The Wild and Wonderful History of the Fast-food Chain that Went Rogue
1956
BOLD DREAMS
Inspired by the lucrative success of fast-food franchises sweeping across America, Montana entrepreneur Jack McDonnell moves his family to Canada with the goal of creating the McDonald’s of the North.
1957
MEATY SUCCESS
Jack McDonnell and brothers Dick and Mandy open Burger Baron locations no. 1 and 2 in Calgary and Lethbridge, Alberta on November 1st. It’s a smash hit introducing many Canadians to their first taste of fast food. Over the next years, Jack recruits relatives to Canada to run new locations. When he runs out of family members to partner with, he franchises the company.
1960
RAPID EXPANSION
Over 30 Burger Baron franchises have opened in 8 Canadian provinces and U.S. states. It was a phenomenon with its own championship sports teams, race teams, beauty pageant contestants and quite possibly the world’s biggest burger on order.
1961
HARD CRASH
The Burger Baron Company Ltd. collapses under the weight of its rapid expansion. Its intellectual properties are effectively orphaned in bankruptcy.
1965
THE BROWN KNIGHT
Seven years after immigrating from Lebanon, a fast-food worker named Riad “Rudy” Kemaldean buys his first Burger Baron in Edmonton. One of the last original locations, the burger shack flourishes.
Early 1970s
A FAMILY AFFAIR
He starts building new locations, and like McDonnell, recruits his relatives from afar to manage them. By the mid-70s, there are over a dozen locations to the Kemaldean name.
1976
FAST-FOOD REFUGE
Civil war in Lebanon forces thousands to flee for safety. In one year, Uncle Rudy helps bring over 30 close relatives and friends to Western Canada, giving many of them jobs in the family enterprise. When his proteges are ready to strike out on their own, Rudy helps set them up with a location of their own in rural Alberta so they don’t compete with his city stronghold
Early 1980s
MORE MEME THAN FRANCHISE
As recipes and trade secrets are shared between Lebanese immigrants, the chain becomes dominated by a loose network of Arab families. Thriving in small towns, locations are vastly different from one another in every conceivable way, creating customer confusion and quality control issues. Uncle Rudy tries to reign it in but is challenged by his own charitableness. Despite pressures from his brothers and nephews to exert some control, Rudy won’t stand in the way of immigrants trying to do for their families what the Burger Baron did for his.
1983
RISE OF THE BARONET
After Jack McDonnell dies in California, his wife Rikie returns to Canada to purchase the last original Burger Baron, in Regina, Saskatchewan . The lone baroness busily runs her wildly popular location, blissfully unaware of her Lebanese counterparts feuding over the rights to her late husband’s legacy just one province over.
1985
REUNIFICATION EFFORTS
With Uncle Rudy’s blessing, nephew Nazem Kamaleddine enlists himself to lead reunification efforts in Edmonton, organizing meetings attended by about a dozen barons. He offers incentives for standardizing their various brands, but negotiations fall apart over disagreements on recipes, suppliers and franchising fees.
1989
REUNIFICATION 2.0
Recognizing the improbability of it ever becoming a properly trademarked franchise again, Jamil Amin Chehayeb, formerly a commercial air pilot in Lebanon, establishes an association group called the Burger Baron Restaurants of Alberta. Freed of the Kemaldean/Kamaleddine family, Chehayeb hopes to unify his counterparts in name for the sake of buying and advertising power, but a summit of the Barons quickly descends into bickering when the question of leadership comes up.
1991
THIRD TIME’S A CHARM?
St. Paul Burger Baron owner Malek “Mike” Akl incorporates Burger Baron – Next Generation. His modern rebrand and rock ‘n’ roll jingle appeals to younger Lebanese fed up with their elders’ old ways, but when it comes to autonomy they don’t fall far from the tree. Mike eventually renames his restaurants Best Bite with the same logo, though some Burger Barons opt to use it anyway – without permission.
1998
RECAPTURING THE BRAND
Rikie McDonnell is advised by her son James–heir to the Burger Baron throne–to re-register trademarks for her late husband's company. Her application is challenged by Rudy’s brother Sal Kamaleddine. Rather than fight in court, the McDonnells split their trademark rights with Sal, who begins rewriting the brand history with himself as founder.
2000’s
BOOTLEG BOOM
Attempts to impose trademarks on existing restaurants are unsuccessful. The 40+ existing locations ignore legal threats while new Lebanese-owned diners emerge serving the exact same food under conspicuous names like "Burger Barn," “Burger Bar” and “Burger Barons.”
2013
MYSTERY NO MORE
Journalist (and baronet) Omar Mouallem, whose family ran a Burger Baron in High Prairie, Alberta since 1987, investigates the restaurant’s origins. He becomes the first to untangle its convoluted history in a viral article that would inspire this documentary a decade later.
2010’s
VANISHING ICON
Challenged by evolving consumer tastes and their ambivalent successors, the Barons close up at a steady clip. The McDonnell and Kemaldean families follow suit but retain the rights to brand I.P.
Since 2012, more than a third of Burger Barons have closed, yet the cult following is stronger than ever. Superfans have been known to get tribute tattoos, print merch, and even affix a Burger Baron sign to their house. And some have shown their love by backing our documentary on IndieGoGo.
Today
There are 26 completely independent Burger Barons left in Alberta (and one in B.C.). Though it’s shrunk back to its pre-bankruptcy size of the 1950s, the cult following has never been stronger.
The map shows all 100+ locations in its glorious history.
Click the button below for an interactive Google Map of all 27 operating Burger Barons and the many more since 1957.
Rudy Kemaldean’s nephews recall their harrowing escape from Lebanon to Canada.
Nazem Kemaldean butts heads with the other Barons, including his uncle Sal.