The Blacker the Burger
5:32 AM
IMAGINE the usual cliché fast food advertisement – close-up
on a juicy quarter-pound patty, lettuce and fresh tomatoes glistening, hot
model enters, takes a big bite of the mouth-watering burger, and delicately
wipes the sauce from her lips and cheeks.
But take another look, notice there’s something different
about the burger our hot model just ate. See the generous amount of sauce, the
little BnB flaglet, and the bun that is uniquely a striking shade of black.
Marvel at its dark and bizarre, yet tempting appearance. Now reach for the
burger and take a well-deserved bite. Once you go black you can never go back.
Jamie Divinigracia
The BnB Restaurant (or Burgers n Beer) is the brainchild of
31-year-old Jamie Marie Divinigracia, bringing to Ilonggos the out-of
the-ordinary Charcoal Burger. Starting out with a capital of just P1,000 pesos
in 2014, Jamie has grown her business from an online take-out and delivery
store to a homey on-location garden resto in Lapaz.
“Nag-start lang gid sya online. First sa friends ko lang
anay, I got good feedback, and they said Manang ipalapta ta na ni, this has a
lot of potential,” shares Jamie.
She attributes a lot of her success to social media, spending very little on advertisements and promotions, because her customer themselves started sharing how much they loved BnB’s unique Charcoal Burger on Facebook and Instagram.
“Syempre, when you’re just starting, you don’t want to spend a lot, because you can never be sure if it will be a hit or not. So what better way to advertise your product than on social media,” adds Jamie.
A graduate of BS Medical Technology from Central Philippine
University, Jamie admits that she’s strayed far from her college course. But
she reveals that it’s her passionate love for cooking and her drive to achieve
her dreams that has pushed her into this business.
“I can’t imagine myself not being able to bake and cook, daw
part nagid sya sing akun daily routine,” said the hands-on Jamie, who also does
most of the cooking in her kitchen, and bakes all the charcoal buns herself.
Jamie’s love for cuisine is something she inherited from her
grandmother. “As young as 10-years-old, I discovered my passion for cooking,
raised by my grandmother. Kung upod mo si lola mo all the time ma-expose ka gid
sa kitchen. I was her little helper,” she shares.
The idea to put up the business came to Jamie while she was traveling in Malaysia with her mother. They encountered the weird black-bunned burger at a café in Kuala Lumpur. Out of curiosity, Jamie asked the chef about it, and learned that the secret was charcoal powder from bamboo. Her mother suggested they sell something like it when they return to Iloilo, and the rest is history.
During early days, Jamie would prepare around 30 buns a day,
but now she’s had to increase production to 80 - 100 to cope with the high
demand. Jamie shares they reached their highest number of orders during last
year’s Dingyang, 170 in all for just a single day. A hands-on boss, Jamie
involves herself in all aspects of her business, including deliveries,
finances, and the manning of the restaurant counter.
With BnB open 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily, Jamie admits that her
tight schedule did take its toll on her, but she does her best to find time for
her family. “If you are concentrating on one thing, hindi mo gina maiwasan nga
mag-lapse ka from the other things,” she shares. Thankfully, her husband has
started helping with the business, and she’s chosen to close on Mondays, to
spend more quality time with her 7-year-old child.
Enjoying the success she is experiencing now, Jamie still
aims to expand her business and put up BnB branches in other cities of the
country. But she wants to always keep
the heart of BnB intact. Jamie shares that her grandmother always told her,
“Basta namit imo pagkaon, biskan diin ka tultulon ka gid sng mga tawo,” that’s
why she’s done her best to perfect her recipes and stay consistent.
Aside from the Charcoal Burger, BnB also boasts a menu of
pastas, black sandwiches and black rice meals. Jamie teases that black pasta
and a new dish she’s named “dirty rice” may be joining the menu soon, adding to
their signature theme.
Her advice to other young entrepreneurs, “Follow your
passion.” A firm believer in the value of hard-work, Jamie gets her drive from
her family and from her customer’s happy faces.
“ Just believe that you can do it, of course it will not be
easy, there will be some hesitation, there will be a lot of bumps and
struggles, but if you keep on focusing on what you want to achieve and what you
really love, it makes everything worth it,” she adds.
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