Dank Burrito is not your typical burrito joint

Dank Burrito takes a chef-centric approach to all its  street food-inspired dishes.  They combine global flavors  with fine-dining techniques to make new kinds of burritos, bowls, and tacos in a fast-casual atmosphere.

Dank Burrito offers a delicious departure from usual Tex-Mex offerings. Clarke Merrell, owner and head chef of Dank Burrito, saw burritos as an area ripe for flavor innovation.

The chefs at Dank take culinary inspirations from regions within the U.S. as well as from around the globe.

“We say, ‘basic is boring’ and  we try to disregard what you expect to make what you’ll love,” Clarke said. “We really just use tacos and burritos as a vehicle to deliver global flavors to our diners.”

The team takes their favorite international street-food flavors and delivers them to customers in the form of high-quality tacos and burritos they call “flavor bombs”, creating truly unique dining experiences each time.

“When customers eat a burrito with buffalo chicken, it’s something they’ve never experienced and something they’ll appreciate, and even crave,” said Clarke. “That’s what our brand is about, trying the unexpected.”

The food innovators at Dank want to do for burritos what has already been done for pizza:  use non-traditional ingredients and cooking techniques from different cuisines and interweave them to create items that are as unique as they are tasty.

Dank continues this theme of juxtaposition by using techniques found in fine-dining kitchens in their fast-casual environment. Each item represents a chef-designed blend of flavors and ingredients that can be tweaked to the individual customer’s liking. Each order is made fresh for that customer, not pre-prepared and stored ahead like fast food.

“What we do is not the norm for fast casual,” Clarke said. “There are no shortcuts, at all.”

The made-to-order approach at Dank is perfectly complemented by their use of only the freshest ingredients, which are prepared every day by hand. Their no-nonsense approach to food quality allows them to craft craveable gourmet items.

Dank’s Honey Truffle Buffalo Chicken burrito comes with its house-made ranch slaw in addition to Buffalo chicken, rice, beans, sour cream and cilantro, delivering the familiar flavor combo of ranch and Buffalo chicken in an entirely new, ‘craveable’ package.

For their Soy Ginger Pork burrito, the chefs marinate whole pork shoulders and slow roast them for several hours to make delicious pulled pork. The meat is then rolled together with soy ginger slaw, rice, beans, sour cream, and cilantro to create a burrito with a uniquely Asian flavor profile.

Uncompromising in both the quality of its offerings and the convenience of its delivery, Dank is possibly the only place in the country where customers can have restaurant-quality crème brûlée served to them via drive-thru.

This unmatched business practice is made possible by Dank’s talented staff.

In the restaurant business, it is sometimes hard to hold onto qualified chefs, many of whom work for a short time before moving on to open their own restaurants. This challenge has only motivated Clarke and the rest of the Dank team to improve their training process.

“Some people we have for a while, some are just passing through. But we need all those people," Clarke said. “At Dank, we’ve worked hard to systematize things. We can take a high school kid and show them how to make chef-quality food.”

Clarke and his team enjoy building up their staff and equipping them with the skills to operate under high standards of excellence.

“There’s something very rewarding about building a team and watching them perform, seeing a vision be fleshed out and executed,” Clarke said.

This method pays dividends when customers bite into their first burrito from Dank. Clarke has overheard new guests and regulars alike expressing their enjoyment of his team’s cooking while taking his lunch in Dank’s dining area.

“It really validates what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” said Clarke.

Operating from multiple locations, each Dank Burrito restaurant is decorated with the stylings of genuine graffiti artists. With interiors that bump to the sounds of ‘90s hip hop, both Dank’s one-of-a-kind food and its urban, funky aesthetic make it a memorable place to dine in, drive-thru or have delivered.

Dank Burrito is not only a local eatery, they are now a franchise and plan to open locations across the Southeast. Visit DankBurritoFranchise.com if you're interested in learning more about franchising opportunitites.