PETALING JAYA, Dec 21 — About a year ago, engineering graduate Chin Ren Yi started myBurgerLab with his friends, Cheah Chang Ming and Teoh Wee Kiat but he didn't expect that it would start a burger craze. Photos of the signature charcoal burger bun were seen all over social media and months after that, copycats emulated the black burger bun.

It became widely known that it is almost impossible to get a burger from myBurgerLab without queuing up for an hour but that didn't stop the crowd from going night after night to the popular burger joint in the sleepy neighbourhood of Sea Park.

Afrer creating a phenomenon with myBurgerLab, what next?

Right now, I'd like to try different things but myBurgerLab will always be our core business. I am a bit more cautious now when it comes to introducing flavours; we used to introduce one every month but I have to make sure whatever I introduce can fit into our inventory. Our equipment and stations are designed for certain tasks so if we have a new item on the menu, it has to be streamlined so that it would not affect production time. I guess as a burger joint we have matured a lot over the year.

After opening our OUG branch, we just opened up another floor at the Sea Park branch. Our plan is to have a pop-up cafe in support of one of my interns who is a culinary art graduate. We plan to have a "cakery" upstairs and serve coffee. One of my dreams is to make a difference in the F&B industry by helping young people start businesses, serving food as a passion. That's why we are starting this pop-up cafe and hopefully, this will jump start her business. In the future, we'll also support other types of food such as pizza, ice cream and so on.

In another interview, you mentioned that you used to be a barista. Tell us more about it.

When I was studying, I was a Starbucks barista for three years before I was hired as a barista lead at The Red Bean Bag. Back then, baristas were more self-trained whereas now, baristas go through training. Coffee is still my passion and I help out Barista Guild Asia whenever they participate in the Big Bad Wolf sale.

Initially when I started myBurgerLab, we wanted to serve coffee as well. We actually had a coffee machine but because people kept coming for the burgers, we couldn't handle both the orders and the coffee machine. The timing was not right at that time and the response was overwhelming. In the end, we returned the coffee machine to the company that loaned it to us.

What do you think about these new burger joints using charcoal buns too?

I think it is a healthy competition because it pushes us to do better. But what they really should do is to focus on everything and not just the charcoal bun. I admit that for us, it is a gimmick. We did it so that people could identify that it's us. I think the most important thing is that it's about everything in between the buns. My only problem I have with these other burger joints is that they hardcore sell the charcoal buns and not the flavours of the burger itself. A lot of people are in the business for many reasons.

I would say that for our competitors, 90 per cent of their burgers are outsourced to others while at myBurgerLab, 90 per cent of the burgers are made from scratch by us, even baking the buns ourselves. So they might not be as fresh as they claim. Right now, I'm keeping a close eye on the new restaurants but I'm comfortable where we are. That does not mean we're resting on our laurels but we keep going at it.

Which branch is doing better? And why did you choose to open a branch in OUG?

The Sea Park branch is more popular compared to the one in OUG but the OUG branch is still doing good by industry standards. Over there, we've got the same staff and same stuff. It seats 90 pax which is the same as Sea Park now that we've opened upstairs. I chose to open up in the suburbs because I want to stay away from other burger joints. When we opened up in Sea Park, we attracted people from other neighbourhoods. Usually when other burger joints open, they would serve people in their neighbourhoods. I didn't want to bring attention to the other burger joints if I opened near them.

Also, we serve a different crowd in different branches. Here, we have customers from PJ and Subang. Since establishing myBurgerLab here, we see a revival in the neighbourhood. Most of the businesses here are 30 to 40 years old and I'm glad to be able to contribute back to the community by playing a role in the revival. The tenants have been here for a long time so the chances of having empty lots are slim. That way, we won't have any competitors opening up near us. That's what I want to do with the OUG branch.

In the future, I hope that every township would have a myBurgerLab. Also, I want to change the way F&B businesses work in the industry. I hope that restaurants become passionate about the food and not just about the numbers. Making money is important but serving good food is more important.

What other burger joints do you go to other than myBurgerLab?

I go to Burger Junkyard and Burgertory. I'm friends with them and their burgers are very different from ours. Burgertory serves good pork burgers while Burger Junkyard serves gourmet flavours.

myBurgerLab is at No. 14, Jalan 21/22, Seapark, Petaling Jaya and 8, Jalan Awan Hijau, Overseas Union Garden, Kuala Lumpur.

This story was first published in Crave in the print edition of The Malay Mail on December 20, 2013