Andrew and Joe, the revivers of old-school hamburgers – Costa News Spain

In the last few years, gourmet burgers have become a culinary sensation in Spain. This trend, reflects a shift toward high-quality ingredients and creative recipes, with establishments like Hundred Burgers in Valencia – crowned the world’s best in 2024 – leading the charge.

EWN: Bully Bunz was a Bully Bunz idea.
Andrew: ‘Joe was a colleague of mine at Manuka. I worked as a consultant there, working on events and designing menus. I told him about the idea I had. I wanted to do a pet project that would last a year. So we began looking for locations. We were searching for a location that has a certain “vibe”, you know what I’m saying? We found it. 

Bully Bunz is homemade, and that’s the secret to its success

EWN: Make your own bread?
Andrew: ‘I bake my bread myself. I am a bit stubborn, so wanted to do it all. I would rather make a small menu from scratch, than a large menu with everything bought in. With all the pre-made products, it is easy to sell everything. I didn’t want to be copied, but I wanted complete control. Although it’s simple to start your own burger restaurant, you will not have the ability to make everything yourself.

EWN: How many buns made you today?
Andrew: ‘We made about 220 pies today. Martin’s potato and flour burger buns. It holds up well. It does not squish or fall apart.

EWN: What about the shredded beef? Do you also make the pulled beef?
Andrew: ‘Yeah. We’re just looking for fun things to do. We don’t want people to get bored with the same burgers. They have already been back for it a few time. We don’t care about fuss. It’s a burger with barbecue sauce. Tosca [his wife] I said it just the other day. ‘Your daddy’s backyard barbecue burger.’ It’s nostalgic, because it tastes like that. I don’t want anything fancy, I don’t want cheese sauces and I certainly don’t want anything wild. I just want to do quality. I can give you good quality bread and beef cut, but I’ll take out all the nonsense. 

As we talk about perfect hamburgers, Old School 90s Hip Hop gently thumps in the background.

EWN: The music is a perfect accompaniment to the food. When I enter, I already know what I am getting. It describes what the food is.
Joe: I felt the same way in a soup-kitchen a few year ago. They played the exact same music and it was clear what the food tasted like.
Andrew: We are here to have fun, not work. This unit has a service window and that’s why I was interested in it. You can order at the service window and then sit down.

Fresh, simple and natural

A Bully Bunz burger is uncomplicated and full of natural goodness – one you don’t need cutlery and a bib for. It’s the real thing. The Old School Hip Hop sounds from NYC accompany a US-styled burger. The burger is small enough to fit in your hand, without the tens of complements falling out on your clothes and making the bread soggy.

Andrew asked passers-by if they would like to try some burgers as they were getting ready to open. They sold out every day over the next four. ‘It went from a hundred burgers, to a hundred and fifty, to two hundred.’

The recipe for the beef mix is a closely guarded secret, but I discovered that the secret lies in the dry aged beef fat that drips on the open griddle, adding a beefy and slightly smokey flavor.

If you’re in Marbella look for Andrew and Joe, and order a Bully bunz hamburger. You can find them on Calle Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, 9, Marbella.