BUFFALO, N.Y. — You can be forgiven for not knowing that one of the tastiest cheeseburgers in Elmwood Village lies in its Sunoco station.


What You Need To Know

  • Queen City Grill has operated out of the Sunoco in Elmwood Village since September
  • Robert MacKay opened the grill after he was furloughed from his job as an audio/video technician
  • MacKay, who also works part-time as a DJ, hopes to expand to a brick-and-mortar location in the future

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Robert MacKay, a 2016 graduate from ECC's culinary school, started up Queen City Grill this past September after he was furloughed from his regular job as an audio/video technician.

"I believe in karma. Everything’s in the right place at the right time," he says. "What’re the odds that COVID happens, I lose my AV job, and then this just falls in my lap? What’re the odds I meet my wife on a film crew?"

Robert worked for hotels, which had to make huge cuts because of the pandemic.

"All my friends that worked in the hotel are not working anywhere," he says. "Everybody’s trying to figure out what they’re going to do next."

First, he went on unemployment.

"After the first couple of months, it was like ‘what’s going to happen now? What am I going to do? This isn’t going to last forever. What’s my future?"

His future was to fall back on his culinary background, which he had given up on to pursue a more lucrative career as an AV technician. Robert's wife knew the owner of the Sunoco, and she told Robert about the potential for opening a grill inside the convenience store.

"The lady from KeyBank," he says about one of his regulars, "she tells her employees there, ‘hey I’m going to Sunoco. You guys want the food?’ And they’re like ‘we don’t want food from Sunoco.’ Until they had it the other day. Now they’re ordering all the time."

Robert wants to open a brick-and-mortar location eventually. Until then, making burgers in a gas station is good practice for when he’s in a bigger kitchen, and he enjoys the day-to-day interactions he has with customers.

"The drama that unfolds here at the Sunoco gas station? Oh! When they boot a car, I sit down with a cup of tea and just watch the show. It’s great," he said.

Robert says business has been good so far, and he’s still tweaking the menu depending on feedback he gets from customers.