[In light of recent revelations about the Martin family’s
political activities, chefs are looking for alternatives to Martin’s
products known for their association with Shake Shack, which uses them
at locations around the world.]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

BAY AREA CHEFS DITCHING BURGER BUNS OVER RIGHT-WING POLITICS  
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Soleil Ho
June 6, 2022
San Francisco Chronicle
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_ In light of recent revelations about the Martin family’s
political activities, chefs are looking for alternatives to Martin’s
products known for their association with Shake Shack, which uses them
at locations around the world. _

Zack Fernandes toasts buns for smashburgers at his pop-up, Lil’
Eagle Burger., Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

 

Often lauded as the optimal bun for smashburgers, the squishy, yellow
potato roll has been a holy grail for burger
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around the country.

The reigning champ among those buns has to be the one from Martin’s
Famous Pastry Shoppe, a family-owned company in Chambersburg, Pa. It
catapulted to fame with the rise of Shake Shack,
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which uses its bread exclusively at its locations around the world.
Locally, use of the Martin’s potato bun, at operations like
Wesburger, Kowbird
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and Smish Smash, has signified chefs’ seriousness about their
sandwiches.
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But in light of recent revelations about the Martin family’s
political activities, these chefs are scrambling to find something
else to use.

“They make a great product — that’s the part that sucks,” said
Wes Rowe, owner of Mission District restaurant Wesburger ‘n’ More.
He compared it to going to a family reunion and finding out that
someone you love is espousing hateful beliefs: “On one hand it’s
family, but on the other hand, I can’t be OK with this.”

On May 12, Philadelphia news outlet Billy Penn
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(a news site associated with radio station WHYY) published an article
tying the Martin family to Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, the
GOP candidate for governor. Campaign finance reports show
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the Martin family, including executive chairman of the board Jim
Martin, wife Donna Martin and social media manager Julie Martin,
donated generous amounts of money to Mastriano’s campaign in 2021
and 2022. Jim Martin, whose parents founded the bakery, donated
$110,000 last year; according to the Philadelphia Inquirer,
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the average donation amount to Mastriano is $206.

Mastriano, a pro-Trump Republican and QAnon conspiracy theory
promoter,
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has been subpoenaed
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by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection
in Washington for using campaign funds to charter buses for some who
marched toward the Capitol (including himself). In 2020, he became
known for his efforts to assist Trump in his attempts to overturn the
results of the presidential election.

If elected governor, Mastriano has pledged [[link removed]]
to ban abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest, reduce voting
accessibility and attack diversity initiatives in schools. He is among
the most prominent faces of a growing far-right Christian nationalist
movement in American politics: His rallies, complete with apocalyptic
rhetoric and non-Jewish performers in Jewish prayer shawls blowing on
shofars,
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can seem like the opening shots of a holy war.

Shake Shack, which included members of the Martin family at its IPO
debut at the New York Stock Exchange
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in 2015 and advertises itself as a LGBTQ-friendly workplace,
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has not returned The Chronicle’s request for comment, though the
company sent a statement to Today
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to address the growing backlash. It came out in support of
“equality, inclusion and belonging” but did not say it would take
any concrete actions. “In regards to the actions of individuals
associated with the Martin’s company and their personal political
donations — those are the choices of those individuals and do not
express the values of Shake Shack. We continue to be in active
conversations with Martin’s to express our concern.”

Martin’s has also not responded to a request for comment, though the
company did seek to distance itself from any particular ideology in a
Memorial Day social media post.
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“I’ve been thinking about this almost nonstop since Billy Penn
broke the news,” said Zack Fernandes, a former Philadelphian and the
owner of Bay Area smashburger pop-up Lil’ Eagle Burger.
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It’s hard to calculate how much of the $32 he’s paid for each case
of buns might have gone into the Mastriano campaign, he said.

“But since Martin’s is not a public company with no shareholders
to hold them to account, they will have to deal with the consequences
of such a horrific political affiliation in the wholesale and consumer
markets. I cannot in good conscience use Martin’s products any
longer for Lil’ Eagle pop-ups, especially while people I love still
live in the state of Pennsylvania,” he said.

Fernandes will likely run out of his supply of buns at his next pop-up
on Sunday, June 12, and then seek out another supplier.

“If I have to start making my own buns, so be it,” he said.

The Martin family’s ties to Mastriano and right wing politics extend
beyond their donations. In 2019, the bakery’s headquarters hosted a
political event
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with the politician. His wife, Rebecca, previously served as the
bakery’s in-house chaplain.
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Chambersburg, the Martins attend Antrim Brethren in Christ Church,
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theory as a spiritual bogeyman,
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in transphobic and homophobic rhetoric,
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repeal the town’s LGBTQ anti-discrimination policies
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in the name of religious freedom.

In addition, political donation data first publicized by the Twitter
watchdog KnowYourCEO
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that Jim Martin has also made several contributions to the National
Rifle Association’s PAC,
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totaling $12,000 over the past decade.

According to Smish Smash co-owner Amy Han, the East Bay burger pop-up
is ditching Martin’s buns and hoping to test out a few alternatives.

Horn BBQ and Kowbird owner Matt Horn said that he’d already been
considering swapping out the rolls for a local purveyor, and the
Mastriano news convinced him to do so.

“I’m honestly disappointed,” Horn said.

Wesburger owner Rowe found out about the Martin’s issue from
culinary figure J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, who recently posted about it on
his Instagram page. [[link removed]] The
next day, Rowe started calling his distributors to find another bun.
Rowe said that he tries “to keep politics out of people’s mouths
when it comes to the restaurant and burgers,” but the extreme nature
of this case prompted him to take action.

He is concerned about issues of quality or the increased cost of
switching suppliers, but also about potential blowback for doing
something that could be read as political. In his six years of
business, Rowe said, he’s never taken an action like this, which
perhaps is testament to the intensifying polarization in national
politics.

* food politics
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