Newton Centre Burger Joint Has Recipe for Success

If you ask people what makes Lee’s Place Burgers burgers so delicious, they might note the juicy meat or the fresh vegetables. But you can be virtually guaranteed that they will mention Lee’s “special sauce,” as the factor that sets Lee’s burgers apart from others.

Just one thing: Lee didn’t invent the special sauce.

“The other guy, Burt- very personable guy- actually had it first,” laughs Cornelius Lee (who goes by just his last name to customers and friends). “Flippin’ Burgers was in here before, and when we bought the place, we continued with it (the special sauce).”

The sauce is very distinctive. It is sweet and spicy, mayonnaise-based but not even a little greasy. The light orange condiment is delicious on the burgers, hot dogs and subs that are the center of Lee’s selective menu, but it also makes a tasty dipping sauce for any of their sides- French fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings or even chicken fingers.

Most of these items were available at the Lees’ previous business venture, Lee’s Sandwich Shop in Harvard Square. They owned that business for 25 years and had a good relationship with their “really good” Cambridge landlord.

But in 2009 they decided to make a change.

“Lee’s opened [Oct. 10, 2009],” Lee explains. “This area was a really nice location and we wanted something small, something we could handle. Newton Centre is great!”

Lee's Newton Centre shop is cozy, seating only eight patrons at tables and another half-dozen at counter seats that line the windows. The line for orders often stretches out the door, but Lee's customers don't seem to mind as they chat with other patrons, Lee, and members of Lee's staff.

The atmosphere is familiar and friendly; much of that feel comes from the regular customers as well as Lee's family-operated business. Lee owns the business, and his brother, sister, niece and nephew work there as well.

"They really are the nicest folks around, and their burgers are great," one customer says. "And I'm not just saying that to see if they'll give me a free burger."

The Lees feel just as positively about their patrons, especially the kids.

“The young people around here are really nice,” says Lee. “They’re all respectful and polite. All of them- they are just great.”

But even a warm and mutual relationship isn’t going to keep people lining up and waiting for food. It is the quality of the offerings at Lee’s that keep people coming back.

Lee says that there are several favorites, all of which are carryovers from their sandwich shop in Cambridge.

“The bacon cheese burger is really popular,” Lee says. “And the cheese steak. Lots of people like that. And the Greek salad and the chicken salad-they’re very popular, too.”

The menu is small which, in part, allows them to keep prices very low. Lee says they’d rather do a few things right than “be all over the place.” He has recently added soups to the menu, and though his brother had some initial concerns about this expansion, the soups became instant favorites.

“We had one woman come in here and get some split pea soup for takeout,” Lee says. “Then the next night, she called back and got four more orders to take home and freeze.”

Like their six-ounce, 100 percent sirloin burgers and all of their sandwich ingredients, the soups are homemade in the immaculately clean, impossibly tiny kitchen. The Lees and other employees seem to have a well-choreographed dance going behind the counter, and every now and then someone will step out and deliver food to a table or to a patron waiting to the side, allowing the others to shift around a bit more freely.

It’s well worth a visit to watch them in action, and you know exactly what you’ll be getting there.

“Everything is made to order,” explains Lee. “Everything is really fresh- lettuce, tomato, onion- all fresh. It’s the same beef that worked well for us all those years (in Cambridge). And there’s the special sauce, of course.”