False Alarm: Little Big Burger Is Still Opening in Seattle

Despite a five-day notice to pay rent or vacate the premises — dated October 2 but still hanging on the door of Little Big Burger’s Green Lake location — director of operations Adrian Oca told Eater not to worry: The Portland-born burger chain has settled its affairs and the notice should have been taken down by now. He promised all three announced Seattle expansions are proceeding, albeit on a delayed timeline, with Capitol Hill likely opening in quarter one of 2018, Green Lake in early quarter two, and Wallingford shortly after that.

Explaining the notice, spotted by the Greenlaker blog over the weekend, Oca said his office doesn’t do anything without an invoice, and the notices of rent due weren’t arriving with invoices. Eventually, the office got a call saying it owed a bunch of money, though, and took care of the situation. He was disappointed to hear the rent-due notice was still on the door, and planned to have the property manager remove it.

Little Big Burger opened in PDX in 2010 with a goal of selling high-quality burgers quickly and affordably, utilizing Northwest ingredients like Cascade Natural beef, Tillamook cheese, and Camden’s Catsup. The company was sold to Chanticleer Holdings Inc. — a group that owns and operates a handful of Hooters locations — in 2015, but so far seems to have kept its values intact, despite being on an expansion tear.

In addition to a possible slate of 10 restaurants in Seattle, the chain is hoping to open 10 to 12 spots in Southern California and at least three restaurants in Austin. Little Big Burger also opened its first East Coast location, in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month.

Correction, 11/14/17: Chanticleer Holdings doesn’t own Hooters, just a number of locations of the company, and is an investor in the company.