A Burntisland burger restaurant is looking to thank two young lads whose quirky order helped turn their business into an award-winning success.
Raina Miller, owner of Burger Island, has launched an appeal to find the young boys after their customised order helped transform her business from a seasonal burger van into a successful restaurant and takeaway.
Raina’s family has run the burger van in Burntisland for 30 years.
Cheesy order
She says one of the things to really kick-start the success was the invention of the “spice boy box”, affectionately named after the customers who invented it.
During the pandemic in July 2020, two young boys came to the van and ordered a spicy chicken wrap with chips and cheese, a side of mozzarella sticks and chipotle sauce, all in one box.
Raina posted a picture of the customised order to their Facebook page – which had around 100 followers at the time – and less than three hours later, they had customers queuing up to try the combination.
Raina said: “It was basically a meal in a box – we had all those things separately on the menu but never had the idea to put it all together.
“Before I gave the two guys their order I took a quick picture of it for our social media because I thought it looked really nice.
“I posted it at around noon and by about 3pm we had people coming to the van and asking: ‘Can we have one of those boxes you just put on Facebook?’
“People would come and look at the menu confused and then go on their phone to try find the picture and we’d ask ‘are you looking for the spice boy box?’ – which we had named after the two guys who ordered it.
“That inspired our big box meal and a change up of our menu – we were already doing things differently but that helped us get some social media attention.”
‘It’s a genuine success story’ says Burntisland Burger Island owner
Following the pandemic, Raina was in the dark about the future of the business.
But in April 2021 she opened her own burger restaurant which has gone on to win three awards.
Now Raina employs 13 members of staff – while still running the seasonal burger van – and is considering opening a second restaurant elsewhere in Scotland.
She said: “The pandemic changed everything. It was that sink or swim moment, are we going to struggle like other businesses or try and adapt?
“From that summer we just kind of took off and we never looked back.
“We got nominated for the best takeaway in Scotland award and won it
“It was just a burger van – it was my mum and dad’s and I worked there since I was 13.
“It’s a genuine success story.”
Raina is hoping to find the two men who inspired it all to thank them.
She described the boys as in their early 20s and said if they can prove it was them, with a picture of the order or possibly a transaction from the date it was ordered, they could be in with the chance of some free food as a token of gratitude.
Conversation