A Cambridge restaurant owner says he’s been getting some strange requests lately.
"We have received several messages from folks saying: 'I need $5,000' or 'I need $700,000 for a house.' These are things that Jimmy has done in the past," explained Michael Faria. "But we are not in a position to do that."
Jimmy, being Jimmy Donaldson, better known to most as Mr. Beast. He has about 200 million YouTube subscribers and become famous for his philanthropy. Donaldson has given away wads of cash to his subscribers and even random people on the street.
He’s also been referred to as a marketing genius.
One of his side businesses is Mr. Beast Burger, which allows ghost kitchens to use his name recognition to sell the smash burgers made famous through his YouTube channel.
"[Mr. Beast] seems like a really awesome guy," said Nancy Faria, Michael’s sister and manager of their downtown Cambridge restaurant Siebra. "I heard he’s always donating money and he’s donated to charities as well."
The social media star has given away an island, iPhones instead of candy on Halloween, and luxury vacations. He also gets clicks for performing crazy stunts.
Mr. Beast Burger is Donaldson’s most popular side gig.
Its business model veers away from the traditional sit-down restaurant. Mr. Beast Burger operates as a virtual dining concept, in roughly 2,000 ghost kitchens across North America. At most locations the menu can only be purchased through delivery apps.
"[Mr. Beast] wanted to help mom and pop restaurants who were struggling at the time and he thought of this virtual dining [concept]," said Faria.
"We let [the owner] keep a majority of the revenue, and basically it’s a win-win for restaurants. Especially when COVID-19 first hit, it was huge for restaurants because I was pushing it really hard back then," Donaldson explained on 'The Joe Rogan Experience' podcast.
That’s where Faria said he first heard of the virtual dining concept and wanted to be a part of it.
Faria opened Siebra after the initial wave of COVID-19, which played a big factor in his decision.He admits, however, business is very temperature-dependent. Faria said the Water Street restaurant picks up a lot of foot traffic during the warmer months but often sees less once the cold winter weather hits.
"I reached out, and luckily, Cambridge was available. They have territory. There is one in Kitchener, there is one in Guelph," Faria explained.
After the staff at Siebra completed Donaldson’s online training program, they were ready to go.
The Siebra kitchen now doubles as a ghost kitchen for Mr. Beast Burgers using their recipes and very specific ingredients.
"We couldn’t find the buns anywhere in Canada, so we actually reached out our local Zehrs and they bake it for us," Faria said.
The menu is available for delivery only, but the Siebra team is working to make it more available.
Thanks to Mr. Beast’s online popularity, they are just trying to keep up with demand.
"We've been so busy," Faria admitted.
He said there are so many orders that they run out of ingredients early in the dayand are often forced to stopped offering the Mr. Beast menu.
