The Lebanese Burger Mafia
Writer/Director/Producer - Omar Mouallem
Duration: 103 minutes
Screening at Hot Docs Film Festival - April 27-May 7, 2023
The Lebanese Burger Mafia documentary is an entertaining, funny and confusing tale of the Alberta based and mostly Lebanese run fast food burger chain called the Burger Baron.
It was literally the Wild West of Burger joints. Multiple owners claimed they started the burger chain Burger Baron. It was passed around like a cheap penny. They were known for their popular mushroom sauce which was a lot simpler than you might think.
Lebanese families who migrated to the western provinces were brought in to run various locations. Each one doing it their way. It was run the exact opposite of how a franchise would operate with each location having different logos, signage, design, and menus.
All the while it was originally created by a man named Jack McDonnell, (not Lebanese).
The documentary is told through the filmmaker Omar Mouallem who is part of the family of one of these Burger Barons.
It's a crazy look at how newcomers try and live their Canadian dreams while battling it out between different families.
It will make you want a burger after you see this film. 
It seemed as though the Burger Baron story became an Urban Legend at some point. Many of the locations have closed but some were able to try and organize and survive the proliferation of burger joints all through the Canadian west.
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