Hunter House Burgers w/ Allen Robinson

[Music] so we've been making our rounds in the Metro Detroit area now I'm going to take you to Burmingham Michigan to one of the best burger spots in Hunter House Burgers come on [Music] in what's up man hey welcome to Hunter House igress excited I've been coming here since since high school so that would be about 2010 2011 so oh awesome I'm looking forward it's good to be back in Detroit so I'm looking forward to chowing down we're looking forward to feeding you man welcome back we can give you some of your Nostalgia you know sounds good sounds gra we'll take care of [Music] you with me in the Trap got bones in my bag in the back all my D with here check the RO m in in myag this is where the magic happens we start with fresh ground beef comes every single day and we put patties down caramelized onions go on top sweet onions we smash them into the meat and turn them over and that caramelizes them up slice the cheese and then the bun goes on top and when we put the bun on top it steams the bun out so simple ingredients only four ingredients in a cheeseburger but there's just there's Beauty and simplicity yeah there it's enough flavor how many burgers have you say that you guys turn out like turn a day or on like a busy day on a on on an average day we'll probably burn 1,200 patties of beef that come through this store so uh on a Saturday or on a Sunday we could probably do a lot more so this is our record board there's a lot more than this that we just can't even fit on the wall but if you can impress the staff you can get on the record board so you'll notice some people like this person was a vegetarian but they decided to eat a burger they get on the record wall one of the most fun ones is a family competition between a brother and his little brother and he set a record for himself in 2009 21 hamburgers then he beat it the next year on the same day 25 double hamburgers and had 50 patties of meat his little brother tried to beat him about 10 years later but uh came far short that now so do people kind of come intentionally in here to set records or is it kind of a thing where it's like maybe they see it on the wall and like okay like I may want to do that or like how does that come about they they see it on the wall and they want to they say what can I do to impress another slept on Staple is the chili I'm a I'm a I'm a chili fries kind of guy sometimes if I'm feeling a little Saucy I'll throw some cheese on there but I just go with the chili the fries and the ketchup he Ellen long time no see what's good man good to see you man thanks for having me no problem it's it's always funny cuz it's like I'm like okay like I don't know I don't know if I should say I don't know if it's if it's if I should say Dan DG Mr geesling it's a coach it's been everything I know it's been and that's what makes it so funny cuz like coming back home you know I tell you all the time it's so many like unique stories and I and it's like every time I even like like see you or something like that it's just it's like it's like this funny like reminder of kind of like well we're sitting here right now at Hunter House Burgers and it's like if we rewind to what was that 200 2007 you know to where my freshman year orer Lake St Mary's you're my biology teacher you know so what's up man how you doing what's going on how you doing good doing what can I get for you guys can I start off with to drink I normally don't drink soda I'm gonna go with a cherry Cherry Coke yeah there you go exact same thing for me I normally don't drink pop you call it soda you You' been gone that's also that's funny man I from me going to school kind of in the Northeast area now I call it soda because everybody's like when I say pop it's like they look at you they look at me funny you know so I'm a soda guy now though I have a water and a Cherry c you got it anything to eat yeah I'll go with uh let me do two cheeseburgers you want doubles right two double cheeseburgers you know I'm going to do singles you got it I'm going to do two single cheeseburgers and an order of a chili cheese uh chili fry excuse got it I'm going to do a double cheeseburger and then your tat special whatever way you're like all right this is how we do our tots that you need to try all right that's what I want to do I got you I played football wasn't near you know I wasn't very good but as you know like football it's like when the season comes around you like you need to be doing it well went to college and I wasn't playing I'm like something's off so I went and volunteered with Michigan State football for 4 years so instead of getting in trouble partying in college I like spent all my time there like making coffee running copies whatever the coaches said so after doing that for 4 years I learned a ton of ball and then I became a graduate assistant coach which what what do you feel like your kind of love for the game of football kind of came from it's funny to me it really has nothing to do with football it has to do with everything that comes with it you know I mean you know it's like at St Mary's just be there's nothing else that I've experienced where you're around a group of guys that are giving up everything for one Collective goal and it sounds kind of hokey but it's like even now the reason I coach is two reasons one cuz the kids but two it's like you're working with grown men who all got families and are doing stuff but you're trying to accomplish something together and it's just it's really special and I know you'd experiences definitely and it's funny cuz it's like the the even for me having an in-house rivalry of Michigan State pen State you know it's always funny I tell my sister all the time one thing that I hated about my time at pen State I never got a chance to play against Michigan State well that's the thing and you know I came here like we we catch up every now and then but you know as a Michigan State guy I remember being there we were at 7 on 7 the head coaches of St at the time I'm like all right this is the time they get to see alen doing this thing I think you were Junior Summer going in senior year and like you're torching everyone and I'm like okay Now's the Time where he pulls you aside and offers and I'm like what are they waiting for I mean like for you how come you never considered inate anywhere were they just too late I think the biggest thing for me was one Michigan State at the time coach dantonio was there they were so adamant about me playing defense which to your credit you were a heck of a safety and it was like for me but it was like one of those things was like I knew my calling was going to be receiver it just was far more natural to me I understood the position and I understood kind of like okay like what I needed to do to get better in that cornerback was more so and safety was more so me kind of like learning but I think a lot of what a lot of people don't know is that when you played defense in high school I mean you didn't want to see you lining up over CU you can cover but you could also you let I tell people that people like you play you play corner you play safety it's like yeah I play corner and safety back to our freshman year now was that halfway through the through the year where you uh end up going can you tell us the whole like even how how did how did the Big Brother thing even come about so like on the sneak I'd been like applying on Big Brother it took me four years to get on so back in the day like now you just send an mp4 I would like send in like VHS tapes and they would like casting would review it so it took me four years to get on so after that season that summer going into your sophomore year they like hey you want to go and I remember sitting down with the Headmaster at the time and my concern was like I wanted to keep my job you know as a teacher cuz I loved it so he's like yeah go so I get cast on Big Brother and I've been like a lifelong fan of the game and like I'm like okay like just I'm just excited to be there and I'm like when I got there I'm looking around I'm like I'm like man I'm in trouble like really yeah oh my first day I'm like scared I would never even know about the show big brother if you were never on it so can you kind of like explain like to kind of like how the well like I guess the purpose of the show or the meaning behind the show and then how you win and you won which is even crazier yeah it's pretty wild so most people are familiar with Survivor there's you know 12 15 people competing you know you win challenges you vote people out and you win money at the end and so like I'm from Dearborn humble beginnings I'm like man I got a chance to win a half million dollars I love Survivor but like I'm 5'9 and I'm not super athletic the difference between Survivor and Big Brother it happens in a house so there's a lot less like physical things the The Twist is though like you're locked in there so you don't talk to your family friends there's no email no phone but the flip side is it's not as physical as Survivor so you can it's more mental once you get on there you win and then you get called back to the show is that like common for maybe for somebody to be called back or like how did that go about like did they reach out to you or like kind of how did that process of you going back on to the show Big Brother yeah so when I won you know I won in a kind of unique way and those shows are designed to I sometimes think bring out the worst in people like you see people fight name call and for me the way I played I played hard but I didn't insult people and I think that like it kind of made me more popular player because you could saw you could win without being a jerk so I got called back the second time except this time I'm married and I'm like all right I'd love to play again but I'm going in there as like a Marked Man outside of the NFL and football where do you see yourself when I'm done plan I want to be an agent you know and not just to the simple fact to say that I'm an agent but why do you want why like when you said that you're like there's no hesitation in being an agent why it was a point in time where like even kind of thinking like okay what kind of interests me like beyond the game of football you know and then I started to think about okay like some of the people who impact me it's like because I when it comes to negotiations and contracts and stuff like that like I'm pretty heavily involved in okay this is the thought process in what I want and this is the direction so once I'm kind of like like early on in my career you know seeing other seeing receivers you know kind of like crunching the numbers you know seeing and just being more interested in kind of like what was going on like my own personal kind of business side of the game and they Spar where does that come from cuz you know I don't I'm not familiar with the inner works of the NFL but I would imagine most NFL players are just like hey take agent take care of this what how is that different for you I trust my agent whole ly you know but it's like I mean I also should kind of know the nature of the business that I'm in you know I mean it doesn't make any sense for me to be in this business and to not be involved or to not understand the ins and outs and what's going on so as I started to learn more about that and understand and even have a good Agent you know teach me that you know that's when it kind of Sparks for me because as we kind of as I started to learn that it was more so I saw how this person is actually helping me you know and my maturation as a man of just learning the business and and that's something that I want to pass down to like players thank you so much what are the what are those fact like so there's money but like I don't want you to negotiate against yourself on camera what is something that is a factor it's like okay I don't need all this if there's this so it's like it's you obviously you have the financial part of it then a big thing is the structure in the contract okay you know as far as the years give me first grade NFL contract structure let's say like u a fiveyear structure know and even for me being in Chicago that was something you a threeyear deal right yeah and even for me as I started to negotiate an extension that was kind of the deal breaker like Chicago never wanted to come off of 5 years can I can I I got is it weird for you that like someone can Google hey alen Robinson's contract or you just like what Happ it is it is how you guys doing everything good excellent amazing you like those tots you want the tot special no it perfect it's amazing what would you say is your most ordered thing on the May chili fries man chili fries just like what you got two cheeseburgers and a chili fry that's pretty standard what's the most like off the menu Avant guard thing that you like here so like yeah everyone's going to come here and get this like do you have like a special that you're like this is this is mine or you go back there and flip it yourself uh I like our standard honestly I just eat two double cheeseburgers and chili fry all day long we play with a lot of I I know I don't know what's wrong with me but I but I can eat so I eat like atast dozen Burgers a week and I can make it through yeah and you were saying that this particular Hunter House Burgers has been around for how many years this is our 70th Year we're built in 1952 uh so yeah they actually they laid the foundation in 52 they built this little store and uh and they've operated ever since my family is the third family to own it uh they bought it in the 80s so it's been like literally this we our family's been running it since before I was born so like I learned to eat you know off the floor here basically it's crazy because I was saying like it speaks volumes to how an establishment can stay open through like the recession and how it was hit hard and even like the pandemic you know and you were kind of talking about um how the pandemic affected oh yeah yeah it was hard I mean from uh you know running a business where all of a sudden like your volume drops in half how do you pay your staff how do you stay open what do you attribute like the one factor on why you made it through I think longevity I mean we've like like like you man the just generations of people who come back they've been here when they were a kid they grow up with it whenever you're back in town this kind of like the first place you come to and so because there's so many people who have been coming here for years and years and years you know parents bring their kids they grow up they bring their kids it's just kind of become a staple so meals are good can I you guys everything else everything good love yeah I like I said before I normally don't drink soda so I'm just going to leave it at 1 hey Pop but that's okay I know it's it's ridiculous blame blame the Northeast blame the Northeast for changing for changing my slang from so from me going from pop to soda so I hear you I hear you so big thank you to the hunter house for having us and Alan thank you so much for inviting I appreciate it no [Music] doubt do no research I just let the nerves read up I'mma Be A DJ with the nose bleeders I got them with me TR got bones in myag in the my DN where been here getting