Restaurant owners praise YouTube sensation MrBeast for helping them survive the pandemic

MrBeast (aka YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson) has been quietly supporting the restaurant industry as it recovers from the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic through his virtual dining room concept.

DailyMail.com spoke exclusively to three restaurant owners in different areas of the US who signed with MrBeast Burger during the pandemic and were floored by the immense and immediate success of the partnership.

“We’re getting orders all day,” a restaurateur in North Dakota said of operating a MrBeast burger. “It still amazes me.”

The virtual space, which launched in December 2020, is a delivery platform serving MrBeast’s signature menu of burgers and fries, operating out of existing restaurant kitchens in partnership with Virtual Dining Concepts.

‘We were looking for ways to increase sales. So I took a chance in the dark and signed up for MrBeast,” Dale Zimmerman told DailyMail.com. “I thought that was a cool name for a burger.”

Zimmerman owns and operates peacock alleylocated in Bismarck, North Dakota which is the oldest restaurant and bar in the state.

Through his brand MrBeast, Jimmy Donaldson, a 24-year-old philanthropist, has become one of the world’s most popular YouTube and social media stars with 139 million YouTube subscribers.

Still, his target demo is much younger than the three business owners DailyMail.com spoke to and none of them had ever heard of the digital prodigy that would end up helping their restaurants succeed.

Jonathan Donnelly, the owner of Lucky’s Sandwich Co. in Chicago, Illinois, he had been working in virtual kitchens outside of his business since before the pandemic. When stay-at-home orders shut down the country, he was running 20 virtual kitchens at a time just to pay his staff and rent.

In neighboring Bowling Green, Ohio, Scott Daily and his wife bought their restaurant, bg burgers‘hours’ before the president effectively shut down the entire country over COVID-19.

‘We were looking for ways to increase sales. So I took a chance in the dark and signed up for MrBeast,” Dale Zimmerman told DailyMail.com. “I thought that was a cool name for a burger.”

A year later, Daily teamed up with MrBeast and noticed an instant difference. “It was a godsend,” Daily said. ‘It’s crazy how much more business we have.

From coast to coast, the restaurant industry has been turned upside down, and while it’s hard to quantify, the National Restaurant Association estimate in 2021 that 90,000 restaurants closed due to the coronavirus.

Enter Mr Beast Burger. Donnelly described running the virtual kitchen almost like running a franchise. There’s no dine-in, so MrBeast fans order from a very simple menu via an app and have it delivered, all while the brick-and-mortar place can run as usual.

That means MrBeast Burger orders help infuse much-needed cash into independent restaurants that have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic.

‘It immediately exploded. If you start any kind of virtual cooking, you really have to give yourself sort of a 6-12 week cushion,” explained Jonathan Donnelly. “When you ran any of his social media stuff or any special, you could see it right away.”

‘It immediately exploded. If you start any kind of virtual cooking, you really have to give yourself sort of a 6-12 week cushion,” Donnelly explained. “When you ran any of his social media stuff or any special, you could see it right away.”

“It really took off and I’ve never had a virtual kitchen do as much as this one,” he continued, adding that he now only operates about 5 out of 20. “I just took the best of the best.”

‘It immediately exploded. If you start any kind of virtual cooking, you really have to give yourself sort of a 6-12 week cushion,” Donnelly explained. “When you ran any of his social media stuff or any special, you could see it right away.”

It was also an easy menu to execute for Scott Daily, whose restaurant is also a burger joint, so he was already ordering and using most of the ingredients.

The experiences of the three restaurant owners echoed each other: None of them could believe how quickly and consistently MrBeast burgers were flying out the door.

“I have no idea who MrBeast is,” Zimmerman recalls thinking at the time. “So, we checked in and it was like this. Crazy. I couldn’t believe it.

‘We would have as little children, like seven, eight years [who] they’d come over with their grandparents and say, “Is this where MrBeast burgers are made?”

‘MrBeast is a great guy and he doesn’t need to get involved in the restaurant business you know? He has already made his fortune from it,” said Scott Daily. ‘[He] It gives people like me, you know, struggling restaurant owners, it gives us a way to leverage their good name and their good brand and it helps us.’ [Pictured: a MrBeast waiter at BeastBurger in NewJersey in 2022]

In fact, Scott Daily said he’s even seen kids waiting for their MrBeast burgers break down in tears when they finally got their food.

‘MrBeast is a great guy and he doesn’t need to get involved in the restaurant business you know? He has already made his fortune from it,” Daily added. ‘[He] It gives people like me, you know, struggling restaurant owners, it gives us a way to leverage their good name and their good brand and it helps us.’

Shortly after its launch in 2020, the MrBeast Burger app was the most downloaded app on iTunes and Google Play and became one of the top five most popular Google searches.

Robbie Earl, President of Virtual Dining Concepts, said: ‘It’s amazing what a great business we’ve been able to build together with Jimmy. He is a force!

When the first brick-and-mortar Beast Burger opened at the American Dream mall in New Jersey, 20,000 fans showed up and slept through the night just to check it out.

To date, the concept has served 10 million sandwiches and according to MrBeast, its delivery platform is aiming to have 2,280 live locations by the end of this year with plans for more international locations in 2024 and 2025.

Wow! When the first traditional Beast Burger opened at the American Dream mall in New Jersey, 20,000 fans showed up and slept through the night just to check it out.