JP's burger deficit to be eased with new Jackson Square place

Bobby Flay couldn't make his celeb-chef burger chain fly at the frickin' Burlington Mall: if not there, where? Peak Burger was about three years ago.

I'm all for better-quality fast-food burgers, had my favorite over the holidays at Flat Patties in Harvard Square, and I'm happy that Tasty Burger is doing very fine burgers and fries and shakes at Fenway -- where the burgers were just inedible for decades -- and elsewhere around town (coming soon to North Station).

But if yours isn't extraordinary and it's $9 (looking at you, Wahlburgers, though you probably have enough local cachet to stretch that one out for a few more years), maybe it's time to consider a more of-the-moment concept in 2017. Hawaiian poke, say, or big vegetarian bowls. I'm pulling for Americans to finally grok the joys of Korean food in bigger numbers, and quality traditional regional Mexican cuisines are still criminally underappreciated. It's time.

Cat cafe? Oatmeal specialist? Maybe only one or two of those is enough for now, maybe ever. But you still gotta move with the times, find a niche where you're not competing against the scale advantages of the damnable national chains. You don't want to be doing a frozen-yogurt franchise at this late date. Quality burgers for every taste and budget are already pretty much everywhere in Boston now.