Tribal Burger founder plans more restaurants

Tribal Burger founder plans more restaurants

The founder of gourmet burger restaurant Tribal Burger had told LCN he plans to roll out more sites in Belfast and possibly in Dublin.

Paul Catterson said: “I think the brand can handle expansion. I am also involved with another hospitality figure in Belfast in a new restaurant concept that we will open in September/October of this year.

“It’s another casual dining experience in an iconic site in South Belfast. We will be able to give you more details of it in the coming weeks.”

The former head chef at popular South Belfast restaurant Shu, who started his burger business with his wife Elaine by converting an Airstream bus, opened the first of his two Tribal Burger branches in Botanic in late 2017, a move he believes may have saved his business.

‘Take a punt’

“In hindsight now it was a crucial move as the pandemic wiped out the food truck business for 18 months in a matter of 24 hours in March 2020.”

“With everything in life, you take a punt and hope it all works out.

“We had researched a few areas when we were looking for our first site and opted to run with the Queen’s Quarter site for our first location.

“We felt the city centre (there is now a second Tribal Burger on Callender Street) would be targeting a different customer base, with the numerous office blocks and shoppers. This store has definitely seen a bigger impact of the pandemic with the lack of footfall of shoppers and office workers.

“This is slowly coming back now and we are seeing that rise weekly.  It takes time for your customers to add that second location into their brain, no matter how much social media or in-store advertising you do.”

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