“Our gardens are our dining room” – Phil jensen, burgermaster founder
Award winning gardens have been a cornerstone of Burgermaster since the beginning. Our founder Phil Jensen saw his customers as the most important people in the room. He went to great lengths to wow our customers, and he used to say that “Our gardens are our dining room” when talking about the customer experience. Phil and his wife Mary took great joy in providing the best “dining room” around. Throughout the years, they grew our gardens into something quite spectacular, providing a one-of-a-kind experience to diners who come and eat at our drive-ins.
The gardens became synonymous with quality and happiness here at burgermaster
The history of the award winning gardens at our restaurants date all the way back to when Phil founded Burgermaster in 1952. When Phil opened his first restaurant in the University district, his wife Mary, a lifelong gardener, began to plan out the gardens around the restaurant and plated all the flowers by hand. She took great joy in picking new species of flowers to introduce each year! When Burgermaster started expanding to more locations, Mary brought in her good friend, Mac to help. Mac worked at the University Burgermaster planting flowers for over 20 years, and her daughter Karen still helps plan and pick the flowers to this day. Mac passed away a few years ago, but her memory lives on in the beautiful flowers at the University District.
At each location, Mary continued to take the time to plan out each garden. The planning process for each property is extensive, as the bulbs for each season need to be planted the autumn beforehand. This means that the planning must happen almost a year ahead of time! Each year, Mary and her team hand pick which flowers they want to use, and they aim to add at least one new type of tulip each year. To this day, Mary still takes joy in helping to plan the gardens, even at the age of 103!
The gardens have always been a family affair for us. Phil and Mary’s children grew up helping with the garden, and their daughters still help with picking out flowers at the nursery. When Burgermaster opened our Mount Vernon location in 2015, each of Phil and Mary’s kids got their spouses to join them in planting all the flowers by hand alongside grandkids and staff members.
During the spring and summer, the colors and aromas of the flowers are truly spectacular! In Bellevue, the award-winning gardens often bring in questions of “Who does all of your beautiful landscaping?” to which we are always proud to reply that we do all of the landscaping in-house. The Jensen family members fondly remember hand-digging over 1000 holes for the bulbs when they were children. Andy, our maintenance supervisor, began his job with the company by digging alongside Phil’s grandson for the tulips. To us, the gardens represent family, history, and happiness, and we hope that we convey these values on to our customers!