Big Dave’s Burger Emporium in North Dallas now serving burgers

As well as fries and onion rings.

Having a burger place is something Dave Barret always wanted to do. But it took a broken ankle to finally push the A&M grad over the edge and open Big Dave's Burger Emporium on Arapaho Road eight months ago.

"I've always been involved in restaurants and the kitchen and cookouts since I was growing up," Barret says. "I'm still young, I'm about to turn 30. But it wasn't until after I broke my ankle, and I was on the couch for four months, that I decided to do the research to find something like this and say, 'I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring.' I said, 'I'm young and now's the time to take the chance'."

He chose the Addison area because he knew it had an established lunch crowd. "I grew up in Denton, my dad worked at the Addison Airport for years, so I knew this area," he says.

The concept for Dave's was to "keep the menu simple and do it right." That meant: burger, cheeseburger, mushroom-Swiss burger, BBQ burger, southwest burger, black bean burger, hot dog, and grilled chicken sandwich. He gets his black bean burger from his distributor, along with his fries and onion rings, while he gets his rolls from La Spiga, the excellent North Dallas bakery.

He's just added a turkey burger as well as a "steakhouse burger," which has A1 sauce, onion rings, and cheddar cheese. People tell him he has the best burgers ever, and he knows why:

"They're flame broiled -- nobody else does that open grill," he says. "Cooked to order over an open flame, from rarest to most well done -- big fat awesome backyard burgers you can't wait to have."