Umami Burger Debuts Famed 'Impossible Burger' At Multiple West Coast Locations

This Spring, the plant-based burger will be on menus at nine Umami Burger locations in Los Angeles County

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May 17, 2017, 14:00 ET

LOS ANGELES, May 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Umami Burger introduces the Impossible Burger to its West Coast locations in partnership with Impossible Foods on May 18, becoming the first and only multiple location restaurant group to feature the famous plant-based burger in the Los Angeles area. Available at nine Umami Burger locations, the restaurants include Santa Monica, Broadway, Arts District, Hollywood, Los Feliz, Costa Mesa, Anaheim, Pasadena, and Thousand Oaks.

Jump-starting the gourmet burger trend by featuring premium ingredients and an extensive cocktail, beer, and wine selection in a casual setting, Umami Burger is a brand that remains ahead of the curve. Constantly striving to disrupt the market, Umami Burger brings together partners from the arts and design, to food and beverage, to pop culture and celebrity, inclusive of Cindy Crawford, Mindy Kaling, and Alton Brown.

"We are constantly innovating and expanding Umami Burger's menu options, trendsetting, and introducing our guests to new, umami-rich flavor combinations," states Sam Nazarian, Founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based sbe and Umami Burger's majority shareholder. "Through our partnership with Impossible Foods, Umami Burger will continue to provide guests with creative options that stick to the brand's differentiating taste and ambitious standards for quality."

The term "umami", coined by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda in the early 20th century, roughly translates to "deliciousness." Often called the "fifth taste" after salty, sweet, sour, and bitter, umami delivers the meaty, soul-satisfying intensity in foods such as seared beef, soy sauce, and mushrooms.

"Seventy years after Southern California popularized the burger and made it America's favorite food, Umami Burger ignited the 'better burger' trend and helped it spread worldwide," said Impossible Foods CEO and founder Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D. "Together, Impossible Foods and Umami Burger can keep the West Coast on the cusp of global food and restaurant trends."

Umami Burger's Impossible Burger comes with two patties, caramelized onions, American cheese, miso-mustard, house spread, dill pickles, lettuce, and tomato, priced at $16.00.

The Impossible Burger is the world's only burger that looks, handles, smells, cooks, and tastes like ground beef from cows - but is made entirely from plants, with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. Using roughly 75% less water, generating about 87% fewer greenhouse gases and requiring around 95% less land than conventional ground beef from cows, the Impossible Burger is produced without hormones, antibiotics, cholesterol, or artificial flavors.

Following the Impossible Burger launch at Umami Burger's Los Angeles County locations, the Impossible Burger will debut in more fine-dining restaurants and multi-unit chains throughout the United States. After the Oakland facility is fully ramped up, the company plans to launch Impossible Burger in retail outlets and key regions internationally. In addition to the Impossible Burger, the company is developing additional types of plant-based meats, dairy products, and cheeses.

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 25 restaurants in California, New York, Illinois, Nevada and Japan with additional locations planned around the world, including nine more locations in Japan. sbe, the Los Angeles-based 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.

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, sbe has an unparalleled global portfolio featuring 23 world-class lifestyle hotel properties in 9 attractive gateway markets and more than 136 global world-renowned hotel, entertainment and food & beverage outlets. 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. sbe will continue its expansion with 13 hotel properties opening in the next two years (some with residences), including SLS Baha Mar, SLS Seattle, Mondrian Doha and Mondrian Dubai. The company's established and upcoming hotel brands include SLS Hotel & Residences, Delano, Mondrian, Redbury, Hyde Hotel & Residences, Clift, Hudson, Morgans, Royalton, Sanderson and St Martins Lane. In addition, sbe has the following internationally acclaimed restaurants and lounges: Katsuya, Cleo, The Bazaar by José Andrés, Fi'lia by Michael Schwartz, Umami Burger, Hyde Lounge and Skybar. More information about sbe can be obtained at sbe.com.