Picture this: a mouthwatering burger with two, two-ounce patties of ground beef, a thick juicy tomato, grilled onions, pickles, cheese and lettuce all stacked together between two toasted buns.
This is what former Arkadelphian and Ouachitonian Kyle Pounders created after coming up with the very profitable idea of Excaliburger.
Excaliburger is a food truck in Little Rock owned and run by Pounders, who was very meticulous when creating the feature item of his business.
“What burger are people going to be into? How am I going to beat everybody else? How am I going to build a good reputation and build a big name for myself and do something that’s better than what everybody else has been doing or is currently doing? What can I bring to the market place?” Pounders said.
Founders set out to create the perfect burger.
“I just went line by line through the entire hamburger and said, ‘ok what’s my favorite type of lettuce, what’s my favorite type of tomato,’” Pounders said.
After thinking through this, Pounders decided on the ingredients that would make what he considers to be “the perfect classic American hamburger.”
However, Pounders realizes that his burgers will not be everyone’s first choice.
“I’m not pretentious enough to think that I’ve created the world’s most perfect hamburger for everybody,” Pounders said.
Many do consider the Excaliburger to be the best hamburger around, though.
“I do know that it’s some people’s favorite hamburger. We’ve got two people already who have Excaliburger tattoos,” Pounders said.
Although some might think that creating this perfect burger and the Excaliburger business was easy for Pounders, it took a lot of time and effort on his part.
“I’ve always been a dreams guy,” Pounders said.
So, after coming up with several ideas, Pounders decided to pursue the one that seemed most profitable. He chose Excaliburger. Excaliburger is symbolic of the legendary Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur. Every hamburger served by Pounders has a silver knife stuck in it, just as the Excalibur was stuck in the stone.
After coming up with the punny idea came the hard part.
Pounders first needed financial aid to gain the equipment and, most importantly, a food truck. Pounders was very grateful to a doctor friend who believed in him enough to contribute. With a check in hand, Pounders began searching for what he needed.
Although he did find a food truck, the next three years would become the longest and most difficult time while creating Excaliburger. He spent this time renovating the truck.
“The thought of Excaliburger got me depressed,” Pounders said.
It seemed like every time he was fixing something on the truck, something else would catch his eye that needed repairing. Despite these difficulties, Pounders pushed through.
“There was no way for me to get out of this. It had to succeed. It had to do well,” Pounders said.
Pounders felt so strongly about this because he did not want to ruin his reputation with the friend who contributed to his idea.
“Reputation is everything. Guard it with your life,” Pounders said.
Not only did his reputation empower him to make it through the hard times of starting his business, it remains a significant part of running his business.
“It was kind of cool. Recently, I got to feed…Eric Church,” Pounders said.
Because he was feeding someone famous, he was extremely cautious and wanted everything to turn out just right, if not better.
“So, I’m really, really focusing, trying to do the burger better than I’ve ever done before. And I get done making the burger, and I kid you not, I kind of surprised myself in the best of ways when I realized, looking at the burger, that I did absolutely nothing different. I tried to build him a better burger than I build everybody else, and I couldn’t do it. And the reason I couldn’t do it was because that’s how I treat everybody,” Pounders said.
He wants to treat everyone who comes to his business the exact same, and he believes that the reputation of his establishment will be upheld if he does so. Pounders also believes that this is especially important in today’s world.
“Everyone’s a food critic. Everyone’s posting pictures. So, [with] every single burger, [we’ve] got to step up that game,” Pounders said.
Pounders has tried to “step up” practically every part of his business, which includes knowing where his beef, vegetables and buns come from. He has enjoyed creating and developing each aspect of Excaliburger.
“I’m getting to write DNA into a business. I’m laying a foundation [for] what this house is going to look like,” Pounders said.
When it comes to the future of Excaliburger and his dreams, Pounders has some interesting ideas.
“I would love to raise my own cattle. That’s not a professional dream so much as a personal dream, but I think that would be cool. Have a house on some land and some cows and be like, ‘yeah, I raise all the cows for Excaliburger. Beat that, McDonalds,’” Pounders said.
However, right now, Pounders is living his dream.
“…This is what I wanted to do. Six years old, all I wanted was an Easy Bake Oven. That’s the only thing I wanted for Christmas. And they didn’t have them tailored to guys back then. They were pink and purple. It was a girl’s toy, but I didn’t care. I wanted an Easy Bake Oven. I wanted to cook,” Pounders said.
So on your next trip to Little Rock, stop by the food truck, say hi to a former Ouachita student and get yourself an Excaliburger.
– Ethan Dial, staff writer
