NFA Burger owner Billy Kramer plans to expand his award-winning burger business to four more Atlanta locations. And the next location could open as soon as six months from now.
Those expansion efforts begin with hiring the restaurant’s first chief operating officer (COO) to guide the process.
Kramer, whose burger joint resides inside a Chevron gas station in the heart of Dunwoody Village, announced in an exclusive interview with Rough Draft that he’s hired Brett Crowder as the COO of NFA Burger.
“Either I’m going to operate one restaurant or take a big swing and go for it,” Kramer said. “And if I am going to grow, I need someone who has the chops to make it happen.”
Crowder, Kramer said, is that person.
Crowder, a University of Georgia alum, has consulted for Dantanna’s, DASH Hospitality, Slutty Vegan, and most recently, H&H Hospitality in Atlanta. The latter manages and operates restaurants at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Kramer and Crowder will work together to expand NFA Burger to four more locations over the next two years and will consider franchising and licensing opportunities.
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The original location, now five years old, will continue operating at its present location, albeit with one change. Construction should begin in October 2024 on a stand-alone kitchen to the right of the Chamblee Dunwoody Road Chevron station.
After completion, NFA Burger will relocate all operations to that new space. Seating, which currently consists of scattered picnic tables outside the gas station, will remain the counter-service restaurant’s only dine-in option. When the new space opens in Dunwoody, Kramer said, the menu will expand to offer milkshakes and five types of sodas, but no other additions that would take attention away from NFA’s signature dish.
While none of the four expected new restaurant locations have been formally determined, Kramer said the sky’s the limit on where they might open more NFA Burger locations and the type of service model.
“Ideally it will be 20 minutes from the Dunwoody location, but that leaves a lot of room to choose — Sandy Springs, Chamblee, or even Buckhead,” he said. “And we won’t necessarily move into a gas station. It could be in an office park, in a second-generation restaurant, or somewhere else that feels right.”
Kramer said he wants to open another NFA Burger within the next six months. He and Crowder have set their sights on potential locations north of Atlanta, including Smyrna, Marietta, Roswell, Alpharetta, Brookhaven, Norcross, Woodstock, Canton, Lawrenceville, and Tucker.
While expansion means significant changes, Kramer said, one element will always remain constant: the desire to execute the perfect smash burger.
Billy’s classic version, featuring a seared double-beef patty topped with American cheese, pickles, mustard, and “sassy” sauce on a Martin’s potato bun, has received accolades on the local, state, and national levels. The restaurant has been recognized by Garden & Gun, Atlanta magazine, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Eater Atlanta, as well as by food bloggers and social media influencers.
And NFA Burger’s fanbase keeps growing year after year.
Each time another glowing review circulates, the lines to eat at NFA Burger get longer and longer, a phenomenon that Kramer said “amazes me.”
He recalled leaving NFA Burger via the back door one day and running into a customer waiting at the end of the line wrapped around the building.
“The guy asked me, ‘Are you going to have any food left when I get to the front of the line?’ and I said, ‘Are you kidding? I’ve been preparing for this day for all of my life.’”
Kramer said he’s also amazed that Dunwoody residents, as well as far-flung customers who go out of their way to try his burgers, have continued to patronize his gas station burger operation.
“It’s strange to think that, after five years, we are still in a growth mode,” he said. “Now we are ready to grow even more, but we have to do it in the right way. We want to operate quickly but we aren’t going to do it under duress.”
He still remembers the first day NFA Burger opened in Dunwoody, back in December 2019, when he only sold three burgers.
“Now, if we haven’t sold three burgers by 11:02 a.m., I start to think we have a problem,” he said.
NFA Burger, 5465 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody. Open Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Thursday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
