When you think of Melbourne burgers, there are few places more ubiquitous than Royal Stacks. The fast food franchise founded by Lebanese-Australian restaurateur Dani Zeini has exploded since its humble start in Melbourne’s outer southeast, now boasting 10 locations across the state, including the world-famous MCG.
For Dani, the journey has been filled with calculated risks, bets on himself, and tireless work behind the scenes. The payoff has been a thriving community of burger-loving customers across Melbourne and a host of high-profile friends of Royal Stacks, including UFC champion Alex Volkanovski and hoops legend Shaquille O’Neal.
“Shaquille O'Neal visiting the store was probably the most surreal moment of my career—he wore a jacket with my logo and ate my burgers—it was unbelievable,” Dani told Complex AU.
“Shaq’s also an amazing person. We did a meet-and-greet, and he went above and beyond with kids, especially one kid battling cancer. He still checks in with that child’s mum, which is so heartwarming.”
The first Royal Stacks store opened in 2016, but the journey began long before. In 2010, Dani owned and operated The Dandenong Pavilion—affectionately known by locals as “The Pav.”
“Before 2010, all my culinary training was European. American food wasn’t really on the radar back then,” Dani says.
“Then I went to the States for the first time and had some of the burgers there. It blew my mind. I thought, ‘What the hell is this?’ Before that, burgers here were mostly from the fish and chip shop or McDonald’s.
“It wasn’t just the burgers that impressed me; it was also the high-level service. The burger wasn’t treated as an afterthought. When I got back to Melbourne, I jumped into the kitchen and told the team, ‘We’ve got to start experimenting with this.’”
That started a covert operation from within “The Pav”, working on burgers alongside the existing menu. It didn’t take long for the secret to spread, and soon “The Pav” was one of Melbourne’s hottest new burger spots.
“We start building a bit of a following. Then a couple of bloggers came, and eventually, The Age wrote an article naming us the best burger in Melbourne. The next day, there were lines out the door. And that’s how the journey started,” Dani says.
“Being from Dandenong, which wasn’t known for food culture, we managed to create a family restaurant that started drawing people from Narre Warren, Berwick, and Glen Waverley. Back then, nobody was going to Dandenong to eat. I’m proud we changed that.”
Once demand reached fever pitch, Dani saw little choice but to take his burgers to the biggest culinary stage in the city: Melbourne’s CBD. Taking on an enormous 230 square metre space on the famed Collins Street, the first Royal Stacks opened in 2016 to a line snaking down the road.
“People said we were only successful in Dandenong because we were a ‘big fish in a small pond,’ so I wanted to prove it wasn’t a fluke. I took that challenge to Collins Street, went above and beyond what a burger restaurant was supposed to be, and it was received really well.”
That sort of mentality has helped build Royal Stacks into the culinary culture-setter that it is. But like any business success story, Dani didn’t build the Royal Stacks empire solely through cooking burgers and shaking hands with celebrities.
“The key thing is understanding how much unpaid work restaurant owners do. You can have the best business plan and product, but success often comes from showing up every day,” he says.
“Historically, the places that thrived—like your local pizza or fish and chip shop—had owners who sacrificed. They missed family events, worked on Christmas, and put in the unpaid hours. You’ve got to be prepared for that.
“Consistency is everything. Some days you’ll make money, some days you won’t. And you can’t make your customers feel like they’re in a business. Restaurants are about creating an experience, and your customers shouldn’t feel the stress you’re under.”
Royal Stacks has grown tenfold since its first opening day on Collins Street, but that doesn’t mean the journey has been all smooth sailing. In the middle of 2019, the company took a huge step into China with branches in Chongqing, Beijing and Shenzhen.
But the challenges of translating the Melbourne burger brand to an overseas audience, coupled with the pandemic, scuttled the expansion before it had the chance to take off.
“I’ve been naïve at times. You don’t know what you don’t know, and I went into it thinking, ‘If I can do it, anyone can.’ But international expansion, like in China, was an eye-opener. It was a massive learning curve, and we lost a lot of money. But I grew from the experience—it made me go from a boy to a man,” Dani says.
“Would I do China again? I’d be reluctant because international expansion is a monumental undertaking. But you learn the most from the ventures that don’t succeed.”
The confidence to take risks and the humility to learn when they don’t fully pay off is the kind of business lesson that translates across any medium—food, music, sport, fashion, you name it. And one thing that Royal Stacks has done from the jump is keep culture at its heart. Each store has a unique offering (peep the Moorabbin store for a podcast studio, available free for the community), with Dani hoping to make his franchise synonymous with the famously creative city of Melbourne.
“In terms of culture, if there's one thing I want for my brand, it’s to be culturally relevant in Melbourne. When people think of burgers, I want them to think of Royal Stacks,” he says.
“We do things the traditional way—freshly hand-rolled dough and produce sourced locally—but we also want to tap into the culture. I think we’ve managed to keep Royal Stacks relevant and in touch with that vibe."
