Burger Parlor's neon sign glows like a red-light district come-on from a still-shuttered space — teasing, denying, and frustrating fans of Chef Joseph Mahon's luxe-burgers. The restaurant started life as a dinnertime pop-up in the Rialto Cafe space, which Edwin reviewed a year ago. At the time, pop-ups were all the rage for chefs testing new concepts and menus before shelling out big money to open their own place.
When Mahon announced plans to move the Burger Parlor out of the incubator and leased a narrow, easy-to-miss storefront around the corner, burger fanatics cheered. Then they waited. And waited. The windows were papered over; no signs of activity inside and no information posted anywhere. There was nothing but the unflinching neon stare-down. Yesterday, we finally heard back from Chef about opening day, and the reason for the delay.
]
The spaces on either side are a bike shop and a salon, and the salon's phone number is disconnected. So we're betting they're taking the address of the salon's much easier-to-locate corner storefront at 202 N. Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton. Mahon says in his Twitter feed that they break ground in 8 days, and plan to open within 60.
In the meantime, that damn neon signs still taunts us. We stand in front of it on the sidewalk like crazy people, muttering, “OPENOPENOPENOPENOPENALREADY!”
Follow Stick a Fork In It on Twitter @ocweeklyfood or on Facebook! And don't forget to download our free Best Of App here!
