us with our kids.
00:33:26 They were four years and seven years.
00:33:28 It was completely destroyed.
00:33:31 We lost everything.
00:33:32 We decided this is not the place to raise a family.
00:33:36 And directly you are in a fight.
00:33:38 The situation puts you in a spot that you have no choice.
00:33:42 You just play the survivor game.
00:33:45 And that survivor game, sadly, it's a religious in the country and the political point of
00:33:52 view, they manipulated that way.
00:33:54 And they made us as an enemy against each other, against the people I grew up with.
00:33:59 When you leave the house, when you say bye to your mom and dad, it almost feels this
00:34:07 is the last time you're saying bye to them.
00:34:10 This stuff again.
00:34:13 It brought me back in old times.
00:34:19 We were hanging out playing cards.
00:34:21 All of a sudden, one big bomb came into the window.
00:34:24 Killed like two or three people in the same basement.
00:34:30 When it hits the wall, the wall, it crashes and throw out some stones.
00:34:35 It came to my side and go underneath my skin.
00:34:37 It would only be two feet this way.
00:34:39 It could have gone through me.
00:34:41 When we came here, our target was to go to school.
00:34:44 I was going to go for dentistry.
00:34:45 I had in mind to become an engineer.
00:34:48 I couldn't get marks that I go to university.
00:34:51 But you know, when you are new, you have a family, you have to find a job to support
00:34:58 them.
00:34:59 Every Lebanese guy we know was in the restaurant business.
00:35:02 We go visit them in their house and they go to the business.
00:35:05 And then everybody has a Burger Baron.
00:35:07 And we thought, okay.
00:35:12 Twenty years after the company was bankrupted and orphaned, the Burger Baron had made a
00:35:16 comeback, all thanks to this one man.
00:35:20 He never demanded royalties or kickbacks.
00:35:23 All he asked for in return was quality control.
00:35:26 That might have been too much to ask.
00:35:29 I got into a uniform to my staff, a very nice uniform, you know, a complete outfit.
00:35:36 And it cost me at that time almost $3,000 just for the uniforms.
00:35:41 They put it on as long as I'm around.
00:35:43 If I leave the place, they take the uniform off.
00:35:47 And when they see me driving in the entrance, they run and put the uniform on.
00:35:52 The Canadians, they kept it on always, whether I'm in there or not.
00:35:58 So that's the difference.
00:36:00 Do you think it would have been easier for you to get them to follow the rules if they
00:36:04 weren't Lebanese?
00:36:05 Of course.
00:36:06 A Canadian or anybody's treasurer, they can do better.
00:36:11 He was generous in his approach to any relative, any friend, any person that he liked.
00:36:20 And they came and asked for the name.
00:36:21 He said, "Go ahead."
00:36:23 He has a big heart, and I envy him how he can put up with all that, you know, with a
00:36:30 smile, with a helping hand always.
00:36:35 You know, when he gave everything to all those guys, he was happy to see them doing very
00:36:41 well.
00:36:42 As the carnage in Lebanon breached on and on, Burger Barons became a terminal for other
00:36:47 Lebanese people displaced by war.
00:36:49 The owners taught them the recipes they got from Rudy and showed them firsthand what it
00:36:53 takes to run a successful family restaurant.
00:36:58 That's the secret recipe that was eventually passed down to my family decades later.
00:37:03 You know, I talked to your dad about, you know, about him finding out that we were a
00:37:11 Burger Baron family and whether that, like, changed his perception of me.
00:37:17 Yeah, I guess to be honest, it did.
00:37:20 Like I said, I've always felt favorable towards Burger Baron, and when I found out that you
00:37:24 and your family had been involved with that, certainly I felt that, hey, you know, like,
00:37:28 we have a bit of a kinship and something in common.
00:37:30 It definitely dispelled and allayed a lot of the trepidation I would have.
00:37:39 And it did.
00:37:40 Yeah, for sure.
00:37:41 Because that's Albertan.
00:37:42 You know, it makes you Canadian.
00:37:45 No longer a foreigner.
00:37:46 Now a part of the fabric, the DNA of this great province of Alberta.
00:37:51 Absolutely.
00:37:52 Hi, Bubba.
00:37:53 Did you get your vaccine yesterday?
00:37:57 Oh, yeah.
00:37:58 Oh, my gosh.
00:38:01 Excellent.
00:38:02 Did you ever sell Lebanese food in the restaurant?
00:38:07 We tried one time to make falafel, and it didn't really sell.
00:38:11 Did you actually like the food at Burger Baron?
00:38:14 I think so, yeah, yeah.
00:38:17 You don't sound very convincing.
00:38:19 No, I do.
00:38:20 I did like it.
00:38:24 Do you remember when I went to the restaurant on my own as a little kid?
00:38:29 You were about three and a half, and I didn't even know you were gone, because you were
00:38:35 supposed to be playing with your siblings.
00:38:37 And you just walked out of the house, and I was cleaning or cooking or something.
00:38:43 And then I get a phone call, Omar's here.
00:38:48 I just freaked out.
00:38:50 Why did I go there?
00:38:51 To get ice cream.
00:38:52 Beautifully done.
00:38:53 I have a question.
00:38:54 I worked in the restaurant.
00:39:00 I think when I was 10, I was probably maybe taking some drive-in orders.
00:39:04 And you put me in the dish pit.
00:39:06 You never let me cook.
00:39:08 How come?
00:39:09 How come my brother, my older brother, got to be a cook?
00:39:12 He never liked the restaurant.
00:39:14 One time, it was so busy.
00:39:16 You came at just about lunchtime with your friends.
00:39:21 You went to eat.
00:39:23 You just didn't care.
00:39:25 So I told the waitress, "Is that for Omar?"
00:39:28 I was so mad.
00:39:29 "Oh, you came to the kitchen?"
00:39:32 And I started yelling.
00:39:35 I said, "Right beside Ali, start just doing the dishes."
00:39:40 He didn't like it much.
00:39:41 I ate the dishes.
00:39:43 You were never meant to be a burger baron?
00:39:45 I don't think Ali liked it much, but that time, he had no choice.
00:39:51 Did you originally want him to take over the restaurant?
00:39:53 Was that your big plan?
00:39:55 Before I talked to Ali about it, I talked to your mom.
00:39:59 She said, "No, I don't want your brother."
00:40:01 To go through what we went through and to miss what we missed.
00:40:05 You have to sacrifice your family for a while.
00:40:10 Burger baron, it made so many things for many families.
00:40:16 So when you think about that, what do you think the burger baron has meant to our community?
00:40:23 It's free.
00:40:24 It's free.
00:40:25 It's free knowledge.
00:40:26 Someone taught it to me.
00:40:27 I taught it to you.
00:40:28 The Lebanese generosity.
00:40:29 To share.
00:40:30 You're right.
00:40:31 To share.
00:40:32 That's how it is.
00:40:33 They don't cooperate very well?
00:40:36 No.
00:40:38 But they are generous?
00:40:39 Yeah.
00:40:40 Are you pooping?
00:40:42 No.
00:40:43 Pooping at the dinner table?
00:40:44 No.
00:40:45 No way.
00:40:46 There's no pooping at the dinner table.
00:40:47 Yeah.
00:40:48 Burger baron is the perfect business model for Lebanese who, let's just say, are famous
00:40:58 for their independence.
00:40:59 You can notice something.
00:41:00 If you go to other burger barons, each one is different.
00:41:05 Some of them, it's different.
00:41:06 They don't follow rules.
00:41:07 No, it's better not to be in the franchise.
00:41:20 You have to follow their rules.
00:41:21 They will tie you up.
00:41:32 Everybody wants to be the CEO of the company.
00:41:35 I run everything on my own.
00:41:42 I don't do nothing with the company franchise.
00:41:44 I do nothing.
00:41:45 I run it on my own.
00:41:46 I love this job.
00:41:47 You do?
00:41:48 Yes.
00:41:49 What's your favorite part of it?
00:41:50 Independence.
00:41:51 I've been to burger barons where they weren't good.
00:41:52 I've been to burger barons that were fantastic.
00:42:04 It's almost piques their curiosity.
00:42:06 Let's go try a burger baron, see what it's like.
00:42:08 There is no actual system.
00:42:09 Let's say I wanted to add something to the menu or take something off.
00:42:13 There's no head office to say anything.
00:42:17 Moscow Cheese is a native reserve.
00:42:20 I support them so they will feel at home when they walk in.
00:42:24 We sell a Bannock burger and we sell a Bannock taco too.
00:42:27 Oh my God.
00:42:29 Why are all burgers Bannock burgers?
00:42:34 I've introduced a lot of vegan options in this place.
00:42:36 Dairy free cheese, vegan pepperoni, vegan sausage.
00:42:40 I just haven't had the chance to like fully take on the reigns.
00:42:44 She's the boss.
00:42:45 I like my freedom.
00:42:46 And I know with my mentality I can't take orders from somebody else.
00:43:05 McDonald's is not going to let you open up a laundromat inside.
00:43:08 No.
00:43:09 The root is Canadian, but the trees and the fruit are Lebanese.
00:43:18 Of course, it would be a stereotype to say all burger barons are Lebanese.
00:43:22 Some are Palestinian.
00:43:29 Whether Christian, Muslim or Druze, the syndicate is open to everyone.
00:43:34 But there's an unwritten rule.
00:43:36 Never give the mushroom sauce recipe to an outsider.
00:43:41 Can you tell us what's in the mushroom sauce?
00:43:43 What the ingredients are?
00:43:44 I don't like to talk about that.
00:43:48 The base is the Campbell's cream of mushroom.
00:43:50 That's right.
00:43:51 And then you have to add things to it, right?
00:43:53 What do you add?
00:43:54 You add the things we add to it.
00:43:55 You're not going to tell me.
00:43:56 I can't.
00:43:57 Ask your dad.
00:43:58 What's in the mushroom burger sauce?
00:44:05 And just because they don't share the recipes with outsiders doesn't mean there haven't
00:44:08 been any information breaches.
00:44:10 Actually, most of the burgers is the burger baron's burgers.
00:44:15 We got the same sauces and even the same burgers.
00:44:18 What the burger baron a long time ago used to buy from that company.
00:44:22 What's in the mushroom sauce?
00:44:23 The mushroom.
00:44:24 See, when you do the mushroom.
00:44:25 I do it on the grill.
00:44:26 I show you how I do the mushroom burger.
00:44:27 Mushroom.
00:44:28 Lifted oil.
00:44:29 I don't want nothing.
00:44:30 That's the mushroom burger.
00:44:35 No secret, no nothing.
00:44:40 All right.
00:44:43 Let's see.
00:44:46 It looks the same.
00:44:49 Something tastes off.
00:44:52 I think he's punking me.
00:44:53 33 years old or 34.
00:44:54 I don't know.
00:44:55 When they first opened the burger baron and I never thought I'd see one of these again.
00:45:04 Did my dad know that you just took a menu from us?
00:45:08 Actually, your mom brought it for us and she was a big help for us too.
00:45:12 Really?
00:45:13 Oh, you know, my favorite thing to eat is the patins.
00:45:17 Best patins in all of Alberta.
00:45:20 Pretty nice, huh?
00:45:27 Now, Ottawa may think it has cornered the market on shawarma and Halifax might think
00:45:38 it can claim the doner.
00:45:39 Alberta, though, can certainly claim the Lebanese inflected burger baron mushroom burger.
00:45:45 I would hear about the chemildeans and their restaurants by other people saying, oh, I
00:45:51 drove through Milk River.
00:45:53 The chemildeans have put another one up or something like this.
00:45:56 They had a huge menu.
00:45:58 The sauce wasn't the same.
00:46:00 The baron, it wasn't the same.
00:46:03 It looks like somebody looked at it and tried to draw it again, thinking, well, the name
00:46:07 is all they need to be a success.
00:46:09 And they had no, well, I guess they had a right to it because it was at that time on
00:46:14 the open market.
00:46:16 It was frustrating, I guess I should say.
00:46:19 But they just, the way they do business, I just was impressed with them.
00:46:25 Part of Terry's frustration stemmed from unresolved feelings about his dad giving up too easily
00:46:30 on the company after things went south.
00:46:32 In fact, Jack McDonald had continued with the company, but as an independent.
00:46:36 After dissolving the corporation in 1961, he moved to Regina to buy one of the original
00:46:41 shops he used to collect royalties from.
00:46:44 He ran it with his second wife as a mom and pop until retiring to California in 1979.
00:46:50 He died a few years later.
00:46:52 I had had a steakhouse in Lethbridge in the late '80s.
00:46:58 After four years, I closed the restaurant, stumbled around, didn't know what to do.
00:47:03 And I thought, shoot, there's no Burger Baron anymore in Calgary.
00:47:06 Maybe I'll go out and start one up there.
00:47:09 I thought it could be lucrative because of Calgary's history with the Burger Barons.
00:47:15 Right off the bat, as soon as I put the sign up, it was good.
00:47:19 And I got a lot of people saying, "And where have you been?"
00:47:23 A guy came in, driving Rolls-Royce, came in and ordered a hamburger.
00:47:30 And as I'm writing it down, he said, "I invented that."
00:47:35 And he said, "Also, I started this franchise."
00:47:39 And then I asked him, "Do you know Jack McDonald?"
00:47:43 And he then was very quiet, got his hamburger, and left.
00:47:48 I didn't know his name.
00:47:52 I know exactly who it was.
00:47:55 I first investigated the true origins of the Burger Baron a decade ago.
00:48:00 And as luck would have it, I found the originator right away.
00:48:04 Or so I thought.
00:48:06 Sal had weaved together a loose tale about co-founding the company with Jack McDonald
00:48:11 and his brother Dick in 1957, barely a year after immigrating to Canada as a teenager.
00:48:17 He told me he was a silent partner who'd come up with the recipes in lieu of any financial
00:48:21 investment.
00:48:22 And his biggest contribution?
00:48:24 The mushroom burger sauce, which he claimed was made with secret Lebanese spices.
00:48:30 Which he now denies ever making, as well as ever having told Terry that he invented the
00:48:34 franchise.
00:48:35 We did not say we invented the Burger Baron or we started the Burger Baron.
00:48:39 So we have Burger Barons.
00:48:40 So you never claimed that you started the Burger Baron?
00:48:44 No.
00:48:45 But you had in the past?
00:48:47 He told me that he was the Burger Baron.
00:48:50 And I've also heard from someone else that he had said the same thing to them.
00:48:55 Maybe misunderstood what I said.
00:48:58 I don't think that I said I did that.
00:49:00 Well, you told me that you had started the Burger Baron.
00:49:04 I don't know what you...
00:49:05 So if you want to report that, go ahead, report it.
00:49:08 You could report anything you like.
00:49:10 In fairness to Sal, he probably wasn't the only brother pretending to be the inventor.
00:49:16 There was a photo of you at the LeDuc location where it was you in your kitchen uniform.
00:49:22 And it said, you know, Rudy Cameldi and Burger Baron 1955, which was years before Burger
00:49:28 Baron launched.
00:49:29 There's, yeah, I don't know who took that picture.
00:49:30 Who enlarged them and put those writings on?
00:49:31 Chabelle?
00:49:32 Chabelle.
00:49:33 Oh, your son?
00:49:34 My son, yeah.
00:49:35 I thought it would look better to the customers, perhaps, you know, to be honest.
00:49:46 And I wanted to make the Burger Baron name that much more interesting, I guess.
00:49:52 Did you used to tell people that you were the Burger Baron inventor?
00:49:55 No, no.
00:49:56 I never even thought of it.
00:49:58 He claimed, certainly to my face, that he is the originator of the Burger Baron.
00:50:03 He's the man.
00:50:04 He's the guy that came up with all the stuff, like the logo and the food and stuff like
00:50:08 that.
00:50:09 Rudy was a very convincing individual and he was standing in his Burger Baron, surrounded
00:50:13 by his children, telling me his story.
00:50:16 So I had no reason to doubt him.
00:50:18 Yeah, I made the story sound a little better, right?
00:50:22 The mushroom burger tasted a little better when you ate it, maybe, because of that story.
00:50:27 That was our mafia comes in.
00:50:28 That's about as criminal as we got.
00:50:31 So many people came to Rudy thinking he has the Burger Baron and if they could open a
00:50:36 Burger Baron and Rudy said, "Go ahead, whatever the case."
00:50:39 I used to drive to the Burger Baron.
00:50:40 It's Burger Baron.
00:50:41 You ask for a baronet, heaven knows what you'll get.
00:50:45 We can't even agree on our last name spelling, let alone getting everything consistent, like
00:50:52 sauces and everything else.
00:50:54 Of course, we had our challenges there.
00:50:56 For Terry and the Cameldines, the inconsistencies have tainted the brand name.
00:51:01 But for the Burger Baron stalwart customers, the chaos might be the best part about it.
00:51:09 The reason it's so special is the lore, the urban legend that comes along with it.
00:51:14 It's a chain restaurant that went wrong and the food is, there's no quality control between
00:51:21 them.
00:51:22 The burgers are spongy, but I love them.
00:51:25 What I love about the Burger Baron is it's so mysterious.
00:51:29 It's funny to imagine all these burger chains sprawling out from one origins and then disputing
00:51:35 who the original guy was.
00:51:38 And the Burger Baron, like who is that guy?
00:51:40 Any other burger restaurant that you can go to, any franchise or something, that magic
00:51:45 isn't there, that personality.
00:51:47 When I think of other fast food joints, it's all about reproduction, right?
00:51:51 Everything has to taste the same every single time.
00:51:53 You have your favorite Burger Baron.
00:51:54 You don't have your favorite McDonald's.
00:51:56 You don't have your favorite Taco Bell or something, right?
00:51:59 The Burger Baron in Redwater makes pizza.
00:52:02 Do other Burger Barons have pizza?
00:52:04 Yeah, my parents' restaurant was big on pizza.
00:52:08 We sold as many pizzas as burgers.
00:52:10 Your parents had a-
00:52:11 Yes, I'm the son of a Baron.
00:52:12 Holy shit.
00:52:13 Your royalty.
00:52:14 Sometimes when you walk into a more modern and updated one, it's kind of a letdown in
00:52:19 a way.
00:52:20 What these super fans don't realize is just how hard the Barons try to become the very
00:52:25 thing they despise.
00:52:28 Back in the 80s, I invited a whole bunch of Burger Baron's owners into Edmonton and we
00:52:34 will have our own suppliers mixing our stuff.
00:52:37 And then I'll have like a warehouse.
00:52:39 Everything comes strictly for the Burger Baron.
00:52:42 We tried to get everybody together to agree so everybody will be all the same for all
00:52:50 of them wherever you go.
00:52:52 His uncles, Rudy and Fousey, had twice attempted to unify the chain, but it never lasted.
00:52:57 By 1984, the Burger Baron brand had been overtaken and proliferated by a handful of Lebanese
00:53:02 immigrant families.
00:53:04 Thanks to them, the empire had never been bigger and never more disorganized.
00:53:09 The Civil War brought us some of the unwelcomed, you might say, in the business field.
00:53:14 They don't have the first clue about PR or being nice to people or making, giving them
00:53:20 their, what they pay for.
00:53:24 So Nazem stepped up and tried to rein in the Burger Baron for the family once again.
00:53:29 Rudy gave me the okay to see if I could fix things the way I wanted.
00:53:34 If he could do it better, that's good for everybody, you know, for me, for him.
00:53:39 He had no right to even tell him that.
00:53:41 You could tell him that if he could do anything.
00:53:43 He could tell you to go to the moon.
00:53:46 But there is the problem.
00:53:47 No, mine is better.
00:53:49 I say, we put 10 different sauces and let a food judge pick, but nobody would want to
00:53:55 agree.
00:53:56 You know how the Lebanese way, you can't put it through their heads.
00:54:00 The younger guy have sometimes better ideas.
00:54:05 Nazem is, he's grandulizing himself too much.
00:54:12 I think they were afraid of things that will not go their way.
00:54:17 After I decided not to do it, a few got together and they wanted to do it themselves.
00:54:23 That's when I refused and I wouldn't go with them.
00:54:28 Nazem, he's the nephew of Rudy Kameldien.
00:54:31 He tried and his uncle tried before several times.
00:54:36 They failed.
00:54:37 It was fait accompli sort of thing.
00:54:40 This is when I started a new company called the Burger Baron Restaurants of Alberta.
00:54:46 I wanted to get everybody involved, but we could have been all together in one operation.
00:54:52 Jamil organized a summit of the barons in 1989.
00:54:56 Perhaps because he wasn't part of the Kameldien family, he successfully convinced a dozen
00:55:01 or two barons to meet in Edmonton to hear out his vision, including my dad and uncle
00:55:05 Abdelaziz.
00:55:06 We were contacted to go and meet with some people at the Mayfield Hotel to try to make
00:55:15 the Burger Baron franchise as it should be.
00:55:19 The Burger Baron wasn't doing very well at that time, their reputation.
00:55:24 By the end of the 1980s, small town diners like my parents had to contend with name brand
00:55:28 competition that had the advertising and buying power to price out the moms and pops.
00:55:34 They knew franchise they can't register.
00:55:37 So we're just like an association.
00:55:39 I was doing this as a volunteer basis to show them that there is benefit in it.
00:55:44 It's going to be a much bigger company.
00:55:47 They're going to try to unite the name and get everybody together.
00:55:53 There was so many people, you know, like some of them, they brought the wives and, you know,
00:55:58 it's just like a gathering.
00:56:01 Everybody excited.
00:56:02 But in the end, what's going to be?
00:56:07 They start talking about getting all the building the same.
00:56:10 And soon as they start talking about building the same, nobody want to be above.
00:56:17 Not everybody want to leave.
00:56:23 OK, OK, well, you know, don't worry about the building.
00:56:27 We can try to join together at least when we buy the grocery and the meat from the company.
00:56:35 And then after that, he said, if I want to keep going like that, I need to have wages.
00:56:43 He's going to be in charge and he's going to have his own office and his own secretary.
00:56:49 And everybody started thinking, hey, this guy is going to, you know, like fool us.
00:56:52 And no, no, no, no.
00:56:55 Unfortunately, not everybody joined in because they were mostly individualists.
00:57:00 Somebody who has been in the business for many years, he and his own boss, didn't want
00:57:04 to get somebody else involved.
00:57:07 You have your own place and now somebody, you know, like almost control your business
00:57:13 and tell you what to do.
00:57:15 And that's the worst.
00:57:16 I'm the owner and whatever happens, it's my decision.
00:57:21 Everybody wants to be self-employed.
00:57:22 They don't want to take orders from somebody.
00:57:26 It's our nature.
00:57:27 I don't know if anything came out of that meeting.
00:57:31 Jamil did manage to at least get that rebate he promised.
00:57:35 But without any assistance from his fellow barons, he let it expire after two years and
00:57:39 then retired for good.
00:57:41 It served its purpose.
00:57:44 My purpose was to survive this period when my children graduate from universities and
00:57:49 I don't need the business anymore.
00:57:51 So I left it.
00:57:53 It was a good idea.
00:57:56 You know, if we went for it, even, I think it'll work, you know, just like have it like
00:58:02 A&W.
00:58:03 When everybody agrees on the one same idea, it would have been one of the best franchises
00:58:09 in Canada.
00:58:10 I would have loved to see the Burger Baron in a lot better way than it is now.
00:58:17 But this wasn't the end of the Burger Baron's franchising efforts.
00:58:21 As the old guard was losing steam, a new generation was making moves.
00:58:30 We knew that there is an association or some group trying to do the same thing.
00:58:34 It didn't work.
00:58:36 So I thought maybe I'll try my way and I call it Burger Baron the New Generation.
00:58:40 I wanted to change the image of the company.
00:58:43 So I came up with this idea with the Burger Baron logo, the new generation.
00:58:47 I thought this is going to make a new wave.
00:58:49 At the time, there were 60 Burger Baron.
00:58:53 So I want to unify this and put it under one agreement and have one price for everybody.
00:58:57 Everybody loves it.
00:58:58 My cousins, my brothers, a lot of people show the interest.
00:59:01 They show me the support.
00:59:03 That's why I spent some money doing the jingle.
00:59:10 They love the jingle.
00:59:11 They want to use it.
00:59:13 They want to be part of it.
00:59:14 But when they see there's an agreement.
00:59:20 What I do here is different than what he does.
00:59:23 No, I'm not signing this.
00:59:25 This is a new generation within our family.
00:59:30 The lawyer advised me it's too difficult to franchise Burger Baron.
00:59:33 If you want to claim it, you have to take each and every person to court.
00:59:37 I end up creating Best Bite.
00:59:40 So I kept the logo and changed the name from Burger Baron the New Generation.
00:59:45 How's that going?
00:59:46 So far, this is the first location.
00:59:48 No one has ever like paid to use the Best Bite?
00:59:52 Not yet.
00:59:53 What about your family members?
00:59:54 They like the logo.
00:59:55 They took the logo.
00:59:56 They use it.
00:59:57 Maybe it's temporary or not, but that's what I'm using right now.
01:00:00 Every Lebanese guy is like that.
01:00:02 Maybe that's our brain like that.
01:00:03 I don't know.
01:00:04 I think it's a cultural thing.
01:00:05 We have such a strong independence that a franchise system doesn't really work well
01:00:13 with us.
01:00:16 This fierce independence has a dark side, apparent in Lebanon itself.
01:00:21 It's this chronic disunity that pit party against party, religion against religion,
01:00:27 and citizen against citizen.
01:00:30 Though the civil war ended more than 30 years ago, the tyranny of incompetence spread through
01:00:35 every part of Lebanon, from hyperinflation to basic services like garbage collection,
01:00:40 electricity and health care.
01:00:45 It is by all measures a failed state.
01:00:55 I always excited to be here.
01:00:56 It's a beautiful country, beautiful villages, beautiful mountains.
01:00:57 But the corona for two years, we stayed home and the situation for the politicians in Lebanon
01:01:09 is bad.
01:01:10 We'll see what was going to happen.
01:01:12 If all settles, and we'll be glad to be here.
01:01:15 Otherwise I'll be in Canada.
01:01:17 I'll stay there.
01:01:18 Boy, that's a lot of clothes in it.
01:01:26 I like to go on holidays and rest because I spend lots of time with the burger barons
01:01:35 working 18 hours a day.
01:01:38 Every day, every week, and you don't go anywhere, just a big prison.
01:01:44 About 15 years ago, we started coming to Lebanon, four or five months here, and four or five,
01:01:52 the rest in Canada.
01:01:54 There used to be a burger bar in Alai.
01:01:57 We used to go there, and it's a very good food, and we used to enjoy it.
01:02:04 All of a sudden, when we came back this year, it closed down.
01:02:08 It looked something else, like a butcher shop inside.
01:02:11 They still got the same, the burger bar inside, in there.
01:02:17 Rudy officially retired in 2015, but he gave up on being the godfather long ago with some
01:02:23 hard-earned lessons about loyalty and trust.
01:02:27 Most of the time, they lose their business because they never look after it.
01:02:34 They go have a good time, and I get stuck looking after it.
01:02:38 Everyone I helped, they put the blame on me if they didn't make money.
01:02:44 So that's why now, even that time, they went on their own, and I was on my own, not involved
01:02:52 with any of my cousins or brothers or anything.
01:02:58 My father, he's a very generous, giving man, but that also opens doors to sometimes being
01:03:06 taken advantage of.
01:03:08 Unfortunately, I saw quite a bit of that as well.
01:03:12 We were having a hard time back in the '80s.
01:03:14 He had lost a motel he used to own, and he just was spread too thin.
01:03:18 So without getting into too much detail, let's just say if the Cameldean family worked as
01:03:22 close together as I wish they would have, they'd probably be billionaires right now.
01:03:30 Some relatives and others, a lot of them, they never call me.
01:03:34 They come visit once in a while if they need something in most cases.
01:03:40 I learned not to help anybody I'm not too sure of them.
01:03:45 Do you think that the success of the Burger Baron was a curse over your family and your
01:03:51 relationship with your brothers?
01:03:53 Well it helps, yeah, it might be.
01:03:55 It might be because I was successful, and everybody think if they open Burger Baron,
01:04:02 they're probably like Rudy, they'll be successful.
01:04:05 But I mean, you'll have to work like Rudy, not go picnic and leave the staff running
01:04:10 the place.
01:04:11 You have to work and work and work.
01:04:14 Anything you want to do, you'll have to do it right or don't do it.
01:04:18 Simple as that.
01:04:19 I have enough of the whole deal, and to me, I should learn.
01:04:26 And I did learn, so I'm okay after that.
01:04:31 Rudy's decision to pull back his influence created an opportunity for a new godfather,
01:04:36 and one showed up in the most unlikely form.
01:04:39 In 1996, two trademark applications were submitted for the Burger Baron name and logo from Regina,
01:04:45 Saskatchewan, and the applicant was none other than Jack McDonald's widow, Ricky.
01:04:50 She'd been operating a popular Burger Baron after his death, and was preparing to appoint
01:04:55 her son, James, to the throne.
01:04:57 When dad died, Ricky moved back to Regina, then she built a new one on the lot.
01:05:05 While there are many fast food choices available, McDonald hopes his gamble will pay off and
01:05:10 cook up even more business for his locally owned and operated Burger Baron.
01:05:15 I'm a capitalist, and I just wanted to grow the business and hopefully move forward after
01:05:20 this, maybe to Saskatoon and other markets after this.
01:05:25 Ready to expand to a second location, Ricky's sons had advised their mom to protect the
01:05:30 family legacy once and for all.
01:05:32 Their trademark was challenged almost immediately by another company, Cameldean Food Enterprises.
01:05:38 But it wasn't Rudy in charge now, it was his younger brother, Sal.
01:05:42 Ricky McDonald applied one week earlier than I did.
01:05:46 Just by coincidence?
01:05:47 It's a coincidence, yes.
01:05:50 The both of you decided that it was time to finally reign in the Burger Baron after 34
01:05:59 years.
01:06:00 Years.
01:06:01 That is the funnest part about it.
01:06:03 I said, "Ricky, you applied one week earlier than I do.
01:06:07 I could be spending a couple hundred thousand dollars for lawyer's fees, and you could be
01:06:11 spending a couple hundred thousand dollars for lawyer's fees, and we would not get anywhere."
01:06:16 Rather than fight it in court, they decided to split the territory.
01:06:20 Ricky would get Eastern Canada and the U.S., and the Cameldeans would get Alberta and B.C.
01:06:26 Ricky talked to me about it, and I said, "I don't think you should.
01:06:30 I think you should leave that one alone.
01:06:32 The name is across the country.
01:06:34 You can't go back to them and say you owe me a whole bunch of franchise fees, a percentage
01:06:40 of your gross in the last 20 years.
01:06:42 You know, that's not going to work."
01:06:44 The evidentiary question of who started Burger Baron, who had the original IP, is so lost
01:06:53 in time that it would be very difficult for somebody to succeed on either a passing off
01:06:59 claim or a trademark enforcement claim.
01:07:02 The corporation had the rights to the trade name, and the corporation went under, and
01:07:08 nobody had it.
01:07:09 It was up to anybody who wants it.
01:07:12 Anyway, they went ahead with it.
01:07:14 I don't think anything came of it.
01:07:22 Certainly nothing came of it for Ricky out in Saskatchewan.
01:07:25 She was the lone baroness running two successful restaurants with her son, James.
01:07:31 But Alberta was a different story.
01:07:33 When we got the franchise, that's when I got stirred with everybody.
01:07:36 He came over here and he said, "You should do this and you should do that."
01:07:41 Nobody cared about it.
01:07:42 As long as they're making money and putting it in their pocket, they don't care about
01:07:45 what the Burger Baron does.
01:07:46 He said, "Excuse me, who allowed you to open Burger Baron?"
01:07:50 I said, "Well, I allowed myself."
01:07:53 He phoned and he told me he's the original owner.
01:07:58 I never said that I invented the Burger Baron or did that.
01:08:03 Once he came in here, he wanted money for the name.
01:08:06 I told him, "Okay, when I see advertisers, when I see everybody at Burger Baron together,
01:08:10 I see McDonald's with advertisers on TV, you come help me to fix the parking lot."
01:08:14 He said, "You're going to help?
01:08:15 We'll do it."
01:08:16 I said, "No, I need the money first."
01:08:19 And he said, "We'll do it."
01:08:20 I said, "No, no, no, sir."
01:08:22 He said, "The name, it's going to cost you 450 a month."
01:08:29 So I said, "You're not getting nothing."
01:08:31 That's the problem with the Lebanese mentality, this way.
01:08:34 They cannot accept one person in charge.
01:08:37 They cannot.
01:08:38 It's against their genes.
01:08:39 Whether he allow me or not, I'm not going to keep it anyway until I see something legal.
01:08:44 I don't care who it is.
01:08:46 You should see me with my...
01:08:47 I fired my kids one time.
01:08:49 Is that true?
01:08:52 If I do it with my family, do you think I would drop some nincompoop?
01:08:55 I don't even have your sign.
01:08:58 You know, my child is... and I have a pizza steakhouse.
01:09:01 And I said, "You know what?
01:09:03 Get out of here."
01:09:05 So I shut them up.
01:09:06 That's the only phone call I got.
01:09:08 That's why I phoned my lawyer.
01:09:09 He said, "No, nothing.
01:09:11 Nobody deal with you.
01:09:12 Nothing.
01:09:13 If he go back to you, just phone me."
01:09:14 I didn't do anything, so things went with the wind.
01:09:18 So nothing happened.
01:09:20 I became the bad guy of the burger bar.
01:09:23 And Rudy is the godfather of the burger bar.
01:09:25 Although Sal Cameldine had bought into the rights to oversee Burger Baron in Western
01:09:33 Canada, that didn't give him ownership over the brand's IP.
01:09:38 When the company's president, James, learned his partner had been misrepresenting himself
01:09:42 as the founder and using his slogans without permission, he threatened Sal with a cease
01:09:47 and desist.
01:09:50 Soon after they resolved their issues, Sal resigned and passed his company shares down
01:09:54 to his next of kin, a baroness.
01:09:58 My name is Tamara Cameldine Engel, and my relationship to the Burger Baron is I am now
01:10:02 a 50% shareholder of the Burger Baron Canada.
01:10:07 Burger Baron's been part of my life for as far back as I can remember.
01:10:10 I ran my own location for 21 years here in Lethbridge as well.
01:10:14 So it's just, it's in our blood.
01:10:16 I think the biggest obstacle is trying to band everyone together to realize that things
01:10:24 could be stronger as opposed to having them feel that you're taking away from them.
01:10:30 And I think it's just a lot of old school mentality, Lebanese mentality.
01:10:34 I'm the best and why do you think you can do something better than I can do?
01:10:38 Whereas I'm not trying to tell them that I can do something better than you can do.
01:10:42 You know, you've got ideas and I've got ideas and he's got ideas and she's got ideas and
01:10:46 we put them all together and we can be something real and something strong as opposed to just
01:10:51 being a meme.
01:10:52 How realistic do you think it is for the Burger Barons to come together and agree, not just
01:10:58 elect one baron, but one baroness?
01:11:02 How likely at its present situation?
01:11:06 Not great.
01:11:07 But I believe in the future and the younger generation have the ability to see outside
01:11:14 that box and that could become a reality.
01:11:17 I just don't think that women in the Lebanese culture are given enough opportunity to be
01:11:22 able to do that.
01:11:23 It's always the men in the control and the women are the silent ones, even though they
01:11:28 do have a pull and they do have a say.
01:11:30 It's the men that are the face of any business that's been run.
01:11:33 In those eight years, have you managed to successfully franchise a new Burger Baron?
01:11:38 Not yet.
01:11:39 No.
01:11:40 Do you think that owning the copyright then encouraged more knockoffs?
01:11:44 The knockoffs have been around for a while as well.
01:11:47 They're not running as a Burger Barons.
01:11:49 Some of them have been Burger Barons and changed their names, but I don't think that there's
01:11:52 any new recent abundance of knockoffs, no.
01:11:56 The brand identity is completely different.
01:12:12 The color schemes are completely different and it's Burger Barons with an S. It's not
01:12:17 a Burger Baron.
01:12:19 I have faith that the brand can first grow within Alberta and then other places internationally.
01:12:27 I have all the qualifications to do that, humbly speaking.
01:12:31 I worked in Switzerland, I worked in Germany, in Dubai and London as a marketing director.
01:12:36 My childhood was actually in Toronto.
01:12:39 My parents came down to visit family, friends in Alberta a long time ago.
01:12:43 Every time I wanted to come and have a burger, I'll tell my parents, "Let's go to Uncle
01:12:46 Nazih."
01:12:47 I know I'm going to come back to the place that I held close to my heart.
01:12:51 I want to ensure that the brand lives in the hearts of the people like it lived in my heart
01:12:56 as a child.
01:12:58 The newer menu is by far much more sophisticated.
01:13:01 We've changed the mushroom burger recipe.
01:13:03 So the secret recipes for the rest of the burgers, it's not made available.
01:13:07 Unless they franchise with me, then only will be available.
01:13:10 I've actually trademarked the logo and the identity and the menu and the name.
01:13:15 I've been going back and forth with my lawyer on different aspects of it and what can hold
01:13:22 ground and what can't.
01:13:23 So it's really up in the air.
01:13:25 What about the Burger Baron parody account on Twitter?
01:13:28 Are you familiar?
01:13:30 Yes.
01:13:31 Okay.
01:13:32 I know about them all.
01:13:36 On Twitter, there is a Burger Baron account and it's run by somebody, we don't know who.
01:13:42 He will tweet a lot of opinions, profane and profound.
01:13:46 I love it.
01:13:47 I think it's great.
01:13:48 It does give us a bad name and that's not who we are and that's not what we promote.
01:13:51 I think it's pretty funny, kind of raunchy, kind of peachy.
01:13:55 Not a lot of people know that it's not an official account.
01:14:00 You know, we're a family run business and we support all franchises.
01:14:03 But obviously it hurts us.
01:14:05 It's not right to bash another restaurant.
01:14:07 I know that's a fake account.
01:14:08 I'm aware.
01:14:09 I'm aware of that.
01:14:10 Yes.
01:14:11 Is that you?
01:14:12 It makes us look like a bad guy that we're, oh, we're all about us and only us.
01:14:17 And that's not true.
01:14:18 I find his humor funny.
01:14:19 Is that you?
01:14:20 No.
01:14:21 Wallah, it is not me.
01:14:23 It's not me, I swear.
01:14:25 I tried my best to get the mystery person to come forward, clear my name or at least
01:14:31 explain their obsession with the Baron.
01:14:36 I offered them the full anonymity of a government whistleblower.
01:14:40 But even revealing themselves to a handful of people was apparently too risky.
01:14:46 However, I did manage to get a few questions through.
01:14:50 I can pass that to you and then you read the answers.
01:14:57 What inspired you to create the Burger Baron parody account?
01:14:59 It was clear that the Baron needed a voice and someone for the loyal customers to rally
01:15:03 around.
01:15:04 All the corporate accounts are boring as shit and ran by some...
01:15:07 An asshole with a popped collar and cotton candy vape pen who has never set foot in Alberta.
01:15:14 People want...
01:15:15 Get a dose of the local culture that makes it what it is.
01:15:18 It feels like he's trying to hold on to a childhood.
01:15:21 When did you start picking fights with other fast food chains on Twitter?
01:15:25 Look, the Baron has always been fair to Harvey's, but the rest can...
01:15:28 Fuck right off.
01:15:29 The social media manager posing as the redhead or the clown trying to bite back every now
01:15:34 and then, but they're restrained by...
01:15:35 The corporate responsibility.
01:15:37 And a properly trademarked brand.
01:15:39 So what is your actual opinion of Burger Baron food?
01:15:42 There isn't a Burger Baron joint in Alberta with more history and a devoted loyal following
01:15:46 than the Baron.
01:15:47 And for good reason, not many people can name their favourite...
01:15:52 Mc-monstrosity, but all Baron junkies can name the exact Burger Baron order they would
01:15:56 get and from what location.
01:15:58 And if you are lucky enough to have one that sells fried chicken, which we do over here,
01:16:03 not sure why you would ever leave.
01:16:05 My death row meal would easily be the fritters, fries and double mush.
01:16:09 With the biggest bucket of gravy they got.
01:16:11 Yeah, the gravy's great.
01:16:12 We make our own gravy.
01:16:14 Long live Jewel of the Gravy District.
01:16:19 Yeah.
01:16:24 Obviously he...
01:16:28 He holds Burger Baron in his heart, but I just think he goes about it quite disrespectful
01:16:33 to Burger Baron.
01:16:34 There is a certain subset of people for whom the parody account is actually good advertising.
01:16:40 They kind of love the fact that the Burger Baron has been a bit of a shit show.
01:16:47 I have no idea what the appeal to that would be.
01:16:50 Because it's been a photocopy of a photocopy of a print of a photocopy of a photo that
01:16:54 somebody took from their Polaroid.
01:16:57 There's all these variations and I don't know if that's part of the charm.
01:17:00 I've talked to many people who've tried to explain it because if someone sees me with
01:17:04 a tattoo, they're like, "What the hell is that?"
01:17:06 I'm like, "Yeah, you know, it's a burger and it's good, but it's like spongy, so it's like
01:17:09 kind of weird."
01:17:10 But also they put like Campbell's mushroom soup like concentrate on top of the burger,
01:17:15 which is awesome.
01:17:16 And people are like, "That sounds terrible."
01:17:17 I'm like, "No, it's really good."
01:17:19 Burger Baron represents every amazing small town in Alberta and what it's like to live
01:17:25 in a small town in Alberta.
01:17:27 That's part of the amazing story that I think is awesome, that it's like this amazing immigration
01:17:31 story where people come here.
01:17:33 I mean, could you imagine like living in Alberta in the 70s?
01:17:36 Like we're not the most progressive place in the world.
01:17:39 I can't imagine how hard that would have been to be slightly different than everybody else
01:17:44 and trying to fit in.
01:17:45 Well, you lived it.
01:17:48 I wouldn't exactly say that I lived it.
01:17:50 By the time I was born, my family was well established, but my parents lived it.
01:17:56 It's just something they don't like to talk about.
01:17:58 Did you guys ever face any racism or discrimination?
01:18:01 Never.
01:18:02 You didn't feel that way?
01:18:03 You know, that's one thing I want to tell you.
01:18:06 I've been here almost 50 years.
01:18:09 I never slap a guy or I got a slap.
01:18:12 What?
01:18:13 "Never slap" like you mean.
01:18:14 You're translating it to English.
01:18:15 It's not a...
01:18:16 You've never slapped a guy, okay.
01:18:20 But have you wanted to slap a guy?
01:18:22 I never had a problem with anybody.
01:18:24 You don't think people ever got upset or jealous that immigrants coming into this small town
01:18:33 and really ascending?
01:18:37 There's a few people.
01:18:40 You could feel it because we have a business to take care of.
01:18:44 We don't want to pick up any problem with anybody.
01:18:49 Just leave it and it will go away.
01:18:54 But if you face it, you know, you're going to be in trouble.
01:18:58 I got the sense from my parents and the other first generation Barons that they were holding
01:19:02 back the truth a little bit.
01:19:04 Either because they had a business to protect and they didn't want to rock the boat, or
01:19:08 they just didn't want to appear ungrateful.
01:19:10 When was the last time you ate at Burger Baron?
01:19:13 I don't know, it's been a while, but when my parents came over last weekend, I asked
01:19:19 them to bring me a mushroom burger.
01:19:22 Small towns can be fertile ground to start a successful business and secure your children's
01:19:26 future.
01:19:27 But it can come at another cost for them.
01:19:31 Nobody knows this better than Nizar Watfa, a Burger Baronet who turned those hardships
01:19:36 into a persona.
01:19:37 Ladies and gentlemen, let's see!
01:19:38 Ever since I was a kid, for as long as I can remember, you deal with it to some extent.
01:19:49 When I first moved to Le Mans, there was quite a bit of racism.
01:19:53 People would make fun of my name.
01:19:55 Once they got to know me, they kind of stopped.
01:19:58 But there was always still, you know, one or two kids that would say something that
01:20:01 was kind of off-color or racist.
01:20:05 To them, it was normal, and they would laugh, kind of thing.
01:20:08 But whether it hurt me or not, I wouldn't let people see it.
01:20:11 When you bring it up with the Burger Baron owners, it's a completely different answer
01:20:15 based on the generation you ask.
01:20:17 I think that a lot of it had to do with maybe they didn't know.
01:20:23 You could say something.
01:20:25 My dad was always worried about us because we're the only minority in a small farm town,
01:20:31 right?
01:20:32 So to keep us safe, it was easier just to keep us in the restaurant.
01:20:36 My parents have that old-school mentality where it's like family helps the family, and
01:20:41 it doesn't matter what is going on.
01:20:44 But when you're a teenager and whatever, work is the last thing you want to do.
01:20:49 When people ask me, "What was your first job?"
01:20:51 I'll tell them it was slavery.
01:20:54 I felt like they were just always cracking the whip on me, trying to get me to work more,
01:21:01 work harder.
01:21:02 But they're trying to keep me out of trouble and just make sure that I have a good work
01:21:07 ethic.
01:21:08 Are you the oldest son?
01:21:09 Mm-hmm.
01:21:10 You are?
01:21:11 Do you think that played a part in it?
01:21:12 Because my older brother and me, we had very different experiences with the Burger Baron.
01:21:17 We're like, "Yeah, I was working in it at a young age."
01:21:20 But I think it was more about just teaching me about the value of work.
01:21:25 Oh, with my brother, he was clearly being groomed.
01:21:27 My dad would always say, "When I'm not around, you're the man of the house.
01:21:30 You have to take care of things and make sure everybody and everything's okay.
01:21:34 This is your job."
01:21:35 So my brother took over the restaurant in 2008.
01:21:44 He wanted to take the opportunity to do his own thing with it, change the name, and it
01:21:49 surprised me.
01:21:50 There was not a moment in my life where I thought about running the restaurant.
01:21:57 Not even a hypothetical.
01:22:00 I appreciate the fact that it did so much for my family and me personally.
01:22:07 I went to college without any student loans.
01:22:09 I came out debt-free.
01:22:11 Why?
01:22:12 Because of Burger Baron.
01:22:13 There were some cool perks to it as well.
01:22:16 Nothing will win over friends more than being able to order a pizza to their house when
01:22:21 you got the munchies and have it there in half an hour free.
01:22:25 It's insane.
01:22:27 At the same time, the Burger Baron can be like a prison sometimes.
01:22:31 And I don't judge my parents for it because I know that they have the right priorities.
01:22:35 But now that I have kids, I can't imagine how that would weigh on my conscience to miss
01:22:42 out on the things that they're passionate about.
01:22:45 I don't think we actually have ever really sat down and talked about what we wanted to
01:22:50 do with our lives.
01:22:51 We're coming up to it.
01:22:52 There it is.
01:22:53 I haven't seen that sign in a while.
01:23:06 Was it hard for you to dishonor your family's legacy by calling it Bone Doc's?
01:23:12 Bone Doc's Grill?
01:23:13 No, I didn't really want a whole lot to do with that name.
01:23:17 Nothing against the Burger Barons.
01:23:19 I love Burger Baron food.
01:23:20 I love walking into a Burger Baron.
01:23:22 But it needed to be my own.
01:23:24 There's that nostalgic feeling when you're driving through a small town, a prairie town,
01:23:28 and you see a Burger Baron.
01:23:29 You can walk in there and it's like walking through a time machine.
01:23:33 I just didn't want that.
01:23:36 I wanted the town to have something that was a little more modern.
01:23:41 We wanted to have a place where people can meet for work, they can come on a date.
01:23:48 Maybe something closer to the city than a small town.
01:23:50 When did you realize that you were being groomed to take over the family restaurant?
01:23:55 I had no desire to work anywhere else when I was younger.
01:23:58 I didn't want to work for someone that I didn't know.
01:24:00 I'd rather work for my dad.
01:24:02 I just assumed it was because you were the eldest son.
01:24:04 That probably had something to do with it too.
01:24:06 When it comes to the oldest son, I don't know if they expect more.
01:24:10 They definitely expect more.
01:24:11 Okay, they expected more.
01:24:13 I don't know if I wanted any other choices, but at some time you just accept that.
01:24:19 If I want to provide for the family like mom and dad did, then this was really my one shot.
01:24:25 So when dad tells me in 2008 that the current owners don't want to renew their lease and
01:24:32 there's a possibility of him selling, that scares me.
01:24:38 Knowing that my last chance of having this as my own could possibly be gone.
01:24:44 Did it bother you that I had a lot more freedom of choice maybe with what I was going to do
01:24:50 with my life?
01:24:51 A little bit, I guess.
01:24:53 A little bit.
01:24:54 And I didn't understand why you had these options, but with me, maybe I was already
01:24:59 groomed for it.
01:25:01 He's already learned these skills.
01:25:03 He might as well take advantage of it.
01:25:06 A funny thing happened after my family's restaurant was renamed.
01:25:10 Another immigrant moved to High Prairie, bought up a run-down restaurant, renovated it, and
01:25:16 renamed it, what else, Burger Baron.
01:25:18 I know they're doing well.
01:25:19 Looking good for them.
01:25:20 I love to hear that story of someone coming from back home, bringing their family here,
01:25:25 raising them in this small community where there isn't much of an Arab community, and
01:25:29 doing their own thing and being successful.
01:25:30 How could you not love that story?
01:25:32 It was one of the last Burger Barons to open, made possible only because the man who started
01:25:37 it and has since sold it was a relative of the Kamaldines.
01:25:41 Let's try this milkshake.
01:25:44 That's a perfect milkshake.
01:25:46 Thank you.
01:25:48 The family's exclusive rights have only prevented new Burger Barons from opening.
01:25:53 More importantly, it's done nothing to stop them from closing.
01:25:57 More than a third of existing Burger Barons have closed in the last decade, including
01:26:02 Rudy's last spot in Edmonton, including Sal and his daughter Tamara's three locations
01:26:08 in southern Alberta, including the last two owned by the McDonald family in Regina.
01:26:14 As big-box restaurants, upscale casual dining, and foodie culture encroached on the humble
01:26:19 hamburger, they made a last-ditch effort to keep up with the trends.
01:26:22 Yeah, definitely.
01:26:23 I'm a little bit nervous about it.
01:26:25 I do believe my father would be 100% on board with it.
01:26:28 But the pivot to healthy choices was not enough to keep the doors open.
01:26:34 Starting a restaurant in the '70s, '80s, '90s just seemed to be so much simpler, definitely
01:26:39 easier.
01:26:40 It was much easier.
01:26:42 I was thinking I'll give them empire of a restaurant, you know, so they'll do very well
01:26:48 and my grandsons, I hope they'll do the same thing I did, even 50% what I did.
01:26:55 Now it's completely different.
01:26:57 It's so hard to invest for sure.
01:26:59 Everything's so oversaturated.
01:27:00 There's so many franchises now, you can't even keep count of them anymore.
01:27:04 And not to mention costs going up.
01:27:07 It's just getting harder and harder.
01:27:09 It's not just oversaturation, but the hyper-industrialization of the food industry.
01:27:16 Even if the Barons could get their shit together, they could never compete with all the new
01:27:20 chains able to scale up and spread globally at record speed.
01:27:27 My kids were born and I was supposed to take a year off, but I didn't have the heart to
01:27:33 leave the kids.
01:27:39 You could always make more money, you can't make more time.
01:27:42 And time always mattered to me more than money.
01:27:44 I never did go back to the restaurant.
01:27:46 They got sick and tired of the salad and hamburgers and they want to spend time with their families.
01:27:52 So I was easy with them.
01:27:54 I'm not going to argue with them if they want to work something else.
01:27:56 Two years now I've owned a finance company.
01:27:59 My brother and sister ended up selling and going into their corporate world as well now.
01:28:05 There's good and bad to that, you know?
01:28:08 It's good that, okay, well, you know, we can expand to something different and maybe better.
01:28:13 It's sad because it's kind of like an end of an era.
01:28:16 It's sad.
01:28:17 Everything's got to have an end to it.
01:28:20 Is Burger Baron was like a constant in your life?
01:28:22 Yeah, absolutely.
01:28:23 Really?
01:28:24 Yeah.
01:28:25 Did you go there often?
01:28:27 Pretty often, like I know, at least once a month.
01:28:29 I was legitimately sad.
01:28:30 Really?
01:28:31 Yeah.
01:28:32 It was like a piece of my childhood gone.
01:28:33 Did you feel like, oh, if only I went there more often, if only I, you know.
01:28:37 I didn't feel like I went there too little.
01:28:40 I think I went at the maximum amount I should have.
01:28:48 My niece texts me and she says, hey, you know they're shutting down the Burger Baron on
01:28:53 the end of White Avenue?
01:28:54 And I was like, no, oh no.
01:28:56 We're going to stop in and we're going to have a burger.
01:28:58 I'm talking to the owner.
01:29:00 He's in tears.
01:29:01 I see people coming in and out and they're crying.
01:29:03 And I'm like, what the hell?
01:29:04 Is this a burger joint and everybody's crying?
01:29:06 There's something going on here that I'm not getting.
01:29:09 Why is everybody so upset?
01:29:11 And they're like, well, that you care enough.
01:29:13 I'm choking up.
01:29:14 As my kids and I are leaving, I look and I see the sign in my rear view mirror as we're
01:29:18 pulling out and I stop and I'm like, I need to be a part of this.
01:29:23 This is too good.
01:29:26 So first thing I get at home, I pressure wash it in my backyard.
01:29:29 All I can smell is hamburgers.
01:29:32 Like the grease is just lifting off with the hot water.
01:29:35 And I'm like, I've made the right decision.
01:29:36 Can you tell us how much you paid for it?
01:29:38 20 mushroom burgers worth.
01:29:40 Honestly, I think Burger Baron is closing because it's not fashionable.
01:29:44 People see the Burger Baron, but they don't see the Burger Baron.
01:29:49 They forget to appreciate what it really is.
01:29:52 And it's that burger.
01:29:54 It's that logo.
01:29:55 It's that smell.
01:29:57 And even more, it's that family that came from the other side of the world.
01:30:05 Changing consumer values no doubt has a lot to do with the closures.
01:30:09 But there's a bigger problem they're facing.
01:30:12 The next of kin, the baronets and baronetesses.
01:30:16 I wouldn't be buying stock in Burger Baron.
01:30:19 How many kids want to work in Burger Baron, take it over, run it, and face all the competition
01:30:27 that they have in the drive-thrus and the this and the that?
01:30:31 How many of those sons of Burger Baron families want to run a Burger Baron?
01:30:36 How many of them can even talk their own kids into working there during the summer?
01:30:40 I played a lot of soccer growing up.
01:30:43 And I honestly don't remember one game my parents ever watched me play.
01:30:48 Kids are always in the restaurant, they can't.
01:30:50 They're not going to leave the restaurant at five or six o'clock during rush hour to
01:30:54 go watch an hour soccer game, even though the soccer field is just down the road still.
01:30:59 You're just trapped.
01:31:00 You're here all the time.
01:31:02 You can't get away.
01:31:03 It's a sacrifice you're making.
01:31:05 Yeah.
01:31:06 Like a family, your life, everything, right, for the restaurant.
01:31:10 It's drilled in your head that you need to feel guilty if you try to do anything else.
01:31:16 But with this new generation, they don't have that.
01:31:20 There's hope for them.
01:31:21 They have their own dreams, and they're not the dreams of their parents.
01:31:25 And you only have to be a parent and a grandparent for about five minutes to learn the truth
01:31:29 of that.
01:31:30 My dream is not your dream.
01:31:33 I was in my second year of political science, and then he had his heart attack.
01:31:39 And especially with us, it's like I'm the only boy in the family, and that's kind of
01:31:45 a huge responsibility in Lebanese culture, especially.
01:31:50 So I don't know.
01:31:51 I kind of seen it as like a duty of mine to just step in.
01:31:57 My dad just had a heart attack.
01:31:59 So with that happened, I know my dad would sell the restaurant yesterday if he could.
01:32:08 But the problem is my mom still wants to go hard, go at it.
01:32:12 She would sell it if the right offer came, but she doesn't want to give it away.
01:32:16 An extra four minutes and 30 seconds time.
01:32:19 The people who run those things are not about to give them up.
01:32:23 But they will have to either give them up or find somebody else to take them over.
01:32:30 And there's the problem.
01:32:31 I had twice heart attack, and the doctor told me he can't work and kept going.
01:32:35 I had a couple of MRI and a couple of needles and a lot of shots, cortisone, and still going.
01:32:41 I'm not going to leave it.
01:32:42 That's why I brought him for sale.
01:32:44 And I hope so when somebody buy this place, he take care for like the same I take care
01:32:47 for.
01:32:48 I fix this one, I got $10,000 on those tiles, the whole kitchen.
01:32:53 Ice cream machine, in the oven.
01:32:57 You can't find this no more anywhere else.
01:33:03 I remember mom waking me up and she's like, "You need to go to work.
01:33:07 Your dad doesn't feel well.
01:33:10 Something is wrong.
01:33:11 We're taking him to the hospital."
01:33:13 So I came in, I see my dad.
01:33:15 He didn't look great.
01:33:16 It wasn't long after where mom called us and said, "Hey, it's pretty serious.
01:33:21 He had a heart attack.
01:33:22 They're flying him out to Tedmonton."
01:33:26 And I remember going to the hospital and he was on the gurney there.
01:33:31 And just looking in his eyes and thinking this might be the last time I see him.
01:33:37 And it happened at the restaurant.
01:33:40 So it wasn't easy to see.
01:33:47 Talked to him after, did the procedure and they put some stents in him.
01:33:50 He said he felt like a new man.
01:33:51 And he'd come and he'd still want to work.
01:33:53 Just as hard.
01:33:54 He'd come in at 6, 7 in the morning and start organizing or cleaning or doing whatever he
01:33:57 wanted to do.
01:33:58 Are you trying to do things differently from the way our parents did?
01:34:02 How are you protecting yourself against that?
01:34:04 I don't know if I'm protecting myself.
01:34:06 Five years ago we started closing on Sundays to have some sort of normalcy with the family
01:34:11 so they don't kind of grow up just knowing the restaurant life.
01:34:15 Would you want your kids to take over the restaurant?
01:34:17 You have big dreams for your kids, but there's nothing wrong with the restaurant life.
01:34:21 I know it's hard.
01:34:22 I know it's demanding.
01:34:24 I know you're here all the time.
01:34:27 And it becomes, the restaurant becomes like a second wife or a family kind of thing.
01:34:34 A second family.
01:34:35 No, a second wife.
01:34:37 One of my four wives.
01:34:41 Like I know it's demanding, but it's not so bad.
01:34:46 It really isn't.
01:34:49 I've been able to provide for the family in a community that I love, that I grew up in.
01:34:53 It's what I know.
01:34:54 I guess it's what I love.
01:34:56 [Music]
01:35:14 Because of a popular little burger shack that went rogue, we were able to secure a future
01:35:19 for ourselves and our children, reunite with our families, and get loved ones out of a
01:35:24 war zone.
01:35:26 I wondered if Jack McDonald ever had an idea of what his true legacy really was.
01:35:32 He wouldn't have realized that.
01:35:34 I'm learning a lot right now, today.
01:35:37 I didn't know there's near as many in the family as you've suggested.
01:35:42 I think that's great that a group of people, or individually, they do well because of the
01:35:48 Burger Baron.
01:35:50 If I meet Jack McDonald, I will thank him because by using the Burger Baron, it did
01:35:58 give me the pleasure and the comfort and the success.
01:36:03 I ever dream of it.
01:36:05 I will tell him, and he should be proud, and I thank him millions of times already.
01:36:11 There may not be as many Burger Barons as there used to be, but were it not for the
01:36:15 immigrants, refugees, and foreign workers, there may not be any left at all.
01:36:20 Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
01:36:30 Don't you want to know how the mushroom burger sauce is made?
01:36:32 So we got Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.
01:36:34 Oh man, I remember that can opener.
01:36:38 It's the same one from when we were kids.
01:36:41 We're going to take our Tabasco sauce, we're going to add 10 splashes.
01:36:45 Worcestershire sauce, we're going to add four to it.
01:36:48 Soy sauce, a little bit more.
01:36:52 And then we're just going to mix it up.
01:36:55 So it really is just these four ingredients.
01:36:57 This is it.
01:36:58 There's not much to it.
01:36:59 No cumin, no sumac, no Lebanese spices.
01:37:03 Not a single Lebanese spice.
01:37:04 It's not a pretty sauce, but it tastes fantastic on that burger.
01:37:08 Burger Baron!
01:37:09 We're the hot spot right here in town.
01:37:14 People know our value from miles around.
01:37:17 At Burger Baron, you'll be amazed.
01:37:20 We'll take you back to the good old days.
01:37:23 Great big burgers and delicious fries.
01:37:25 We offer so much, you won't believe your eyes.
01:37:28 You're going to love what we do for you.
01:37:31 We're serving value at Burger Baron.
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