Paradise Valley Burger Co., home of two burgers featured on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives, is getting ready to open a new location in Tempe at 815 East Baseline Rd.
The company’s second location will move into a shopping center at the corner of South Rural Road and East Baseline Road, according to Phoenix New Times. The new 2,100-square-foot restaurant will be 40 percent larger than the original site at 4001 East Bell Road, having a 45-person capacity. Owner Bret Shapiro hopes to open this location in mid-April 2023, with plans to celebrate with his famous 4/20 menu, featuring his famous Nugs, sugar and spice-dusted deep-fried brussels sprouts, and Pre-Rolls, or southwest egg rolls.
“We’re not showing up (in Tempe) with any past awards or credentials,” Shapiro tells Phoenix New Times. “We’re just going to do it the way we always do it, one hamburger at a time.
Shapiro opened Paradise Valley Burger Company 12 years ago before eventually gaining the attention of Guy Fieri in 2015 when the restaurant was featured on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives. Two burgers stood out to the mayor of Flavortown: the Country Fried Burger, made with lightly fried beef, jalapeño and thyme reduction, and fried onion, and the Booze Burger, made with beer-battered patties topped with green chile bacon vodka cream sauce and whiskey pickled jalapeños. Now that the business has survived the pandemic, Shapiro is ready to expand, this time in a territory he knows very well.
“I’m very familiar with the area, which is important to me,” Shapiro tells the publication, referring to when he spent time with his older brother, who went to Arizona State University. “When he graduated from ASU, I felt like I graduated too. It’s a blue-collar crowd willing to spend a few extra bucks for better quality.”
