INSPO
Born from engines, sketches, and a shared passion between two brothers.
Otto Burger began with the idea of turning our mother’s passion for cooking into a professional business.
The engineering and design perspective of two brothers from the automotive world came together with our mother’s passion for the kitchen.
We approached the process much like an automotive project. From professional training and kitchen processes to the brand identity and the smallest details of the restaurant, we developed everything together as a family.
To us, a car was never just a way to get from one place to another. Engines, mechanical systems, design lines and engineering solutions were always a natural part of our world.
When building our own restaurant, we did not want to leave that world behind.
That is why the Otto Burger story begins a little before the kitchen: in engines, cycles, chassis, transmissions and automotive design.
WHERE DOES OTTO COME FROM?
Otto Burger takes its name from Nikolaus August Otto, one of the most important figures in the history of the internal-combustion engine, and from the Otto cycle that carries his name.
The cycle that defines the working principle of the classic gasoline engine became the starting point for our restaurant as well.
Beef burgers were our Otto world.
The other names grew from there.
WHY DO THE BURGERS HAVE THESE NAMES?
Every burger name comes from a small connection we made between its character and the automotive world.
Some began with a technical reference, some with a wordplay, and some with a joke that originally made sense only to us.
Now you know too.
THE NAMES ON THE MENU
Otto
The burger where everything started.
The engine reference behind our beef burgers is the Otto cycle, which also gave our restaurant its name.
So our main burger could not have been called anything else:
Otto.
Macpherson
It takes its name from the MacPherson system, one of the best-known suspension layouts in the automotive world.
But there is also a small wordplay behind it.
This burger shares a few components with one of the most famous burgers in the world.
That is where the “Mac” in the name comes in.
Base
Every car is built on a foundation.
A chassis or platform is the starting point for everything that follows.
For the simplest and most direct burger on our menu, we chose the clearest possible word instead of a complicated technical name:
Base.
Kingpin
Kingpin is one of the long-standing concepts in steering and front-suspension geometry.
On the burger side, we had another association in mind.
Its ingredients shared a few similarities with one of the best-known “kings” of the burger world.
The automotive reference and the wordplay met in the same name.
Wankel
If our beef burgers belonged to the Otto world, the chicken burger needed a different engine.
That is why our first chicken burger took its name from the Wankel rotary engine, which works very differently from a conventional piston engine.
The engine changed.
So did the burger.
Neo-Wankel
After opening the restaurant, we wanted to create a new alternative to Wankel.
From the same family, but with a different interpretation.
We did not move the name too far from its roots:
Neo-Wankel.
Retarder
A retarder is an auxiliary slowing system used in trucks and other heavy commercial vehicles.
With pastırma and a fried egg inside this burger, we started joking that it felt a little like a “truck-driver burger.”
The rest came naturally.
Retarder.
Double Clutch
Two patties.
Two clutches.
Double Clutch takes its name from dual-clutch transmission technology.
Twin Scroll
Another double-patty burger.
This time, the inspiration came from twin-scroll turbo technology, which directs exhaust flow through two separate channels.
Two flows.
Two patties.
Twin Scroll.
Atkinson
Neither a classic beef patty nor chicken:
Pulled beef.
After Otto and Wankel, we moved into another engine world for our third cycle and named it after the Atkinson cycle.
Muffler
Why is our hot dog called Muffler?
Because the sausage reminded us of an exhaust pipe.
The English word for an exhaust silencer is:
Muffler.
Sometimes naming something really is that simple.
FROM SKETCH TO LOGO
The automotive story of Otto Burger did not stop with the names on the menu.
Three original sketches gifted to us by Frank Stephenson, one of the important names in automotive design, hang on the wall of our restaurant today.
To us, they are more than decoration.
They are pieces that remind us every day of our passion for cars, design and the world that led us to Otto Burger.
Frank’s support for the Otto Burger logo became another part of this story.
The sketch through which our logo was reinterpreted gradually became one of the most special parts of our visual identity.
Today, you can see the spirit of that drawing not only on our signs and screens, but also on the paper that wraps your burger.
Even the paper in your hands is part of Otto Burger’s automotive and design story.
THANK YOU, FRANK
Thank you, Frank, for the drawings on our walls, for your support with our logo, and for the mark you have left on the Otto Burger story.
All of it means a great deal to us.