The night was winding down over at Burger Antics, 3740 Grand Blvd. in Brookfield, on Friday, April 22, when a server clearing off a table noticed that a customer had left a hand-written note.
“To the owner:” the note began ominously enough, followed by “F— YOU!!”
The server was, as co-owner Dan Velcich described her reaction, “freaked out” when she started reading the note, left by someone identified only as “Andy.”
The freak-out was temporary, however, because the missive actually turned out to be a love letter, of sorts, for the restaurant, which just celebrated its first anniversary on April 16.
“Your burgers are so f—ing good that all other food is ruined for me,” Andy wrote, adding, “Every experience here tops the previous one, and as tasty and delicious as it all is, I’m never satisfied.”
So Velcich and his wife and co-owner Brenna (who works the magic in the kitchen) decided to post the note on the restaurant’s Facebook page the following morning. Someone who’s apparently related to someone who works in the kitchen then posted the note on the photo-sharing website Imgur — and the post went viral. As of Thursday afternoon, the image of the note had been viewed by 2.1 million people and had been shared by almost 700 people and had garnered about 40 comments.
According to Dan Velcich, the note was the No. 1 photo on Imgur for 16 hours.
The note and the restaurant got even more exposure on Thursday when the entertainment and culture website Uproxx posted the note and headlined the accompanying story: “Man nails how we all feel about good burgers in a note to a restaurant owner.”
As of Thursday afternoon, the Uproxx story had reached about 175,000 people and had been shared more than 220 times.
“I’m not sure what type of impact this will have on business, but it impacts Brenna and I strongly,” said Dan. “It justifies all of the time and effort we’ve put into this place.”
As for who the mysterious customer is, Dan Velcich said he wasn’t positive who the note’s author was.
“I want to say I’d know him if I saw him, but I have several regulars named Andy,” he said.
But Velcich did have a return message for Andy — the restaurant would like to create a signature burger in his honor.
“I can say definitely that we’d talk about a burger in honor of him for all the exposure he’s given us,” Velcich said.
