Growing up, my brother Curt had a signature move. He’d pin me down, announce he was a steamroller, and slowly flatten me… then run out of gas, leaving me trapped and screaming. We were four years apart but found plenty of common ground, mostly in the form of games and competitions we made up to fill long summer days. If I had to draw the line between us, I was the conventional rule-follower; Curt was the adventurer, carving his own path and still landing exactly where he was meant to be.
That place is Bones’ Burgers, a restaurant in the heart of Montgomery that Curt, known to just about everyone as “Bones,” built from scratch. He started with a food truck, a lot of nerve, and our mother’s wise voice in his ear. What he built has become one of the most loved spots in the neighborhood. If you haven’t been, consider this your nudge.
Mom Knows Best
For years, Curt lived the kind of unconstrained life that makes some people uncomfortable and others envious. He’d work long enough to save some money, then take off… another state, another country, another adventure… until the adventure wore off and the pull of home brought him back. Our mom, Suki, always welcomed him home; but as the years went on, her hospitality came with a caveat.
“What’re you gonna do when you’re 70 and can’t bartend anymore?”
That question, Bones says, is where the seed for Bones’ Burgers was planted.
He started with a food truck, a deliberate and humble choice. “The overwhelming amount of knowledge needed for a restaurant was something I knew I didn’t have,” he says. “Too big a risk for someone without the bonafides to back it up.” The truck was his classroom; smaller setup, fewer employees, less overhead. A place to test his product and find out if people would actually show up.
They did. Each year busier than the last. By year three, Bones felt ready for a brick and mortar. The universe had other ideas, a string of near-misses and broken deals that pushed the timeline out another two and a half years. In hindsight, he’s grateful for the wait. It gave him time to find the right spot, sharpen his craft, and build a following that made the opening less of a leap and more of a landing.
Suki didn’t just plant the seed; she helped grow it. She did the bookkeeping, helped run the food truck, and taught Bones everything from business planning to forecasting to management. When Covid hit, she helped navigate the restaurant through the worst of it. “She’s the reason we made it through Covid without going further into debt,” Curt says.
While Curt was building Bones’ Burgers, I had three boys in grade school and wasn’t around as much as I would have liked. But I would stop in when I could; and I vividly remember one particular evening during a really busy shift… Curt at the grill, my sister-in-law Steph behind the counter, Suki running food.
I was just a guest, an observer, a sister. And in the middle of watching it all hum, emotion caught up with me. I understood, with complete clarity, what he had accomplished and what it took to get there. I also knew I could not have done it myself. That’s not a small thing for this goody-two-shoes to admit, but it’s true, and I am so proud of my brother! With an estimated 50% of small restaurants failing before the end of year three, what Bones, Suki, and Steph built together seems so remarkable to me.
The Burger
Grass-fed beef has been Bones’ non-negotiable since the beginning, and Curt will tell you exactly why. Grass-fed cows eat what they were built to eat… grass, wild onions, garlic, flowers, all the elements naturally growing in the pasture. That varied diet flavors the meat from the inside out. “We take our beef out of the package, patty it up, dust it with salt and pepper and cook it,” he says. “We don’t mix anything into the beef. It’s naked. Needs nothing.”
The result is a burger that doesn’t need to hide behind anything – though the toppings are absolutely worth exploring. Custom cooked to order, with a range of cheeses and combinations that borders on the joyfully excessive (at one point they had 25 varieties of cheese). The signature burgers have personalities all their own: the Suki Jane with house-made pimento, the Aloha with pineapple, bbq sauce and bacon, the Farm Burger piled high with all the fixings, bacon, and a fried egg. The parmesan fries have their own devoted following (you have to try them!). For non-beef eaters, there are salmon, bean and turkey burgers, along with homemade chilis, a solid selection of wines and beers, and local treats to finish the meal.
Curt still watches for the first bite. Every time. “You can tell everything from that first bite,” he says. “With a burger as good as mine, it usually comes with a distinct head nod. Two or three times, followed quickly by a smile. Big or small, the smile is there. It’s so fun to watch.”
The Place and The People
Bone’s has a rhythm to it. The space is intimate, a handful of tables wrapped around a mahogany bar, and it fills fast. Familiar faces slide into their usual spots. First-timers look around, take it in, and settle into the ease of a neighborhood restaurant. Steph runs the dining room with a warmth that turns strangers into regulars. Curt is at the grill… and he’s at your table, telling the same joke he told last week with the same complete commitment, and somehow it still lands.
“I can be loud. I can be sarcastic. I use the same stale jokes over and over,” he says, without a trace of apology. “If you have good food, people give you some flexibility. I’ll take it.”
By his own estimate, at least half his business comes from regulars; people who walk in already knowing what they want, half of whom have been coming for years. Beyond the locals, travelers find Bones’ through Google (a 4.7 rating Curt is quietly proud of) and make it a deliberate stop. Business travelers, people passing through, visitors from across greater Cincinnati who drove in on a recommendation. “The number of new customers we get still surprises me,” he says. “Many more than I thought.”
What It All Comes Down To
Curt has sold over 750,000 burgers. It’s a number that takes a second to land… until you picture every table, every first bite, every head nod, every regular who comes back because this place feels like theirs.
“This has been hard,” he says. “Harder than I thought it would be.” But hard and worth it are not mutually exclusive. Bones’ Burgers has given Curt something he genuinely never saw coming: a place to land after years of adventuring.
“In the end, it comes down to mom,” he says. For someone who spent so many years adventuring, I am really glad he listened to mom.
Bone’s Burgers is located at 9721 Montgomery Road. Go hungry. Pick a burger. Include the fries. Wait for the head nod.
Hours:
Tuesday – Thursday – 11:30 – 8:00
Friday – 11:30 – 9:00
Saturday – 12:00 – 9:00
Sunday – 4:00 – 8:00
Photos courtesy of Bones’ Burgers
See more insights from your neighborhood guide, Lisa Daley.
