Glamsquad Magazine April 2018

LIFESTYLE
LIFESTYLE
had going for it; and it was an entirely
different ball game. The backyard of
Burg gave credence to the house
music pouring through the whole
space. A tall custom hookah sat atop
one of the tables. Ayo (yes you read
right) chess and drafts sat atop tables
in-between wooden benches and
tree styled stools. At the extreme right
of the backyard was a table tennis
set up and on the wall close to it, a
few gaming suggestions. The darts
positioned on the wall, right next to
the wooden benches and tree styled
stools, would come in a few visits later.
The concept of the restaurant was
very hard to miss. It was a piece of
Soho come to life in Lagos. We were
having a hard time hiding the fact that
we were impressed... not necessarily
because it was over the top but simply
because the concept was very well
executed.
We walked back in and enquired from
one of the waiters about who I could
speak to about the restaurant and as
sure as one of three guesses were, it
was the tall, stocky guy with the slightly
wild fro... Ladi. It turns out he was the
Owner. I had a brief chat with him and
we scheduled a meeting.
Sometime the following week, I paid
Ladi a visit at Burg and we sat to have
a chat. Discovering how the newly
christened restaurateur got into this
line of business was a very interesting
one. Ladi who is a Music Producer
and Graphic Designer (He recently
released 2 songs on an album with
his friend Dave Blanco. One of the
songs is called Blanco) fell in love
with cooking during his time at SAE
in Oxford. Ladi started out cooking
burgers with his then girlfriend, for
his friends and his family. This hobby
quickly transformed into a passion
and according to Ladi, every other
experiment somehow involved
Burgers. After graduating from SAE and
perfecting a variety of burger recipes,
Ladi felt inspired to start his restaurant
in London. For some reason, London
didn’t work out and after splitting with
his girlfriend who had been a huge
part of his cooking journey, home felt
like the next natural choice. Shuttling
back and forth between Lagos and
London, Ladi comes clean about
how difficult starting a business can
be. According to the restaurateur
“The hardest part of it was teaching
people to do things with care.” Which
makes perfect sense when you think
of his response to my question on the
one thing He would like people to
know about him. He responds “If I’m
honest… it’s that my whole life revolves
around quality.”
When I ask him about the inspiration
behind the restaurants aesthetics he
says “It’s a mixture of several things. So
how I usually work with all my work is
that I start off on the very basic thing
and I add layers to it. So this whole
place came about kind of like a cake.
You add each layer and things I like.
So it’s a bit of a reflection of me. Even
the music we listen to. I like listening
to house music or electronic music
because whenever I listen to it, it
makes me feel like I’m in a club in the
UK or something.”
Nostalgia is exactly the feeling
stepping into Burg will evoke for
anyone who’s spent some time in
London. Beyond the music, it’s the
feel. When we talked about the work
culture and Burg, a blend of comfort,
experiments and mutual respect was
the code. For Ladi, his workers being
comfortable enough to enjoy working
at Burg and feeling like a part of the
team is crucial. He shares a story on
how when one time he was out, his
staff spent sometime experimenting
with a new recipe and new flavours
which he liked and successfully
made it on to the menu. Keeping the
balance, Ladi explains that as much
as he likes his staff to feel comfortable
and to love working at Burg, there’s no
confusion about who’s Boss. Mutual
respect and boundaries are still
important.
For guests, what Burg really is, is a fun,
relaxing evening in Lagos and a great
opportunity to socialize. On one of my
subsequent visit, I was supposed to
be meeting my friend with whom I first
explored Burg, and I was a little worried
because I was late, courtesy of Lagos
traffic. It turned out that my worry was
totally unwarranted as I arrived to
meet my friend cackling away with a
total stranger turned ayo opponent. I
met the tail end of their game, before
we all went on to share a few jokes
and moved on to a game of darts
with some vanilla Ice cream that had
exactly the right consistency and taste.
Candid on how gruel the journey was
and almost quitting cold turkey, Ladi
touches on the importance of being
able to take criticisms “It hasn’t been
easy. I wouldn’t tell you like it has been
easy. Ermmm in December I wasn’t
actually going to come back. Like we
opened in December, I was actually
going to walk away from the whole
thing but I decided not to. One of the
difficult decisions to make but I came
back and we’re here now. I think for
people who can’t take criticism well or
are easily hurt by things people say, it
might be quite hard to do something
like this but like I’m the type of person
who doesn’t really care what people
say.”
Whatever the case, we’re sure more
than a few Lagosians and visitors
would be thrilled he managed to
pull through his Entrepreneurial cum
culinary journey to add to Lagos’
growing dining landscape.
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