A food business nearly a century in the making is coming to Decatur.
Nathan Rager, owner of Rager Burger and Hot Head Burritos, is preparing to open a dual-concept restaurant at 644 N. 13th St., bringing with him a family legacy in the food business that stretches back to 1927.
That was the year Rager’s great-grandfather, Ezra Rager, opened a family meat market in Scott, Ohio. After returning from World War II, Rager’s grandfather Glenn joined the operation, eventually purchasing it from Ezra and growing it into Rager’s Country Butcher Shop on the family farm in Van Wert, Ohio. In the 1960s, Rager’s father joined the business, and by the early 1980s the family had built a federally inspected processing facility in Van Wert — on land that is now part of Cooper Farms — adjacent to the family home.
Nathan Rager grew up immersed in that world, learning the craft of pork and beef processing from the ground up.
“From a very young age I would join the team on the kill floor,” Rager said, “watching and learning the process of pork and beef processing, retail operations and wholesale distribution.”
When that business was acquired in the late 1980s, the family’s run in meat processing came to an end — but not Rager’s connection to food. In 1994 he launched a small vending operation that grew into Rager’s Food Service and Vending, eventually employing more than 100 people and serving nearly 60 industrial clients across a 70-mile radius of Van Wert. Among those clients was Fleetwood Motor Homes in Decatur, which became one of the company’s top accounts.
“Decatur became a second home for me during my tenure in the vending business,” Rager said. “It has always felt like a ‘sister city’ to Van Wert.”
That company was acquired by AVI Food Systems in 2007, at the time the largest privately held vending and food service company in the United States. Rager stayed on with AVI through 2010 before moving into an unrelated business until 2018.
It was then that he decided to return to his roots — this time with a quick-service restaurant concept built around a product as old as his family name. Rager Burger opened in Van Wert in 2019, just six months before the COVID-19 pandemic upended the restaurant industry. The business weathered the disruption and established itself as a local favorite.
The signature item is the Rager Burger itself — a fresh-ground sausage sandwich made from a recipe approaching its 100th year, with only modest updates to suit a modern palate. Rager cuts, grinds and seasons the sausage on-site. The menu also features a smoked and pulled pork sandwich served with homemade BBQ or Spicy Sweet sauce, a dry-cured and hickory- and applewood-smoked bacon, a new fried chicken sandwich, and sides including skin-on french fries, breaded onion rings and white cheddar cheese curds. On the sweeter side, the restaurant offers its signature Doughboy or Doughgirl — a fried dough treat finished with cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar, similar to a mini elephant ear.
By 2021, Rager began looking for a way to grow beyond a single concept. He explored coffee, smoothies, pizza and sub franchises before coming across Hot Head Burritos, an Ohio-based chain headquartered in Huber Heights. He approached the company with an unconventional pitch: a dual-concept store, with both brands operating under one roof.
Hot Head agreed, and the Van Wert location opened in 2022. The pairing more than proved itself — same-store sales nearly quadrupled, with the two menus complementing rather than competing with each other.
Hot Head’s menu centers on rice-based bowls and burritos, along with tacos, quesadillas, fresh-made tortilla chips, guacamole, queso, pico de gallo, corn salsa and a lineup of signature sauces including Hot Head, Sweet Habanero, Jalapeño Ranch and Southwest Ranch.
With the Decatur location, Rager said he is bringing together everything — a family recipe, a proven concept and a community he has known for decades.
“I believe we built a solid reputation for quality food and service in the community,” he said. “When it came time to expand, Decatur made sense.”