I have been doing this for 39 years. I have sat across from a lot of people. And I can count on one hand the number of times someone walked into the room and I thought -- okay, this one is going to be different.

Justin Spencer was different from the first sentence.

He opens the conversation by saying he is a lonely soul. That he just wants to be loved. That he feels misunderstood sometimes. And I am sitting there thinking -- this is the man who performed on the Las Vegas Strip for 10 years. 8,000 shows. Nearly $75 million in ticket sales. 27 Emmys. He walked into my studio and led with that. I loved him immediately.

Where It All Started

Justin grew up in Goffstown, New Hampshire -- in a trailer park, in a broken home, surrounded by domestic violence and addiction. He told me he has never tasted a beer in his life. He decided early he was not going down that path. And instead of all that energy going somewhere dark, he funneled it into Recycled Percussion -- the band he started in 1995 for a high school talent show.

He made it to America's Got Talent. Placed third. Got a Las Vegas residency -- the only AGT contestant to ever earn one. Spent 10 years on The Strip. Wrote his own show. Built a global brand. And then somewhere in the middle of all of that, he found himself lonely.

His words, not mine.

That is how Chaos & Kindness started. He walked into WMUR and pitched a TV show about kindness. Said he would do it for free -- all he wanted was the airtime. 150-plus episodes later, 27 Emmys, and he has never taken a dime for it.

"I found my drug of choice was kindness."

Why Burgers? Why Now?

I asked him this directly. He is 49 years old. He has a band, a TV show, a clothing line, a theater in Laconia, a team of people depending on him. Why food? Why now?

He told me about Elliot Tatleman -- the founder of Jordan's Furniture, a mentor who gave him nearly $100,000 before America's Got Talent with the words "don't ever pay me back. I don't want money to be a reason you cannot exercise your creative side on TV." Elliot taught Justin that Jordan's Furniture was not a furniture store. It was a destination. Kids begged their parents to go because of the water parks and the movie theaters and the trapeze. He figured out how to make the mundane unforgettable.

Justin wanted to do that with a burger place.

What BAD BRGR Actually Is

If you have not been -- go. I went to the Mall of New Hampshire location and the smash burger I had was one of the juiciest things I have put in my mouth. Crispy on the edges, somehow still dripping with every bite. I could not believe it.

But the food is not even the whole story.

At the Manchester Elm Street location, kids walk in and get free candy -- as much as they want. The Rochester location has free video games and ski ball. Every single customer gets handed a personal phone number they can text or call if anything goes wrong.

There are four owners total. Ian -- the original founder who started making smash burgers out of a little spot in Hampton Beach -- is the kitchen genius. Justin's role is customer experience, branding, marketing, and designing the stores.

He told me he stayed completely incognito for 6 months before he would put his name on it. He would sit in his own restaurant, watch everything, not tell a single employee who he was. He told me about the moment he went to order a burger and asked to put it on his account.

The cashier said: "What account?"

The other employee said: "He owns it."

That is how incognito he was trying to be.

The Moment That Stopped Everything

About 22 minutes into our conversation, an alarm went off on Justin's phone.

Not a meeting. Not a text. A daily gratitude alarm -- something he set so that no matter what he is doing, no matter how busy things get, he stops and says one thing he is thankful for.

He stopped mid-sentence. Looked at me. And said he is grateful for his wife of 19 years and his two daughters.

"I will take love 11 days out of 10 over money. And it is not even close."

I did not need to say anything for a while after that. I just let it sit there.

The NH Hospitality Story I Will Not Forget

At the end of the conversation I asked Justin for his best New Hampshire hospitality story. And he gave me one I did not expect.

He was sitting in BAD BRGR -- incognito, nobody knew he owned the place -- having a burger by himself. A woman was leaving the restaurant. She came over to his table and put down a gift card for BAD BRGR that she had just bought at the register, leaned down, and whispered in his ear: "Thank you for all you do for New Hampshire."

She had no idea she was handing the owner a gift card for his own restaurant.

He took it straight to the homeless shelter on the way home.

That is Justin Spencer. And that is exactly why I do this podcast.

Go find BAD BRGR. Three NH locations now and Nashua opening at Pheasant Lane Mall in June 2026. Everything at badbrgr.com.

And if you are not subscribed yet -- please subscribe. New episodes every Tuesday. You can find us everywhere at linktr.ee/BeyondtheplateNH.

See you next week.

-- Carol

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ABOUT CAROL ERICKSON

Carol Erickson has owned Red Arrow Diner since 1987 -- four locations across New Hampshire, open 24/7. She started Beyond the Plate to tell the real stories behind the people who make New England's food and hospitality scene what it is. Not just what's on the menu. What's behind it.

Red Arrow Diner: redarrowdiner.com  | @redarrow24diner