Meet NICOLE & RYAN RAMIREZ | Co-owner of Terrible Burger

We had the good fortune of connecting with NICOLE & RYAN RAMIREZ and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi NICOLE & RYAN, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Survival and being independent. We were both working in the movie industry during COVID and then the writers strike happened and we found ourselves out of a job. A friend of ours needed help cooking food for an event so my husband Ryan cooked burgers and everyone loved them. We decided to start our popup after that and it’s been a hit ever since. I (Nicole) have worked in service industry most of my life so it felt familiar and comfortable plus we’re both big foodies so we fell in love with cooking for people. It has been almost two years since we first started Terrible Burger and our business continues to grow and thrive.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our burger business is called Terrible Burger and we create delicious and unique burgers. I think there’s a few things that set us a part, for one our name, most people wouldn’t call themselves terrible especially in a food business but we like to have fun and we know it’s a name nobody will forget. Our burgers definitely set us a part from the rest because we make a lot of our own sauces, toppings, everything is cooked fresh to order and we create burger flavors that go outside the normal burger box. We have a delicious Korean BBQ inspired burger with house made Bulgogi BBQ sauce, gochujang aioli, sweet chili pickled cucumbers and pickled onions. That one is a fan favorite and one of our best selling burgers.

We got to where we are today through a lot of hard work, hustle and determination. We also have a big presence on social media and use that tool as a means to create brand awareness and promote our many different burger creations. It definitely isn’t easy and it is a constant labor of love. If we aren’t cooking burgers we are creating new ones in our test kitchen and finding new ways to create engaging and fun content for our social media channels.

We have learned a lot of lessons but the main one being that we are the brand and people love to come to our popups not only for our amazing burgers but they come for us. We love our regulars and have created some awesome friendships through our burger love so it’s not only about the food but about the people who are cooking the food.

We want the world to know that anything is possible with hard work, patience and imagination. Nothing comes easy but if you really want something you will find a way to make it happen. Be sure to lean on the ones that love you because they will help support your business and your journey through it all.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Long Beach is an amazing city full of tons of great food, bars, shopping and different events to enjoy! Here’s a list of some of our favorite spots in no specific order: Panxa, George’s Greek Cafe on 2nd street, Alex’s Bar, Bamboo Club, Songbird, Sneaky Tiki, The Social List, Lola’s Mexican restaurant, Good Luck Vinyl Club, Ambitious Ales Brewery, The 4th Horseman Pizza, American Vintage Barbershop, The Hawk Bar, The Stache Bar, The V-Room, Hamburgers Nice, The Stave, Midnight Oil, Rivera’s Mexican Restaurant, Los Compadres, Sonoratown, Olives sandwiches, Not Too Shabby tea parties, Got Your Back events, Beachwood Brewery, Nonna Mercato, La Parolaccia Italian food, Reno Room, Grasshopper, movies at the beach and The Queen Mary

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would have to say we both admire our parents who are also entrepreneurs. Their hard work and dedication has definitely inspired us to take pride in our business and the food we serve. We both come from families that like to cook so they’ve definitely influenced us and how we appreciate food as a way to bond and connect.

Website: https://terribleburger.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terrible_burger/?hl=en

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TERRIBLE_BURGER