Moonburger on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie Now Open

Usually it has to be a rager for the cops to shut something down, not a restaurant opening. But perhaps the fact that the grand opening of Moonburger’s new Poughkeepsie drive-through on April 20 did just that actually speaks eloquently to the stanishness of the brand’s following.

Jeremy Robinson-Leon, ex-marketing pro and Moonburger founder, is tirelessly innovating with his low-key-meatless fast food burger chain. First, he took over a castle in Kingston for his flagship, drive-through-only location, positioning meatless sustenance conveniently next to a Thruway exit. Then, he created a walk-in location in a college town with delivery, pre-ordering, and late-night specials for hungry students (brill). Finally, with this latest location on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie, he’s broken into the lucrative gas station concessions sphere, meeting people where they are, wherever they are in their journey with a meat-free alternative.

The new location, around 900 square feet, is the first to combine all the Moonburger channels into one spot: drive-thru, counter service, dine-in, delivery, etc. The spot is inside the Chestnut Market at the Mobil across from Home Goods on Route 9. “It's the first plant-based burger spot at a gas station in the country,” Robinson-Leon says. “This is exactly where we want to be.”

The large, color-changing logo atop the Kingston location is a calling card for Moonburger and a beacon from road. With the New Paltz location, Robinson-Leon and the team at Home Studios had to further develop the aesthetic concept of Moonburger designing the first public interior for the brand. With more space plus the additional context of the gas station as creative confines, the Poughkeepsie location is a further extension of this visual branding.

“In terms of experience and design, we wanted to really push the envelope for what a restaurant at a gas station could be,” Robinson-Leon says, acknowledging the long history of quality gas station restaurants in America, particularly in the South. “Big thanks and credit to the team at Chestnut Market for letting us dream up this absolutely wild space. Our goal was to create a magical world within the convenience store, where guests would step through a threshold and enter Moonburger. With huge lightboxes framing the space, we achieved a boundary that envelopes the experience within. And we wanted to lean into the gas station identity, as well as the core Moonburger themes of space and boundlessness.”

The new merch line and the display itself include traditional gas station items like an ice scraper, air freshener, and even jumper cables. A nice detail: the self-service kiosk is housed within the iconic "ice chest" that exists outside every gas station in America.

That’s not all that’s afoot at the new location. In their first full week of business on Route 9, Moonburger announced a limited-edition collab with Rossi’s, Poughkeepsie’s iconic sandwich purveyors. “It's been in the works for a year,” Robinson-Leon says of the “PK Special,” adding, “think part cheesesteak, part chopped cheese. The Rossi's team developed a custom Parker House potato roll for Moonburger, and we're using their Calabrian chili stuzzichino.”

Here’s what’s inside: chopped and griddled Impossible with extra American cheese, dill pickle, sweet banana pepper, shredded lettuce, mayo, and the stuzzichino on the custom roll. “It's beautiful, and we're so honored to collaborate with such a legendary Hudson Valley institution,” Robinson-Leon says. “It's wildly surreal, especially when I think back to my first visits to the shop as a Vassar student in the 2000s.”

The Rossi’s collab ends on May 12, so get there this weekend to try the PK Special. Also new in the Moonburger atmosphere? A Brooklyn location coming this summer. We called it in our first coverage of the brand: A meatless burger to rule them all.