After six years on the road, Karrie Hill’s signature pickled beets have found a home on Oak Bay Avenue.
The owner-operator of the Dead Beetz Burgers food trucks (she opened a second truck two years ago) is opening her first Dead Beetz brick-and-mortar location on Oak Bay Avenue.
Dead Beetz the restaurant is a fast casual style, quality food served from the counter. Hill and staff will be serving burgers starting this week following a soft-launch with friends and family to figure out just how the space will work.
What can be better than a Dead Beetz burger, fries and some pinball, said Hill, noting that the hope is craft beer will soon follow.
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“People want to eat quick, get in and get out, but they still want something that is a higher scale than a take out place. It’s that in-between having a server come to your table and something that’s fresh, awesome ingredients and handmade [items],” Hill said. “We’ll have local products as much as we can, chef made salsas, pickles, and more.”
The restaurant is just outside of the Oak Bay border in Victoria, at Oak Bay Avenue and Amphion Street. The kitchen will also support the two food trucks.
While the restaurant is new, the brand isn’t, and that has helped give Dead Beetz the restaurant a leg up, Hill said.
“People are stoked,” Hill said. “People are excited.”
Without a doubt, the pickled beet as a topping on a hamburger remains Dead Beetz’s most unique selling point,
“No one else is really doing the pickled beets thing, it’s kind of an Australian thing,” Hill said. “I’m from the east and my grandma pickled beets, bread and butter pickles. Out there winters were tough and you gotta store up. I went to Australia and I saw people were putting beet root on hamburgers. so it’s our own take, and when we convince people to try it, 99 per cent of them like it.”
Hill has added a vegan burger and some kid options to the restaurant menu. There is also a gluten-free bun option.
The food trucks will continue to cycle through the Victoria scene. Dead Beetz just finished its fourth season at the Oaklands Sunset Market. In addition to markets it’s also known for having been parked at music festivals, events and behind the Royal B.C. Museum.
