Mark Ghopros is the founder and owner of Zeal Burgers on Main St., and he exudes both those traits, he overflows with enthusiasm as he talks about how he created Zeal, how he came up with all the recipes and the pride in the quality of ingredients he uses.

Let’s start at the beginning…Mark spent his youth working in the family landmark burger joint in Scarborough, he went on to get an education in Hotel Management and continued to work in the hospitality industry in various restaurants and hotels, learning the ins and outs and picking up all the pointers he could.

But something was missing…he needed to do more, he wanted to see his childhood dream come to fruition. Fast forward and now we’re talking about his zeal (see what I did there?) for his own business!

The Main St. shop opened in December 2019 and is the second location for Zeal Burgers, the first being in Toronto’s west end.

Mark’s philosophy is simple, he’s not trying to reinvent the burger, just perfect it. And given the lineup when I went recently, he might just have accomplished that!

When he took the plunge to open his own shop, he wanted to go back to the beginning, to the way they made burgers in the old-style burger places. Fresh ingredients, everything is done in-house, no frozen or pre-prepared anything. He uses only AAA steak and double grinds it all in-house each day. (He said he once received a shipment of AA steak and refused to open the store…he will not sacrifice quality when it comes to his customers.)

There are 3 pillars to Mark’s business:

A great guest experience – he wants you to know that he appreciates you choosing his restaurant. Food and beverage quality – no sacrifices here…only fresh, high quality, personally selected (by Mark) ingredients. The atmosphere or vibe of the store – when you enter, you are immediately made to feel welcome by Holly at the desk, she is as friendly and helpful as they come and is in her element serving customers. The store is open concept by design, so you can see the care the team takes when preparing your food. You see the beef come out of the refrigerator and put right on the grill, sprinkled with a dash of kosher salt and then smashed double spatula style to just the right thickness. Nothing goes on the grill until you order it, they do not do fast food, they do quality food.

All the unique sauces are his own recipes, all made from scratch in-house. There are several burgers to choose from and if you just can’t decide, you are welcome to design your own using the BYOC (Be Your Own Chef) menu. Try the “Bleu Z” burger, for the secret blue cheese lover in you, then there’s the burgers inspired by European flavours, as well as North American and South American influences, plus more. Everyone’s covered, you’ll drool while perusing the menu to decide which will be your choice. Go wild and try a different taste each visit. The meat is gluten-free so if you need a gluten-free bun, just ask when you order your burger and you can dress it up however you want. And the fries…don’t forget the fries especially the Chef’s Poutine, again, all made fresh daily. He’s got a few things up his sleeve that are up and coming, don’t tell him I told you, but watch for his vegan burger coming soon.