The Smash Burger Chain Named After a Grandmother Is Coming to Vancouver — and It Has Earned Every Bit of the Hype
Rosie's Burgers was built on a simple premise: make the best smash burger in Canada and name it after the woman who taught you what real hospitality means. Now it's heading west.
July 19, 2026 · By Justin Plosz · Vancouver, British Columbia · Business · 7 min read read
The Name Is the Story
Every restaurant has an origin story. Rosie's Burgers has a better one than most.
In 2020, brothers Daniel, Dustin, and Bryan Gelman opened a burger joint in Port Credit, Ontario. They had a shared love of good food and a clear idea of what they wanted to build: a simple, unpretentious restaurant that made people feel genuinely welcome the moment they walked in. The concept was not complicated. The aspiration was.
They named it after their grandmother.
Rosie — the woman behind the name — had a quality that the brothers describe as rare and specific: the ability to make anyone in her presence feel completely at home. Not comfortable in a transactional way, but actually at home. The way family makes you feel. The way a really good restaurant, at its absolute best, can make you feel.
Naming a restaurant is an act of branding, but naming it after your grandmother is something else. It is a public commitment to a standard of hospitality. Every time a customer walks into a Rosie's Burgers and feels welcomed, the name earns its place. Every time a server goes through the motions, it doesn't. The name raises the stakes. The Gelman brothers knew that. They named it anyway.
What Makes the Burger Worth the Drive
The smash burger is not new. The format — a loosely packed ball of beef pressed flat on a screaming-hot griddle, developing a deeply caramelized crust — has been the defining burger technique of the last decade. Dozens of Canadian chains have adopted the format. What separates Rosie's from the category is the consistency and the care applied to every element of the experience.
The Rosie's smash burger is built for craveability: a properly caramelized beef patty (or double), American cheese melted into the crust rather than sitting on top of it, soft potato bun, and a sauce calibration that is specific and correct without being complicated. Nothing here is trying to be gourmet. Everything here is trying to be exactly right.
Beyond the burger: the fries are hand-cut and properly salted. The onion rings are battered, not panko-crusted, in the classic North American tradition. The strawberry milkshake is made with real ice cream. The banana pudding — a Rosie's signature that has developed a following entirely its own — is layered, creamy, and the kind of dessert that people order twice at the same meal.
People in Ontario have been driving specifically to get to Rosie's locations since 2020. In Abbotsford, BC, where a location opened earlier in 2026, people began making the drive from across the Lower Mainland before the restaurant had been open a week. That is not marketing. That is a product people want.
The Company Behind the Brand: Happy Belly Food Group
The growth story of Rosie's Burgers is inseparable from the company backing it: Happy Belly Food Group Inc., a publicly traded Canadian multi-brand restaurant company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE: HBFG) and trading on the OTCQB in the United States (OTCQB: HBFGF).
Happy Belly's model is specific: identify emerging Canadian food brands with strong product-market fit and the potential to scale, acquire them, and build out the franchise and corporate location infrastructure to get them to national reach. Rosie's Burgers fits that profile precisely — a concept with a clear identity, a passionate customer base, and a product that travels well across formats and markets.
Happy Belly CEO Sean Black was direct about the BC expansion in the company's announcement: "Rosie's Burgers continues its organic growth with the increasing demand from franchisees and landlords alike. The organic growth that we are experiencing has been the driving force allowing us to expand our footprint in Canada."
The BC agreement is not a single location. It is a five-location multi-unit franchise agreement signed in March 2025, with UBC Vancouver the first location to reach lease execution. Four more BC locations will follow. The brand has room to grow, and the infrastructure now exists to support that growth.
Why UBC Vancouver Is the Right First Location
The decision to open the first BC Rosie's at the University of British Columbia campus is not a default — it is a strategic choice that reflects exactly how the brand has grown in Ontario.
Rosie's built its following in Ontario through locations that combined high foot traffic with an audience that could be converted into loyal regulars: people who would eat there twice a week if given the opportunity, spread the word to their networks, and establish the brand in a market through genuine enthusiasm rather than paid media.
UBC's University Boulevard location gives Rosie's the same structural advantage in Vancouver: a captive population of tens of thousands of students, staff, and campus visitors who pass through daily, need quick and high-quality food options, and represent exactly the demographic that made Rosie's a hit in Ontario. A student who discovers Rosie's at UBC in September 2026 becomes a Rosie's customer for life.
The Abbotsford location, which opened earlier in 2026, has already demonstrated that the BC market is hungry for Rosie's specifically. People drove from Vancouver, Surrey, and Langley to get there before the brand had a location anywhere near the Lower Mainland proper. That pent-up demand is now about to be served.
**Rosie's Burgers Information:**
- **Vancouver UBC Location:** University Boulevard, UBC Vancouver Campus
- **Website:** [rosiesburgers.ca](https://rosiesburgers.ca)
- **Happy Belly Food Group:** [happybellyfg.com](https://happybellyfg.com) | CSE: HBFG
- **Instagram:** [@rosiesburgers](https://www.instagram.com/rosiesburgers/)
- **Menu highlights:** Smash burgers, poutine, fries, onion rings, strawberry milkshakes, banana pudding
Key takeaways
- Rosie's Burgers is opening its first Metro Vancouver location at UBC campus on University Boulevard — part of a five-location BC franchise agreement under Happy Belly Food Group
- Founded in 2020 by brothers Daniel, Dustin, and Bryan Gelman in Port Credit, Ontario — named after their grandmother Rosie, who embodied the hospitality the brand is built around
- The menu is built on smash burgers, poutine, fries, onion rings, strawberry milkshakes, and banana pudding — all executed with consistency and quality above the fast-casual standard
- Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG) is the publicly traded parent company driving national expansion across Canada
- An Abbotsford BC location opened in early 2026 to immediate demand from across the Lower Mainland — Vancouver was always the next step
Frequently asked questions
- Where is Rosie's Burgers opening in Vancouver?
- Rosie's Burgers is opening its first BC location at the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus in Vancouver, on University Boulevard. This is the first of five BC locations planned under a multi-unit franchise agreement signed by Happy Belly Food Group in 2025.
- Who founded Rosie's Burgers?
- Rosie's Burgers was founded in 2020 by brothers Daniel, Dustin, and Bryan Gelman, originally from Port Credit, Ontario. The restaurant is named after their grandmother Rosie, who the founders describe as having a rare ability to make anyone in her presence feel genuinely at home — the standard of hospitality they built the brand around.
- What is on the Rosie's Burgers menu?
- Rosie's Burgers menu centers on smash burgers — loose beef patties pressed flat on a hot griddle for a caramelized crust — served with American cheese and a soft potato bun. The full menu includes poutine, hand-cut fries, onion rings, strawberry milkshakes, and banana pudding, which has developed its own following as a signature item.
- Is Rosie's Burgers a franchise?
- Yes. Rosie's Burgers operates as a franchise brand under Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG | OTCQB: HBFGF), a publicly traded Canadian multi-brand restaurant company that acquires and scales emerging food brands. The BC expansion is through a five-unit multi-unit franchise agreement signed in early 2025.
- What is Happy Belly Food Group?
- Happy Belly Food Group Inc. is a Canadian multi-brand restaurant company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE: HBFG) and the OTCQB in the United States (OTCQB: HBFGF). The company acquires and scales emerging Canadian food brands with strong product-market fit. Rosie's Burgers is one of its primary brands. The company's CEO is Sean Black.
- Are there any other Rosie's Burgers locations in BC?
- Yes — a Rosie's Burgers location opened in Abbotsford, BC in early 2026, serving the Fraser Valley and drawing customers from across the Lower Mainland. The UBC Vancouver location is the second BC location and the first in Metro Vancouver proper. Four additional BC locations are planned as part of the existing franchise agreement.
- Why is Rosie's Burgers popular?
- Rosie's popularity comes from a combination of product quality and brand authenticity. The smash burger format is executed consistently, with properly caramelized beef, correct sauce calibration, and quality ingredients throughout the menu. The brand name and story — named after the founders' grandmother, built around genuine hospitality — gives the restaurant an emotional resonance that most fast-casual burger brands lack. Customers become loyal and vocal advocates.
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