Linda Falkenstein
The fish sandwich is a panko-encrusted haddock.
It was a few grocery shopping trips ago when I noticed that there was a Wahlburgers inside the East Washington Avenue Hy-Vee.
This was both mystifying and exciting. Why was there a Wahlburgers inside of Hy-Vee and why hadn’t I heard about it? I told other people I know! I received the same response from them all (and it may be your response too at reading this now): “What’s a Wahlburgers?”
Wahlburgers is a boutique burger chain that first opened in Hingham, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, in 2011. Unlike other boutique burger chains, this one was started by some famous people — Donnie Wahlberg (from ’80s hip-hop group New Kids on the Block, and currently acting in the self-righteous CBS drama Blue Bloods) and his even more famous brother Mark Wahlberg (of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, Calvin Klein underwear commercials, and films including Ted) — along with their chef brother, Paulie.
In 2014, a reality series about the restaurant, also called Wahlburgers, started running on the A&E network. At some point during its 10 seasons, I watched more than a few episodes. The storylines often play on the gap between the star brothers and the aw-shucks everyman persona of brother Paul. The fourth main character is their mother, a south side Boston matriarch.
My real attraction to the show is that I love listening to real Boston accents. “I like to be in chaaahhhhge,” says mother Alma. “I don’t take no crap, you know.”
Franchising of the burger joints began the same year as the television show. There are now 71 Wahlburgers in 22 states, Australia, Canada and Germany, 39 of which are located inside Hy-Vee grocery stores. Seventeen out of the 18 Wahlburgers in Iowa (Hy-Vee’s home state) are in Hy-Vees; all seven Wahlburgers in Missouri are in Hy-Vees. One, in Tennessee, is in a Bass Pro Shops outpost, and the one in Germany is at an American Air Force base. Aside from a few other locations in airports, the rest are standalone brick-and-mortar restaurants, including one in Milwaukee and one in Brookfield.
The Madison-area Hy-Vee Wahlburgers, at the East Wash location and also the store on McKee Road in Fitchburg, both opened Oct. 12, 2021, says Janelle Grunwald of the Hy-Vee communications department. They opened quietly, Grunwald confirms. “There was some promotion in our own ads,” she says, but the grocery store didn’t push out the opening as they might have if it weren’t for ongoing concerns about COVID-19.
Linda Falkenstein
The order counter at Wahlburgers within the east Madison Hy-Vee.
The Wahlburgers at Hy-Vee ordering counter is near the seating area that has been the site of Hy-Vee’s eat-in Market Grille concept, where customers can bring in deli dishes, sushi or prepared Chinese food from the store. (They still can.) A bar is located on one side of the room with several big screens. Once customers order at the counter, food can be taken to-go or they can be seated in the dining area and the food will be delivered to the table.
The Wahlburgers concept falls somewhere between a Culver’s and an Applebee’s-type sit-down restaurant. The range of choices is smaller than an Applebee’s, but more wide-ranging than, say, Shake Shack, with more appetizer and salad options. Like Shake Shack, there are ice cream drinks. There are also skillet chocolate chip cookies and “Grandma’s Apple Crisp.” Unlike Shake Shack, the burger patties are not smashed thin and crisped on the grill; they’re a plumper, diner style.
Prices are in line with a Shake Shack or an Applebee’s for the classic burgers ($11-$13); included in the cost is choice of a side, from french fries, tots, sweet potato tots, or thin crispy onion rings. The “bigger burgers and sides” (larger patties or double burgers) are $15; a plant-based Impossible burger is also $15. Most burgers come with “Wahl” sauce, which, like McDonald’s special sauce, seems to be based on a ketchup/mayo blend, although the Wahlburger secret may be a squirt of sriracha.
There are also plenty of appetizers (including wings, jalapeno wontons, fried pickles, chili cheese fries, nachos), six salads, and several sandwiches — “Mom’s sloppy joe,” a chicken and a spicy chicken sandwich, and a fish filet.
Linda Falkenstein
Wahlburgers visuals center on the Wahlberg brothers' youth in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
For those who dine in, fries and onion rings come in a stainless steel mini-fry basket lined with a wax wrap decorated with an image of the classic south Boston triple-decker apartment building and a map showing the Ashmont stop on the Boston subway system, the Wahlberg's old stomping grounds. Placemats continue the same motif. The local references don’t stop there; the panko-breaded haddock in the fish sandwich is not unlike the filet found in the “Fishamajig” from the east coast chain Friendly’s.
Grunwald, of Hy-Vee, says that the grocery may start shining more light on the Wahlburgers presence in-store. Several events, including a kids-eat-free promotion this month, and a “daddy/daughter date night,” have been quite successful, she says.
