A local’s view and a tip for the Fergburger experience
If ever tourists deserved the title ‘‘loopy’’ it would have to be the thousands who daily stand in hour-long queues down Queenstown’s Shotover St for a Fergburger.
I know your guidebook tells you to do it, and I know everyone else has done it and I know that Instagram shot with the Remarkables in the background is great. I will even concede that they are really good burgers but they are not world leading, as ‘‘judged’’ by Michelin star chefs last week, they are just really good burgers.
They are very similar to those you can get around the corner at Devil Burger, where the queues do not go out the door, or nearby World Bar, where you can sit in a comfy chair and have a beer while you wait. The vegan offering at Lord of the Fries is also fantastic.
Locals scoff at you as you stand in that queue, you know. Not only because you wait on the side of a busy road for an hour waiting for a slab of beef in a bun but because what you are actually buying is not a world-leading burger but a myth.
The original Fergburger, the hole in the wall selling burgers at 3am in dingy Cow Lane, was the real deal. It’s presence shared only by word-of-mouth, it quickly became a favourite for late-night drunken brawls and hook-ups. Yes, my own life was improved by post-midnight visits to Fergburger but only to the extent of the chips and aioli fulfilling an alcohol-induced craving.
The myth grew alongside the company. Now it has branched out into icecreams and a bakery. A bar is on the way. It is no longer a hole in the wall but it has stayed local. There are no franchise deals and no alternative Fergs to visit.
It is as synonymous with Queenstown as bungy jumping and jet boating. Part of its charm is that Fergburger doesn’t advertise and does very little marketing. The company doesn’t even own its own Facebook page. But somehow it’s a multimilliondollar business.
Celebrity endorsements help. Pretty much the whole of the Lord of the Rings cast ate there. Irish rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll, his team having been ejected from the 2011 Rugby World Cup, announced that the highlight of his trip to New Zealand was the Fergburger he ate while training in Queenstown. Ed Sheeran has been but confessed he didn’t have to wait in line.
Like any company worth millions, it has raised the ire of ratepayers who found themselves footing a $95,000 overspend on a footpath extension that removed precious car parks to make more room for the queue, in 2015. Despite the added space, locals still find themselves on the edge of the road dodging traffic to get around the people waiting.
Will these few words add to the myth? Yes. But if you read this far I offer one local’s top tip to make your Fergburger experience more enjoyable: Avoid the queue – place your order by phone.