Steve Drummond: Ernesto's restaurant owner on complaints over it's 'Pablo Escoburger'

Wellington restaurant Ernesto's has been booted out of Wellington on a Plate's burger competition after entering a burger that took inspiration from the infamous cocaine trafficker Pablo Escobar.

The 'Pablo Escoburger' was banned from the competition, which Ernesto's won last year, after complaints from the Colombian Embassy of Australia which said it made light of a man who caused the deaths of thousands of people. 

The burger, now sold independently of the competition under the new name 'Censored burger', features a row of white powder made from garlic sprinkled on top and a fake rolled-up $100 bill stuck into the bun.

Ernesto's owner Steve Drummond told Nick Mills he was shocked by the response. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk said.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Be owner of a neesto is a maid of mine. Actually,
by the way, I think I could call him a mate.
Could I call you a mate, drummer?

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Of course you can't a good friend.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
You know, you've gotta be careful when you call people.
You know, your mate, that guy that clown on radio
callds you his mate. You know, Hey, you doing good morning?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
You're good? Thank you and yourself.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, it couldn't be better. I'm going to come and
have one of those burgers. When does it start?

Speaker 3 (00:38):
We're starting it tomorrow. So obviously, being out of the
complish now, we're not constrained by the timeframes that they see,
so we decided to put it on a little bit earlier.
We'll still run up for the same period of time
that wanting to on the plates on it.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I've told everyone to keep voting for it, because that
would you know. That's that's the way to make it
make a noise, isn't it If you want to. If
you don't like the idea, you don't have to. But
if you like the burger, and I'm sure the burger
is really good. Tell me, tell us. Firstly, tell us
what's in the burger.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
So, the Imburger burger is inspired by Colombian cuisine. So
when we set out to make a burger this year,
obviously being a winner from last year, we wanted to
make something that would that would win the competition, and
we also wanted something that you know, nodded at what
we do with our fusion food that the Latino Caribbean

(01:26):
inspired dishes that we offer here at in Estos. So
Colombian burg was something we looked into and the flavors
and the profile of it were just perfect for what
we wanted to do. We think it's a real winner
of a burger. So it's got a brisket, beef, patty,
pulled pork, pineapple, three different types of sources which are
all original Colombian sources. And then we've kind of New

(01:47):
zealandized that a little bit by putting it into a
fry bread bun. So very tasty burger.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Can I get it without the pork? And I'm not ready,
pork guy? Is that all right?

Speaker 3 (01:56):
You can?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:56):
So we've got you know, we've got lots of dietary
options with it as well, okay.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Steve Drummond, the owner of Anesto's, joins us on the
show how did you feel when wanting to play gave
you the call and said, sorry, buddy, but we can't
accept your burger anymore. The Colombian Embassy of complain.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Was a real bummer for us. We certainly didn't expect
that that level of attention. You know, it's a fun
play on words and the humorous concept for us. We
thought some people might raise their eyebrow, but we certainly
didn't expect to be kicked out of the competition, did
you think?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
I mean, you know, when you win a championship like
you did last year. You won it last year, which
I forgot that you did. I mean, going back to
back is something of real importance because nobody can put
two banners up on the wall, can they. They can't say, actually,
we won it back to back two years in a row.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
No, so, so it's always hard to get a winning
place the second gear around. As you say, so, we
put a lot of time benef under this burger to
make it something that we thought could win again.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Have you had a conversation with Wellington on a plate since?

Speaker 3 (03:02):
No, No, they they let us know that we're out
of the competition just over a weak ago, and and
we've sort of said that we'll catch up with them
months when playing events over. There's not much point in
us trying to do anything more than we We feel
like we did everything to appease them, including changing the name,
the photography, the burger description. But in the end, what
they were demanding was an entirely new concept and there

(03:23):
was just a sketch for us to go and we
thought we'd created something that could win the competition.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Now, Steve, I've just had a text from Swampy marsh Marsha,
radio announcer our next Welled and City Council. He said, Nick,
this used to be the creative capital of the of
New Zealand. Well, you know this is ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Look I think it is. I think I think we've
presented something that is a tongue in cheek that's a
play on where we're not trying to offend anyone. We're
not trying to celebrate ro Escobar. It was a name
that come from one of our team when we created
the burger, and and it's trying to stuck with it.
We just thought it was a really humorous play with
what we're trying to do.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Can I ask you if you think we as a country,
You know, you've been around hospitality in number of years
and different, you know different. I suppose creations. You started
by being a sales manager for a brewery. Now you
owned your own pub, very successful pub's a green Man
now in Neestos. Do you think we are becoming too
precious as a country or as a world? Are we

(04:20):
getting too woke?

Speaker 3 (04:23):
I think it's easy to offend people these days, obviously
easier than what I had thought. You know, it's hard.
We live in a bureaucratic city, so it's easy to
sit here and say it's a wake or whatever it is.
But at the end of the day, this burg is
not about trying to create a political statement or anything
like that. Thissburg is about having a great flavored burger

(04:43):
that we think win the competition. It's just unfortunately be
kicked out.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, I agree, Thanks for coming on, Steve. I appreciate
your time. Good luck with a burger.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
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