Umami Burger Announces Two-Year Exclusive Partnership With Impossible Foods

Impossible Foods will be the exclusive plant-based product at Umami Burger locations nationwide and at the world-famous Delano Hotel in South Beach

News provided by

sbe

Jul 10, 2018, 14:58 ET

LOS ANGELES, July 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Umami Burger, the world-renowned premium burger brand, is expanding its partnership with Impossible Foods. The startup's flagship product, the Impossible Burger, is now the exclusive plant-based burger at all 22 Umami Burger locations in the USA.

In addition, Umami Burger's parent company, sbe, is making the Impossible Burger the exclusive plant-based burger at the Delano Hotel and Beach Club. The South Florida resort includes the award-winning restaurant Leynia, managed by Chef Jose Icardi.

Umami Burger launched the Impossible Burger in May 2017, and it remains one of the top items on the menu. Umami has created several additional versions of the Impossible Burger, appealing to a wide variety of clients and attracting new customers to restaurants coast to coast.

Looking to the future for the Umami x Impossible partnership, Sam Nazarian, Founder & CEO of sbe, stated: "Umami Burger and Delano Hotel South Beach are thrilled to continue to drive culinary innovation with our partner Impossible Foods with new products for the market and our guests. We are excited to continue building a stronger relationship with Impossible Foods – bringing the plant-based meat to the domestic Umami Burger locations and to our award-winning Delano South Beach food and beverage program. sbe's Culinary Innovation Lab headed by our Chief Culinary Officer Martin Heierling with the incredible team at Impossible Foods will continue to collaborate to create new unique options for our customers."

Umami Burger has sold over 140,000 Impossible Burgers to date, averaging 2,100 burgers per week. From the limited release of Jaden's Impossible Trio partnership with Jaden Smith last fall to the launch of three new Impossible Burgers this spring, the partnership has been a tremendous success for Umami Burger and Impossible Foods.

"Our partnership with Umami Burger proves that demand for the Impossible Burger starts strong and stays strong," said Stephanie Lind, Senior Vice President of Global Sales of Impossible Foods. "Umami Burger's leadership also demonstrates an exceptional sense of innovation, managing to surprise and delight customers with delicious, new Impossible offerings."

The Impossible Burger has played a key role in the Umami brand's growth and menu expansion over the past year. In addition to the Impossible Burger, Umami Burger launched five new menu items in June featuring four new salads and crispy lollipop chicken wings. The featured salads include The Tuna Poke & Wasabi Caesar Salad, Roasted Beet & Herb Salad, Pulled Asian Chicken Salad, and the New Style Taco Salad that all deliver serious flavor to the health-conscious diner. The Crispy Lollipop Chicken Wings are available in Buffalo or BBQ and come with a jalapeno ranch that adds that extra kick!

Designed to please even the most dedicated meat lovers, the Impossible Burger is the world's first and only burger that handles, cooks and most importantly tastes like ground beef from cows — but is made from plants with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. The Impossible Burger generates about 87% fewer greenhouse gases and uses 75% less water, and it requires about 95% less land than conventional ground beef. Produced without hormones, antibiotics, cholesterol or artificial flavors, the Impossible Burger is nutritious, delicious and a meat-lover's dream.

For more information on Umami Burger visit umamiburger.com or follow @umamiburger or #umamiburger on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

ABOUT UMAMI BURGER:
Founded in Los Angeles in 2009, Umami Burger has been named GQ's "Burger of the Year," Men's Journal's "Best Burger in America" and one of the "25 Most Innovative Consumer Brands of 2016" by Forbes' CircleUp25. Currently, Umami Burger has 22 restaurants in California, New York, Illinois, Nevada, and Japan with additional locations planned around the world. sbe, the leading lifestyle hospitality company that develops, manages and operates award-winning hospitality venues, is Umami Burger's majority shareholder. For more information on Umami Burger, please visit umamiburger.com or follow @umamiburger or #umamiburger on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

ABOUT IMPOSSIBLE FOODS:
Based in Redwood City, California, Impossible Foods makes delicious, nutritious meat and dairy products directly from plants -- with a much smaller environmental footprint than those produced from animals. The privately held company was founded in 2011 by Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., formerly a biochemistry professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Stanford University. Investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, UBS, Viking Global Investors, Open Philanthropy Project and Temasek. More information:

ABOUT sbe:
Established in 2002 by Founder and CEO Sam Nazarian, sbe is a privately-held, leading lifestyle hospitality company that develops, manages and operates award-winning hotels, residences, restaurants and nightclubs. Through exclusive partnerships with cultural visionaries, sbe is devoted to creating extraordinary experiences throughout its proprietary brands with a commitment to authenticity, sophistication, mastery and innovation. Following the acquisition of Morgans Hotel Group, the pioneer of boutique lifestyle hotels, in partnership with The Yucaipa Companies and Cain International (formerly Cain Hoy), sbe has an unparalleled global portfolio which will see 25 hotels and over 170 global world-renowned culinary, nightlife and entertainment venues by the end of 2018. The company is uniquely positioned to offer a complete lifestyle experience - from nightlife, food & beverage and entertainment to hotels and residences, and through its innovative customer loyalty and rewards program, The Code, as well as its award-winning international real estate development subsidiary, Dakota Development - all of which solidify sbe as the preeminent leader across hospitality. The company's established and upcoming hotel brands include SLS Hotel & Residences, Delano, Mondrian, The Redbury, Hyde Hotel & Residences, and The Originals. In addition, sbe has the following internationally acclaimed restaurants and lounges under subsidiary Disruptive Restaurant Group: Katsuya by Chef Katsuya Uechi, Umami Burger, Cleo by Chef Danny Elmaleh, Fi'lia by Michael Schwartz, Leynia and Diez & Seiz by Chef José Icardi, Hyde Lounge, S Bar, Doheny Room Skybar, Bond, and Privilege. To learn more, watch sbe's #thisisbeyond video and visit sbe.com