Original Patty Men: The Founders Behind Birmingham's Best Burger
How Scott O'Byrne and Tom Maher grew a Digbeth Dining Club stall into a railway-arch restaurant that Time Out named the best burger in Birmingham.
Photo: Elliott Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0
Original Patty Men (OPM) makes the best burger in Birmingham, and two people built it: head chef Scott O’Byrne and co-founder Tom Maher. They started with a street-food stall at Digbeth Dining Club. Today they run a railway-arch restaurant at 9 Shaw’s Passage in Digbeth. Time Out named it the best burger in Birmingham on 16 May 2024. Order the Cheezy-E: an aged beef patty with American cheese, lettuce, white onion, pickle and Boss Man sauce. I ordered it when I ranked the city’s burgers, and it is still the one I would send a friend to. This profile covers the founders, how a market stall became a small restaurant group, and the facts the sources still disagree on.
Why this profile is not about Adam Stokes. This piece began as a profile of Adam Stokes, chef-owner of Adam’s in Birmingham. Adam’s is not a burger restaurant. It is a modern British tasting-menu restaurant at New Oxford House, 16 Waterloo Street, B2 5UG, and it holds one Michelin star in the 2026 Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland (Michelin Guide). I found no source linking Adam Stokes, Adam’s or his seafood restaurant The Oyster Club to a burger. I did find a link to OPM. In a 2017 Q&A, Stokes recommended: “Original Patty Men in Birmingham for a superb burger” (Great Food Club, updated 14 July 2017). So I took a Michelin-starred chef at his word and profiled the burger he pointed to.
Original Patty Men key facts
These are the essentials for planning a visit to Original Patty Men in Digbeth, checked against the official site and press sources.
| Founders | Scott O’Byrne (head chef) and Tom Maher |
| Origin | Street-food stall at Digbeth Dining Club |
| Restaurant | 9 Shaw’s Passage, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5JG |
| Phone | 0121 643 2546 |
| Hours | Wed–Thu 5pm–9pm, Fri–Sat noon–10pm, Sun noon–7pm, closed Mon–Tue |
| Signature burger | Cheezy-E |
| Beef | “Aged beef” on the official menu; press describes aged Longhorn |
| Prices | Not published on the official menu (checked 27 September 2026) |
| Recognition | Time Out’s best burger in Birmingham (16 May 2024) |
| Group ventures | Kilder bar, OPM Stirchley at The British Oak, Cornershop deep-pan pizza |
Original Patty Men key facts: founders, origin, address (9 Shaw’s Passage, B5 5JG), phone, hours (Wed–Thu 5pm–9pm, Fri–Sat noon–10pm, Sun noon–7pm), Cheezy-E, aged beef, Time Out award, group ventures. Address and hours checked on the official site on 27 September 2026. This is a Markdown table already in the body; keep it as an HTML table and do not use an image. (Table: Burger Breton, data from originalpattymen.co.uk/locations and /menu, Time Out, Breaking Bread, I Choose Birmingham)
Address, phone and hours come from the official locations page, last checked on 27 September 2026. Hours change, so check that page before you go.
Who are the Original Patty Men founders?
Original Patty Men was co-founded by Scott O’Byrne, who is the head chef, and Tom Maher. Both are named as founders by the Breaking Bread podcast and I Choose Birmingham.
O’Byrne runs the kitchen. Maher speaks for the business more often. On the Breaking Bread podcast, posted 20 November 2024, he summed up the brand in two sentences: “You have to earn that repeat customer. They’re not just buying a burger—they’re buying into you.”
What they did before burgers is less clear. VICE reported in 2017 that their background was in menswear. Another listing says design. I could not find either founder confirming it in his own words, so I am leaving it open.
From Digbeth Dining Club burger stall to railway arch
OPM started as a part-time street-food stall at Digbeth Dining Club, then Scott O’Byrne and Tom Maher went full-time (VICE, 30 June 2017; Independent Birmingham).
A Digbeth Dining Club street-food pop-up outside Selfridges at the Bullring, Birmingham, in May 2015 (the van shown is Bare Bones Pizza). OPM traded as a stall at events like this before it moved into the arch. 1024×768. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/39415781@N06/18013932319 (Photo: Elliott Brown (ell brown), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr)
I think that origin explains a lot about the place. A market stall finds out every night it trades whether people come back, and OPM had that answer before it took on rent. The move into a restaurant came at the turn of 2016.
Original Patty Men timeline
Every date below comes from a named source. Where the sources disagree or say nothing, I say so.
- Around 2012–2013 (unconfirmed): the stall starts trading at Digbeth Dining Club, part-time at first. No source gives an exact founding year.
- Street-food award (year disputed): I Choose Birmingham (2016) says OPM won Britain’s Best Street Food Burger in 2015. A secondary summary gives British Street Food Awards Best Burger in 2014. I could not confirm the year against the awards archive.
- 3 January 2016: I Choose Birmingham reports OPM moving into a permanent railway-arch restaurant on Shaw’s Passage, Digbeth, with 33 seats. The exact opening date is not confirmed.
- 14 July 2017: Adam Stokes recommends OPM “for a superb burger” in a Great Food Club Q&A.
- 16 May 2024: Time Out names OPM the best burger in Birmingham.
- 20 November 2024: Breaking Bread publishes its podcast episode with Tom Maher.
- Undated: the group adds Kilder bar at 5 Shaw’s Passage, OPM Stirchley at The British Oak (1364 Pershore Road, B30 2XS) and Cornershop deep-pan pizza (Breaking Bread; Bar Magazine).
Original Patty Men timeline as an SVG built in-house: Digbeth Dining Club stall (year unconfirmed) → street-food burger award (2014 or 2015, disputed, dotted line) → Shaw’s Passage arch with 33 seats (reported 3 Jan 2016) → Adam Stokes recommendation (14 Jul 2017) → Time Out best burger in Birmingham (16 May 2024) → Breaking Bread podcast (20 Nov 2024) → Kilder, OPM Stirchley, Cornershop (undated). It is horizontal on desktop and stacked on mobile. (Chart: Burger Breton (original SVG, needs to be built), data from I Choose Birmingham, Great Food Club, Time Out, Breaking Bread, Bar Magazine)
What the 2016 arch opening looked like
The January 2016 report already describes how OPM works today: a small room, aged beef and local partners. I Choose Birmingham described 33 seats, 35-day aged Longhorn beef, a partnership with Siren Craft Brew, and the Big Vern’s Krispy Ring, a burger served in a doughnut bun. Ten years later the business has grown into a group, but that formula has not changed.
Signature burgers at Original Patty Men
The Cheezy-E is the burger OPM is best known for, and it is the one to order on a first visit.
The Cheezy-E
The Cheezy-E is an aged beef patty with American cheese, lettuce, white onion, pickle and Boss Man sauce, according to the official menu. When I ordered it, nothing on it needed explaining. With so few toppings, everything rests on the beef and the house sauce. That is the right bet for a kitchen that sells itself on aged beef.
An aged beef cheeseburger with bacon and melted cheese at Original Patty Men in Digbeth, Birmingham, May 2016. It shows the house style, but it is not the Cheezy-E, which has no bacon. 1024×683. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49007814@N03/27069462771 (Photo: Alex Holyoake, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr)
Big Vern’s Krispy Ring and collaboration burgers
OPM’s specials have always been the place where it jokes around. Big Vern’s Krispy Ring, a burger in a doughnut bun, was on the menu when the arch opened in 2016 (I Choose Birmingham). OPM also made the Massaman-iLife with Michelin-starred chef Brad Carter and the peanut-butter brand ManiLife (Secret Birmingham). I could not confirm which specials are on today, so check the menu page before you go.
A burger with bacon and shredded lettuce on OPM’s illustrated wrapping paper, inside the Digbeth arch before a match, December 2021. 768×1024. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7831824@N04/51725274559 (Photo: Bex Walton, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr)
What beef does Original Patty Men use?
Original Patty Men uses aged beef, which is all the current official menu says. Press coverage, including Independent Birmingham, says it is aged Longhorn, and the 2016 I Choose Birmingham report gave 35 days of ageing. The menu no longer states the breed or the number of days, so I credit both details to the press rather than present them as current fact.
Is Original Patty Men the best burger in Birmingham?
Yes. Time Out named it the best burger in Birmingham in May 2024, and I ranked it first in our guide to the best burgers in Birmingham, which is built from dated menus, local press and review data. It won on a signature burger that has never needed reinventing, a clear sourcing story and steady praise from local food media. I have one reservation. The menu used to name Longhorn and 35 days of ageing, and now it just says “aged beef”. I would like to see the details back in writing.
One of the city’s Michelin-starred chefs sent people there too. A chef recommending another kitchen in a published Q&A, as Adam Stokes did in 2017, is not something a restaurant can pay for.
A wrapped burger and fries on an Original Patty Men branded tray in Birmingham, January 2023. 1024×768. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7831824@N04/52629413551 (Photo: Bex Walton, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr)
Visiting Original Patty Men in Digbeth
Original Patty Men’s flagship is at 9 Shaw’s Passage, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5JG, and it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
- Wednesday and Thursday: 5pm–9pm
- Friday and Saturday: noon–10pm
- Sunday: noon–7pm
- Phone: 0121 643 2546
- Second site: OPM Stirchley at The British Oak, 1364 Pershore Road, B30 2XS
Kilder, the group’s bar, is on the same passage at number 5. For more addresses in the city, see our Birmingham burger hub or browse the restaurants section. If you would rather build a burger at home, start with our homemade burger buns recipe.
Map of Shaw’s Passage, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5JG: Original Patty Men at number 9 and the Kilder bar at number 5, a short walk from Moor Street station. Embed it in an iframe with width 800 and height 450, loading=“lazy”, and a local static poster. (Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL)
Original Patty Men and the UK founder-led burger scene
OPM belongs to a small group of British burger businesses that started as street food and grew under their founders. For a Scottish example, read my profile of the Avdyli family behind Bread Meats Bread in Glasgow.
Original Patty Men FAQ
Who owns Original Patty Men in Birmingham?
Original Patty Men was co-founded by Scott O’Byrne, the head chef, and Tom Maher, according to the Breaking Bread podcast (2024) and I Choose Birmingham (2016).
Where did Original Patty Men start?
OPM started as a part-time street-food stall at Digbeth Dining Club. It moved into a permanent railway arch on Shaw’s Passage, Digbeth, which I Choose Birmingham reported on 3 January 2016.
What is the best burger at Original Patty Men?
The Cheezy-E is the signature burger: an aged beef patty with American cheese, lettuce, white onion, pickle and Boss Man sauce.
Is Original Patty Men open on Monday or Tuesday?
No. The Digbeth restaurant opens Wednesday and Thursday 5pm–9pm, Friday and Saturday noon–10pm, and Sunday noon–7pm, per the official locations page as of 27 September 2026.
What beef does Original Patty Men use?
The official menu says “aged beef”. Independent Birmingham describes it as aged Longhorn, and a 2016 report gave 35 days of ageing.
Does Adam Stokes serve burgers at Adam’s in Birmingham?
No. Adam’s is a one-Michelin-star modern British restaurant known for its tasting menus, and no source links it to a burger. Adam Stokes did recommend Original Patty Men “for a superb burger” in a 2017 Q&A.
Does Original Patty Men take bookings, and where do you wait when the arch is full?
I could not confirm OPM’s booking policy from a primary source. Call 0121 643 2546 or check the official site before you go. The group’s Kilder bar is on the same passage at 5 Shaw’s Passage.
What awards has Original Patty Men won?
Time Out named OPM the best burger in Birmingham on 16 May 2024. OPM also won a national street-food burger award, but the sources disagree on the year: I Choose Birmingham says 2015, another summary says 2014.
Sources and methodology
I built this profile from the official OPM menu and locations pages, the Breaking Bread podcast (2024), I Choose Birmingham (2016), VICE (2017), Independent Birmingham, Time Out, Bar Magazine, Secret Birmingham, the Michelin Guide and Great Food Club. Where sources conflict, I say so instead of choosing one. I left out what I could not verify on a primary source: menu prices, the exact founding and opening dates, and the founders’ earlier careers.
