The Kitchen on the Corner at the Sunoco gas station in Russell has been a smashing hit since it opened in November 2022.
The Kitchen on the Corner at the Sunoco gas station in Russell has been a smashing hit since it opened in November 2022.
At the intersection of Chillicothe and Kinsman roads, the convenience restaurant attached to the gas station is especially known for its smash burgers, said owners Steve and Kristen Gaetjens during a recent interview.
“It seems like the kitchen has been received really well by the community,” Steve said, adding they’ve sold 13,000 smash burgers since the kitchen opened in May 2023, which equates to around 200 burgers per week.
“The other thing that we started doing early on was we created a smash counter. So, ‘How many burgers do we sell?’ Kind of like what McDonald’s used to do on their sign,” Steve said. “I think we’re over 13,000 in just our little place. It’s kind of fun to have that. We try to change it every week or so.”
The Gaetjens do not use frozen patties for the burgers, Steve said.
“We start with fresh, ground beef and we portion it and press it, and we do that pretty much every day because of how many we sell,” he said. “The ‘smash sauce’ is our own recipe and we make that, as well, and we’re going to start selling that to customers directly because it’s been requested because people really like it.”
While their pizzas are also popular, they don’t sell as much as their burgers, Steve said.
“I’m surprised we don’t sell more pizza, but it’s partly because we compete with ourselves with the burger,” he added. “The whole thing is spread (by) word of mouth. We’ve done very little advertising.”
The restaurant has 56 Google Reviews giving them 4.8 stars. However, their success didn’t come easy.
Kristen told the Maple Leaf in 2022 they had to resolve well and septic tank issues and replaced the interior. They had to close from May to October 2021.
More recently, the kitchen has had its challenges in retaining employees.
“The biggest struggle for us really has just been in keeping good staff and getting busier,” Steve said.
They are closed one day a week due to their limited staffing.
“We had to shorten our week. We actually closed on Mondays, not because it wasn’t — it was popular,” he said. “Everybody wanted us to be open for Mondays, but we just needed to have one day where we didn’t have the staff because we just didn’t have the staff to do it.”
The Kitchen on the Corner is open Tuesday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Photo Captions (3):
- (Smash counter photo)
Emma MacNiven/KMG
Russell Sunoco’s Kitchen on the Corner provides a weekly update on how many smash burgers they’ve sold. As of Jan. 6, they sold 12,907.
- (Outside of Russell Sunoco photo)
Emma MacNiven/KMG
Russell Sunoco has been open since November 2022 and has experiences much success with their fresh foods.
- (Two women with burgers photo)
Kitchen on the Corner/Facebook
Cece and Nancy stopped by the Kitchen on the Corner for smash burgers after snowshoeing Jan. 5.
