Wahlburgers bro dishes on family!
For Paul Wahlberg, the chef in charge of the surging burger chain Wahlburgers, the hardest part of working with his famous bros, actor and New Kid on the Block Donnie and Hollywood heavy Mark Wahlberg, is forgetting all those arguments about the flat bicycle tire.
“You just try not to revert back to when you were 12 years old and were like, ‘You took my bike and got a flat tire!’ Those kinds of things,” Wahlberg told the Track. “Even though it’s been the same way since you were 12, you can’t go there.”
Despite the bike situation, Wahlberg — who yesterday celebrated the fifth anniversary of the very first Wahlburgers in Hingham — loves working with his brothers, who, he said, have been nothing but supportive.
So who is the toughest member of the family to work with? That would be mom Alma, Paul said.
“My mother wants to be the boss,” he laughed. “Because she is the boss.”
In any event, Wahlberg and Wahlburgers have come a long way since the first burger joint opened back in 2011 in the Hingham Shipyard. For one thing, there are now 11 Wahlburgers spread around the country, including three in Massachusetts — the original in Hingham, one around the corner from Fenway Park and one in Lynnfield. The family hopes eventually to have 30 across the country.
And then there’s the TV show.
“Wahlburgers,” starring Paul, Mark, Donnie, Alma and the rest of their family and wacky Entourage, will launch season seven on Nov. 16 with more bickering about who is Alma’s favorite son, more expansion and more Johnny Drama.
“I go out to visit Mark in Scotland and London,” Paul said. “And do just a lot of running around like a crazy person.”
Then there’s the episode where Donnie, who goes to Coney Island to throw out the first pitch at a Brooklyn Cyclones minor league game, has an unfortunate run-in with former Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson, the man who hit the ball that went through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the ’86 World Series.
“I was like, ‘ Dude, let it go!’” Paul said. “We’ve got some championships now. But that was a tough one. That was a tough one for everyone in Boston. I’m sure if he ran into Bucky Dent, it would be the same thing.”
Between the expanding franchise and the TV show, Paul said he doesn’t get as much time to do the one thing he really loves: cook.
“I absolutely miss it,” he said.
He also misses chatting with his regular customers, and makes a point to stay out front when he does visit his restaurants to say hello.
“People see me, they want to take pictures,” he said. “They ask me, ‘Where’s your mom? Where’s Mark? Where’s Donnie?’ I tell them, ‘Mark is out back washing dishes and Donnie is cleaning the bathrooms.’”
File Under: Chef’s Special.