Since 2016, a local restaurant has served tasty, filling burgers to its customers.
The most popular menu item at Burger Don is the Don Burger, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, beer-braised onions, cheddar, strips of bacon and bacon-flavoured mayonnaise made in house.
“Our Don Burger has been around forever. People know it. People are so happy with it. They love it,” Josh Rowat, Burger Don manager, told SooToday.
However, Burger Don is not your usual burger place.
“We're not a fast food joint but we serve gourmet burgers fast. Our burgers are smash burgers. They’re not your typical patty. They're smashed really flat so that they sear really quickly. You can make burgers a lot faster that way and they stack nicer,” Rowat said.
He has offered imaginative Burgers of the Month since becoming Burger Don’s manager in 2021.
“I wanted to create something for those people that don't necessarily want the same thing every month. I wanted to think outside the bun and bring in ideas from other meals to try to make them into a burger entity.”
The eatery’s Burger of the Month for June 2025, for example, is the Ketchup Cheeto Crunch Burger.
“I saw Cheetos Crunchy Ketchup in the grocery store and I thought that would be an amazing Canadian thing to put on a burger. I thought ‘let’s try it out.’ So we did the Cheetos and added tomatoes, ketchup and a little bit of bacon – because every burger goes well with bacon.”
The various Burger of the Month creations, like the staple Don Burger, are popular with customers, Rowat said.
“The Pierogi Burger was a really good one because this city loves pierogi. The Mac and Cheese Deep Fried Patty Burger was popular. Everybody loved the Mac and Cheese burger.”
Rowat’s favourite item on the regular Burger Don menu is the Gouda Fella Burger.
“I feel like it's a burger that pleases the everyday man. It's got banana peppers, bacon, barbecue sauce and smoked gouda cheese. It hits all the taste buds with some crispy onions added.”
Among Burger Don’s non-burger offerings are appetizers like nachos, deep fried cheese curds, calamari bites, perogies, salads and chicken, beef, shrimp and fish tacos.
"The deep fried cheese curds are unbelievably popular. People love them. It's always nice to try something new,” Rowat said.
Burger Don is a licensed establishment that buys from local and Canadian suppliers.
“Our meat is local. Paesano Foods supplies all our ground chuck beef. That's huge for us and definitely when you can buy locally, you should. We have Flanagan's, which is a Toronto-based company. All of our produce is Ontario-grown produce,” Rowat said.
A Sault native, Rowat has many years of experience in the local food industry.
Apart from graduating from Sault College’s Culinary Skills - Chef Training program, Rowat has worked for the Cavaliere family that owns Giovanni’s Restaurant, Fratelli’s and Burger Don.
“I take my job very seriously. People come out to the restaurant because they want to enjoy themselves.
"They don't come out because they have to, but because they want to. I want them to have the best experience possible,” Rowat said.
