Billy Kramer has been able to capture lightning in a bottle, or in his case, a Chevron station. His 100 square-foot burger joint, NFA Burger, serves smash burgers out of a gas station off Chamblee Dunwoody Road.
“I think it’s funny you say lightning in a bottle,” Kramer said in an interview with What Now Atlanta. “It’s been about a year since I was almost struck by lightning when I was a vendor at the PGA Tour Championship. That anniversary, I think, is three weeks from today.”
Kramer is now looking to channel some of that lightning into a fully realized NFA Burger location, where Kramer will have the freedom to expand his menu.
“I’ve always wanted to have a fried chicken sandwich,” Kramer said. “I don’t have the space in the Chevron to do it. There are some really fun desserts that I want to offer. I don’t have the space to do it.”
Kramer is still early in the process of opening a second outpost, currently scouting the area for outparcels where he can build his newest NFA Burger from the ground up. “My first choice is to own the land but second-generation spaces are still on the table,” Kramer said. Though he still hasn’t decided on any location specifics, aside from wanting to remain within striking distance of his first storefront, Kramer has a clear idea of what this new restaurant will look like.
The design for this new space came about when Kramer got to talking with two lunch customers that happened to work for Jericho Design Group. “I stopped to ask them how their meal was and we got to talking,” Kramer said.
“They asked me what I thought my second location would look like and I told them,” he said. “Then three or four days later, they sent me a design based on a conversation when we were standing in the parking lot at the gas station.”
NFA, which stands for “Not Fooling Around,” started operating seven months ago. Though its burger has since won AJC’s best burger in 2020, that 100 square feet of kitchen space started as a proof-of-concept for Kramer. Through this experience, Kramer has learned what equipment he needs to scale his business. More importantly, he’s been able to maintain consistency.
“I learned that I can make an exceptional product repeatedly. That was the first thing that I wanted to prove,” Kramer said. “We’re just trying to make sure that every person that comes out has the exact same burger as the last time they came, and that it’s the exact same burger their friend told them about.”
Though he wanted to see if this would be a business that he could grow, ultimately, Kramer is doing all this out of enjoyment.
“I don’t have to have 1,000 locations. I don’t have to have a second location. I don’t have to have the location I’m in,” Kramer said. “I’m doing this because I love it, and I’ll continue to expand as long as I love doing it.”
