Black Iron Burger

Black Iron Burger has no outside capital in its history: the Spanish chef-partners who bought the struggling East Village original in 2013 rebuilt the menu and still run both Midtown locations day to day. The 2008 founder is long gone, so founder-run no longer strictly applies, but what the label stands for — a restaurant owned by the people working in it — still does. At two locations there is little public labor or environmental record to weigh; the business answers to its operating partners, not to any investor.