Sarah Griesemer|Asbury Park Press
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Dry-aged beef, yellow American cheese, secret sauceand a potato roll.
Complicated? No. Life-changing? Yes.
Nick Lepore, a 33-year-old former competitive bodybuilder from Toms River, has built a career around this cheeseburger. He is not a trained chef, yet people clamor for tickets to the pop-ups he hosts in New Jersey and across the country. He doesn't have a degree in social media marketing, yet he has built an Instagram following around his brand, Burger Buff, that allows him to do this for a living.
This still surprises him, he says.
"In the beginning, I had no idea what direction it was going," Lepore said from acorner table at Divi Tree Coffee in Point Pleasant Borough, where he hostedhis first pop-up in January 2020.
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Lepore's burger journey began during adecade-long career inbodybuilding. While training, his favorite cheat meal wasa burger.
"It has some utility to a bodybuilder: the carbs, the fat, the salt," he said.
His competition days led to work with a nutritional supplement company, which involved traveling– and seeking out great burgers in the United States and abroad. Lepore picked up a camera along the way, got into photography as a hobby, and taught himself YouTube.
Early followers came from theworld of fitness, but as the number of food photos increased,so did his followers.
"Long term, I knew it could be something," Lepore said."I knew I liked creating content through storytelling."
Then, a big idea that made him the story: Lepore would eat a burger every day for a year.
"It would give me an image to post every day, a story to tell, and practice shooting," he said, adding that the 2019 project also allowed him to highlight small businesses on his social media, which is an important component of the Burger Buff brand.
"I love to hear that someone went to (a restaurant or coffee shop) because I did," he said.
The year of the burger led to sponsorships with Martin's Potato Rolls and North Bergen-based Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors. Then people began asking him to cook for them.
"Everyone wanted to try my at-home burgers, and that's what spurred the pop-ups," he said.
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The pop-ups, along with the planning andprepping that go along with them,have become Lepore's full-time job. Between his first at Divi Tree Coffee (which was first come, first served and so busy thatLepore quickly realized he needed to sell tickets in advance)to today, he has hosted about 40—including one with legendary burger scholar George Motz, with whom he collaborated earlier this year.
"It is incredible to see the work he has put in and to see his brand grow from the very beginning," saidJoe Torrisi, who owns the coffee shop with his wife, Maylon.
Where do they happen? Pop-up hosts have included The Grand Tavern in Neptune, home to his favorite burger;Bakeria 1010 in Linwood;Fusaro's Pizza and Pasta in Stafford;Anjelica's Restaurant in Sea Bright;John's Cracker Barrel in Neptune;Nettie's House of Spaghetti in Tinton Falls;Kuppi Coffee Company in Edgewater;and The Union Market in Tuckerton, among others.
Tickets, which are sold in advance, cost $17 and include Lepore's signature crispy-edged double smash burger, a dry-aged chuck and brisket blend; a bag of potato chips, and a sample of his Burger Buff sauce, which fans can find at Lenny's Colonial Ranch Meat Market in Point Pleasant Borough.
But if you want tickets, good luck: So does everyone else. Lepore can grillbetween 200 and 300 burgers per event, depending on the restaurant hosting the pop-up, and thousands of people attempt to purchase tickets each time he announces them.
He said Burger Buff tickets became so hard to get,people began asking Lepore if they could hire him to cookin their backyards. His first private party was in Rumson, and "2021 got booked up in 2020," he said.
You can also try and catch him teaching burger classes at David Viana and Neilly Robinson's Heirloom Kitchen in Old Bridge. The October class, unsurprisingly, is sold out.
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As of now, Lepore has no plans to start a food truck or open a restaurant– though he is asked about it often.
"Right now, that's just not on my radar," he said.
Instead, he is focused on at-home parties and continuing to collaborate with restaurants, both local and out of state, for Burger Buff pop-ups.
"From when I started doing pop-ups ... they've come a long way," he said.
Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014.Send restaurant tips to sgriesemer@gannettnj.com.
