Gold Burger Diner promotes an inviting atmosphere with chipper employees and pumps savory smells into Georgetown’s downtown hub.

The inspiration

Owned by Cody Hirt, Tommy McCormick, Tim Carr, Brad Strittmatter, Troy Hellmann and Brady Clark, Gold Burger Diner opened in Georgetown Square on July 12. The project started a year and a half ago after the owners decided to fill the hole the historic district was missing, Hirt and Strittmatter said.

“It’s all about the people and the culture,” Strittmatter said. “It’s not that it’s any better or any worse than any other place, it complements every other place. We always say a rising tide raises all ships. We want the tide of the Square to rise and it will raise all the ships in the Square.”

Behind the name


Hirt and Strittmatter said the name for the restaurant was a no-brainer as their other businesses around town share the “Gold” title. In addition to the common title, the pair said they wanted to pay tribute to Harry Gold, the owner of Gold’s Department Store in the 1950s and a Georgetown icon.

“We’ve heard stories where maybe kids couldn’t afford to buy clothes for back to school and somehow they would come to Gold’s Department Store and they would leave and it would be taken care of,” Hirt said. “So it was kind of a tip of the hat to that kind of service and care for the community.”

Respecting the craft

The restaurant serves classic dishes from liver and onions and chopped steak to breakfast entrees featuring pancakes, eggs and hash browns. Customers can also enjoy cocktails served in coffee mugs.


Head Chef Elijah Ille is the brains behind the menu. Before the restaurant’s launch, he tested various potatoes to make sure the diner used a type that would be most optimal for year-round serving. Hirt said this dedication to the diner vision was executed across the menu.

“We actually tasted every component of the burger to make the best burger,” Hirt said. “We did that with a lot of different dishes. We had blind tests and we did that even with the pickles. It was an intense few hours of us fully focused and concentrated to make sure we had the perfect ingredients.”

In their own words

“We all have our differences, but Brady, one of our partners, said ‘You can come eat shoulder to shoulder at the diner counter,’ and that’s kind of the great equalizer,” Strittmatter said. “You can have conversations and get to know your neighbor and that’s what we want all of our places to be—community builders.”