Matt and Esther's Western/Korean mash-up is a hit in their burgers (as anyone who has tried their famous "kimcheese" can attest), as well as in their love life. The Tiger Burger owners met through a mutual friend four years ago, and soon found the conversation flowed, Matt drawn to Esther's "determination and sense of humour", Esther falling for Matt's "charm and kindness". Just a few months into their relationship, they went into business together, launching Tiger Burger at streetfood markets before opening their restaurant in Grey Lynn.
Matt: Before we knew it we were prepping into the early hours of the morning after our day jobs with only each other for company. It was quite stressful as we were new to everything, but we are both quite stubborn people and kept on pushing. Those times were equally bad and good, but we learned a lot which has helped us immensely. We can work together quite well now and keep each other going through the tough times.
Esther: Matt's ambitious and a perfectionist, like me. He's persistent but also patient. He takes care of the paperwork and accounts while I manage social media and the service. We joke about it often that I'm the Asian but am terrible with numbers! We share working on the menu and prepping.
We still check in on each other regularly, but it’s great to have the divide to keep our perspectives fresh. It’s very rare to see us both out of the restaurant but when we do, it’s usually a dinner date (Monday nights if we finish making kimchi on time), where we often end up talking about Tiger Burger. It’s fine for now but we know it’s something we need to work on for the future.
Matt: It's great to be able to go through the journey together. We often joke about how Tiger Burger is our kid. It takes up our entire life at the moment and is very demanding. We're still in the thick of it all, spending every minute we have working on it so it's hard to find time to go out on a date. Living and working together combined with the long hours can lead us to get frustrated with each other over small things, but we get over things quickly, and it's usually just because Esther needs to be fed!
