David takes on big burger challenge

The former sales manager has poured his life-savings into the venture, based in the former Little Chef building at Gannow Top, following the success of his takeaway Kenank’s.

David, a self-confessed lover of takeaways, started up Kenank’s in the spirit of Adam Richmond’s popular American food show because he wanted to do fast food right.

“Kenank’s was an idea that came about a couple of years ago. I took a year out after I finished my last job as a sale managers and I was basically sat there bored. I watched a lot of TV and I saw the programme “Man vs Food” which a lot of people know about and basically I got an idea from there. I used to, and still do, eat a lot of takeaway food and the food for the money we were paying, and a lot of people in Burnley feel the same, wasn’t really up to standard and I thought there’s a chance here, there’s a niche in the market. We can do it bigger and better than a lot of people are doing it.”

The takeaway is still being run out of his family’s chip shop, Bird’s, in Rosegrove, but with more than 4,000 customers on their database, the former Ivy Bank pupil felt the time had come to expand.

“This style of food is served so much better to a restaurant but obviously restaurants cost a lot of money so the idea was, we’ve got a bit of space in a fish and chip shop my family owned, let’s try that, spend a bit of money, get that up and running and just test the water, see if that’s what people wanted. The takeaway just exploded. We’ve done really, really well and that gave me a lot of confidence. The takeaway is still going to be open on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays, like the restaurant, but Friday, Saturday and Sundays we’re going to have to concentrate on the restaurant, for now, until we can find a way to marry them both up fully.”

The one-time Burger King building now features a sit-in restaurant, bar, children’s room and will soon include an outdoor park and beer garden.

Live music and “Man vs Food” style competitions are in the pipeline but for now David is focusing on serving up a memorable menu.

He named the takeaway Kenank’s after his late dad, Ken, who ran the chippy in Rosegrove. A fitting memorial it also serves as a one of his main motivations.

“Its an abbreviation of my dad’s name, Ken Hankinson. That’s the man reason why I had to do it properly and couldn’t fail because if I called it after my dad I needed to make sure that I did it right.”