At a time when consumers are looking for more “clean ingredients,” Abdul Popal believes his burger concept will strike a chord.
Popal is the founder of the five-unit fast-casual concept iniBurger, and two virtual sister brands, iniWings and iniSliders, operated out of the burger concept kitchens. The menus are 100% Halal certified, from the proteins to the Martin’s Famous Potato Roll buns.
Popal sees a growing and underserved demographic looking for Halal options, not only for religious reasons but also because some see the standard as setting a higher bar on quality, he said.
“It’s audited at the point of sourcing, processing and packing,” he said. “You know exactly what you’re getting.”
The term “ini” means “this” in several languages: Farsi, Indonesian and Malay, said Popal.
It’s a franchise brand that Popal and his wife Leeza Popal created in 2020 after something of a disaster as a franchisee of Burgerim, a seemingly once-hot franchise concept that collapsed and left franchisees in ruins.
Popal said even before Burgerim’s demise, he had planned to exit the system.
“That was not something I wanted to be involved in. I saw the writing on the wall,” he said.
And, frankly, now he’d like to put the whole Burgerim thing behind him, he said.
After Burgerim founders fled the country, Popal was left with two restaurants, one of which later closed because the landlord terminated the lease.
So Popal took what was left and created something new, which became iniBurger.
On the menu are big, indulgent burgers (“B’igis”) and smaller (“M’ini”) burgers, with various toppings, as well as chicken sandwiches, salads and wings. There are loaded fries and combo boxes.
There’s deep-fried cheesecake topped with chocolate, caramel or powdered sugar. And iniBurger has become known for the option of ice cream as a burger or hot chicken sandwich.
“It’s a hack,” Popal said.
@chheanseng 📍44029 Osgood Rd, Fremont, CA 94539, United States If you’re looking for quality burgers in Fremont, @iniburger is a spot worth checking out. Their fresh-baked buns (bigi) are made by an artisan bakery to their specifications, and everything follows a farm-to-table approach — from fresh hand-chopped produce to house-made sauces, rubs, and dressings. The menu has something for everyone: Black Angus USDA Choice beef burgers, hand-breaded crispy and Nashville hot chicken, veggie options, wings, loaded fries, and more. Their chicken is vegetarian-fed, antibiotic-free, hormone-free, and cage-free, and the entire menu is 100% halal. If you’re craving burgers with quality ingredients and bold flavors, this Fremont spot should definitely be on your list. sod #foodie#bayarea#hamburgers♬ sonido original - SALO2391
Units tend to be around 1,200- to 1,500-square feet, and guests order off self-service kiosks.
At the iniBurger unit in Berkeley, California, Popal said students tended to want basic burgers with just meat, bread, and cheese.
“It’s a palate thing,” he said. “Kids kept taking the veggies out. We saw that need, so instead of complicating the brand more, we decided to roll it out as a nice clean slider without all the other things.”
That led to the creation of iniSliders as a virtual brand, visible on third-party delivery marketplaces, but delivered from the iniBurger kitchens.
The iniWings brand is similar, with a separate presence on third-party delivery sites. Popal believes it will appeal to consumers looking for chicken that is higher in quality than can be found at many national wings chains.
Popal has one company-owned iniBurger location, used for testing and training, and the rest are franchised.
A sixth unit is scheduled to open in San Jose in July, with No. 7 coming to Hayward, California this fall. Another franchisee is looking for a location in the Santa Barbara/Oxnard area.
Popal said he developed iniBurger in part to help the other franchisees left in the wreckage of Burgerim.
But the Burgerim franchisors didn’t care who signed on as franchisees, so many of those operators were just not qualified, Popal said.
“Burgerim didn’t have an intention of any of those people ever surviving,” he said. “Nine out of 10 were either the wrong people or the wrong location.”
In the end, Popal said he needed to make a clean cut.
He is, however, looking for single-unit or smaller operators — just some with experience and ties to the community where they plan to operate, so they know how to hire and build a local team.
“We’ve had larger players that have come along to buy multiple units, and we turned them down,” he said.
What Popal does not want are large investors who offer to write a check for someone else to operate the restaurants, he added.
“One of the things that’s really important to us is to think that we come from the community to serve the community."