Learn Not to Burn Program to benefit from burger sales
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Winnie’s Restaurant & Dairy Bar’s Firehouse Burger may very well be the hottest burger in town. So hot, in fact, that partial proceeds of burger sales will benefit the Presque Isle Fire Department’s Learn Not to Burn Program.
“Each month we’ll be doing a different fundraiser for different organizations that are in the community,” said owner Mark McKenna. “My wife, Lisa, and I decided this is a way to give back.
“For the month of March, we decided that the PIFD’s Learn Not to Burn Program would be the group to benefit. It also coincides with Sparky the Firedog’s birthday,” he said, noting that he’s working to have Sparky come to Winnie’s Saturday, March 19 — Sparky’s actual birthday. “The burger of the month is called the Firehouse Burger. It’s a spicy burger with jalapeño peppers and a hot sauce. Personally I don’t like spicy things, but my staff has taste tested it. They were satisfied because we were trying to go with a medium spice, but I guess it was too mild for the customers so we kicked it up a little bit. I’m told it has an after-bite.”
McKenna said the burger is actually larger than a regular hamburger.
“Normally our burgers are quarter-pounders; these are a third-pound,” he said, “and they’re on a Kaiser roll which is a little bit bigger roll. For every Firehouse Burger that’s sold, 50 cents of that will be going to the Learn Not to Burn Program.
“We’ll be doing this primarily with burgers throughout the year. There will be a different type of burger for each non-profit organization that we select,” said McKenna. “There may be one month that we do a sandwich wrap. We’re looking at the Linus Project which provides blankets to children, so we thought a wrap as in keeping warm would make sense. We’ll probably do that in the fall when the weather gets colder.”
Because the size of the specialty burger has increased, so has its cost.
“The price is a little more than the regular burger because everything is larger,” McKenna said.
While the McKennas haven’t selected all the non-profits to receive funding for the year, they do have some ideas for the themes.
“For example, we’ll have a burger special in June for summer camps. Because there are so many camps out there (church camps, a children’s diabetes camp, etc.), people can choose which camp they want the donation to go to,” he said. “In July, we’ll most likely do something with an All-American Burger which will benefit a veterans’ group.”
McKenna said the specialty burger fundraiser is a win-win-win for everyone.
“The customers benefit because the burger is bigger and will usually feature some sort of twist like this month’s being spicy, the non-profits will benefit because they will receive a monetary donation, and hopefully the restaurant will benefit from seeing additional customers and orders,” he said. “If people want to know what the organization is each month, they can come in and visit or call to find out. We should know by the middle of the month who the next month’s beneficiary will be. It will also be appearing on our Facebook page and we will put it on our marquee, as well.”
Winnie’s Restaurant & Dairy Bar is located at 79 Parsons St., and is open from 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. seven days a week. For more information, call 769-4971.
