At a horror-themed burger spot in West Valley City, the mouth-watering food will thrill you

Editor’s note • This article is part of an occasional series, the Redwood Road Challenge.

At Burgertory, a horror-themed “gore-met” burger joint in West Valley City, all of the menu items sound like the punchline to a spooky joke.

What kind of burger would you serve to a young girl possessed by a demon? The Exorswiss & Mushrooms, of course.

What sort of appetizer would the Wolfman eat? Monsterella Sticks — what else?

And what would you give a horror-loving vegetarian to sink their teeth into? None other than The Creature From the Black Legume, a black bean burger served with cheddar, chipotle aioli, pickle, onion and lettuce.

And to go with all these culinary thrills is a chilling atmosphere to match.

The restaurant’s walls are plastered with more horror movie posters than you can shake a rusty machete at, for mainstays like “The Shining,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Carrie,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Child’s Play” and many, many more. And classic metal plays over the speakers, wailing guitars serenading diners as they destroy their burgers.

Musician and horror fan Jeremy Sundeaus opened Burgertory at 3197 S. Redwood Road (it’s “Redblood” Road on the restaurant’s website) in April 2023. While at different times in his life Sundeaus has worked at legendary local restaurants including The Belgian Waffle & Omelet Inn, Dee’s, Coachmans (RIP) and Ogie’s Cafe, this is the first restaurant he’s ever owned, he said.

Despite its slightly hidden location, set back a bit from Redwood Road, Burgertory has the support of Utah horror fans, Sundeaus said. Halloween, he said, is the restaurant’s busiest time.

Two of those horror fans are Heavy Metal Shop owner Kevin Kirk (a friend of Sundeaus) and his 14-year-old grandson Kayson, who have gone to Burgertory for special occasions, including Kayson’s birthday and eighth-grade graduation.

“They seriously have the best burgers around!” Kirk said. “I’m not just saying that because I know Jeremy.”

Burgertory is born

Sundeaus can take credit for most of the wordplay on the menu, which features all the classics you’d expect at a burger restaurant, just with a horror movie spin.

At Burgertory, it’s not just a pastrami burger; it’s The Pastramityville Horror. It’s not just a burger piled high with sauteed jalapenos and slathered with habanero aioli; it’s the spicy Hellraiser. And it’s not just a marinated grilled chicken sandwich with mayo, lettuce and tomato; watch out, it’s the Poultrygeist.

The name Burgertory is a play on Purgatory, a bar in Salt Lake City that closed for renovations in December. Once Sundeaus came up with the name, he put it in the back of his mind, he said, until one night, while he was hanging out with some friends, he came up with the Exorswiss & Mushrooms. Then his friends started thinking of burger names, too.

“I was like, ‘OK, we’re onto something,’” Sundeaus said.

His idea was to create something like a Hard Rock Cafe, just themed around horror instead of rock ‘n’ roll, he said. (His favorite horror movie, by the way, is John Carpenter’s “Halloween.”)

Sundeaus found his location on Redwood in a former Thai restaurant in a strip mall. The interior walls were lined with booths and faux brick, and the ceiling (including all the pipes and ductwork) was painted black. Overlarge Edison bulbs hung low over each booth. “That’s what attracted me to it. [It] was like, ‘Oh, this kind of looks spooky and I can work with this,’” he said.

Using an unholy amount of black paint, Sundeaus and his crew painted the restaurant black all the way through the back, he said. Then they hung all the posters and memorabilia.

Sundeaus said that the booths made the space feel “parlor-ish,” like how Pizza Hut used to be a sit-down pizza restaurant back in the day.

And whenever those big lightbulbs flicker, they just jokingly blame it on the restaurant’s poltergeist.

Not just novelty

Once Sundeaus started coming up with burger names, “I knew I was onto something that was good, but I knew the food had to be good or this was just all novelty,” he said.

For help coming up with the menu, he turned to his nephew, Corey Stam, who became kitchen manager and teamed up with his friend Wayne Mankinen to develop all the recipes. Both have been executive chefs at other restaurants.

In the beginning, Sundeaus said he’d come up with more dishes than what was feasible for a kitchen his size to pull off, including not-for-primetime food like the Rosemary’s Baby Back Ribs, the Texas Coleslaw Massacre, and the Cujo, a hot dog “with everything on it,” he said.

But Stam “helped me hone in the essentials and narrow the menu down to workability, so to speak,” Sundeaus said.

The housemade aiolis and sauces are one of the reasons people keep coming back, he said. The fry sauce, called Frysauce the 13th, is made with 13 individual ingredients, including ketchup, mayo and a splash of pickle juice, he said. Another popular item on the menu is Dracula’s Casserole, which is four-cheese macaroni and cheese with candied bacon sriracha.

And then there’s the burgers themselves. All are a hefty 8 ounces of beef, well seasoned and juicy. The Exorswiss & Mushrooms, with its gobs of melty cheese, is my favorite — don’t forget some Stake Frights or Omen Rings to go alongside.

Recently, Burgertory has continued to lean into its horror theme by rolling out a small dessert menu, which features a terrifying treat called The Hills Have Eyescream, an Uncrustable prepared French toast-style and served with a scoop of ice cream. They plan to add milkshakes as well.

On Saturday, July 6, Burgertory will be celebrating its first year in business with the release of a new burger and live music. They will also be holding a raffle and grilling burgers outside.