Elevation Burger - An Organic Fast Food Burger Chain

It sounds like a contradiction in terms, but there really is an organic fast food burger chain: Elevation Burger. The company is a sustainable burger chain serving only organic products. Hamburger meat comes from fresh USDA certified organic beef that is never frozen and ground daily on-site. Elevation's cows are grass-fed, free range, aren't given hormones & antibiotics and are free of pesticides and other chemicals.



Elevation also serves fresh cut fries cooked in olive oil, vegan and veggie burgers, great shakes and other beverages.
The company was founded in northern Virginia in 2005 by the husband and wife team, Hans and April Hess. Elevation has expanded into other states including Florida, Texas New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. A few days ago it was announced that, with the help of Kuwaiti-born investment banker Ali Ashkanani, the first international expansion is now underway, beginning with a store in Kuwait targeted for mid-2010 and then expansion to additional locations in the Middle East.
How this expansion plan will pan out remains to be seen as a hands-on, controlled management system will be necessary to ensure that product remains rigidly organic and adheres to the sustainability philosophy that Elevation Burger has embraced. A risk with rapid expansion is that it can be difficult to oversee individual locations, particularly in a foreign market.
Hopefully the organic and sustainable nature of the company will not be compromised as Elevation Burger grows.
With any luck we'll see Elevation Burger expand into western Europe and into Italy. How fitting it would be as it was here in Italy, almost a quarter of a century ago, that the SlowFood movement began as a response to the expansion of McDonalds into Italy. If Elevation Burger opens here maybe we can take it as a sign that the food industry is coming full circle and that the Slow Food movement is finally having an impact.