July 13, 2021

Eight-year-old Micah Paulson knows his way around YouTube.

A year ago, the incoming third grader launched his own channel — Micah’s Gaming Squad — to share his adventures on games such as Roblox and Minecraft.

Along the way, he has gained more than 100 subscribers, produced a reveal of the family’s new puppy and unboxed an Xbox on video.

He also has discovered some fellow creators to aspire to — including Jimmy Donaldson, a North Carolina-based 22-year-old creator of the YouTube personality MrBeast.

Paulson is one of MrBeast’s 65 million followers.

“He gives away lots of money and does challenges,” Paulson explained. “He wants to make the world a better place before he dies.”

It’s one of the most popular channels on YouTube, thanks to videos such as one that involved going through the same drive-thru 1,000 times, offering to pay for anything participants could fit in a small circle and adopting every dog in a shelter.

And late last year, MrBeast partnered with Virtual Dining Concepts to create MrBeast Burger, a virtual restaurant brand. It kicked off as a pop-up restaurant that not only gave away food when it opened but also stuffed dollar bills in customers’ bags along with their meals.

Paulson watched that video, downloaded the app for MrBeast Burger and realized Sioux Falls wasn’t on the initial list of locations.

A couple of days ago, he decided to try again.

“It’s been a long time since I looked,” he explained.

And this time, success.

A location showed up with an address at The Empire Mall.

“That’s our mall,” Paulson said.

That same day, a DoorDash driver delivered his order: A Beast-style burger with smashed beef patties with house seasoning, American cheese, pickles, diced white onion, mayo, ketchup and brown mustard on a soft roll, and Beast-style fries, crinkle-cut and loaded with caramelized onions, American cheese, pickles, mayo, ketchup and mustard.

The burger was a hit.

“It was good,” he said, flashing a thumbs up. “Ten out of ten.”

Of course, he documented the experience for his followers.

“I went on my iPad, went to YouTube and hit the record button,” he said.

Here’s a look at his video:

The fries were a bit too loaded, so when he ordered again the following day, he went with plain.

The DoorDash driver told Paulson he’d picked up his order at the Red Robin at The Empire Mall. MrBeast Burger also has been reported to operate out of Red Robin restaurants in other locations, including in Iowa and Wisconsin.

It’s what’s known as a “ghost kitchen,” where food is prepared in an existing restaurant’s kitchen but only available through delivery services.

The MrBeast Burger menu includes several styles of burgers, chicken sandwiches, grilled cheese and crinkle fries.

DoorDash also lists other ghost kitchens available in Sioux Falls, including Fresh Set, which is mostly salads and wraps; The Wing Dept., which is wings with a variety of sauces and other sides; and Chicken Sammy’s, which is chicken sandwiches, tenders, wings and appetizers. Those three also are ghost kitchens. They were announced by Red Robin earlier this year as part of a nationwide rollout and have some overlap on their menus as well as with Red Robin’s regular menu.

While other national brands have yet to arrive in Sioux Falls, It’s Just Wings offers wings and fries operating out of the Chili’s kitchen and Thighstop offers chicken thighs from the Wingstop kitchen. The new local restaurant Harvester Kitchen by Bryan plans to add a ghost kitchen at lunch for to-go sandwiches.

As for the MrBeast addition, Paulson has advice for fellow diners.

“Just to try it,” he said.