photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

A Wahlburgers "The Our Burger" and a side order of sweet potato tots are shown at the new Wahlburgers restaurant inside the Lawrence Hy-Vee grocery store at Clinton Parkway and Kasold Drive.

Lawrence’s newest upscale hamburger restaurant has one burger that features peanut butter and onion jam. Another is slathered with orange-cranberry sauce, stuffing and roasted butternut squash.

What else would you expect when one of its founders used to hang around with a group called the Funky Bunch?

Indeed, Wahlburgers — a gourmet restaurant chain founded by the Wahlberg clan of actors, rappers and a boy band legend — has come to Lawrence. It recently opened inside the Hy-Vee grocery store at Clinton Parkway and Kasold Drive.

“We are burgers gourmet,” said Justin Thornton, Hy-Vee’s food service general manager. “Any way you can imagine building a burger, we can make it happen.”

The menu does feature lots of opportunities to customize a burger. The Angus patties are cooked to order, and the menu includes nearly a dozen free toppings ranging from fresh jalapeños to buffalo sauce to ranch dressing that you can add to your own creation.

Or, if creative genius isn’t in your genes, the menu has more than 15 sandwich combinations laid out for you. That includes everything from a basic hamburger with “government cheese” — an American-style cheese reminiscent of the commodity cheese the Wahlbergs grew up with — to the more exotic PBJ Burger, mentioned above.

Also on that list of the out-of-the ordinary is the Thanksgiving Turkey Burger, and the Wahl-Apeño Burger, which features two quarter-pound patties, crispy fried jalapeños, a jalapeño jelly and cream cheese.

Somewhere on the menu you would think there would be some dish named after a Mark. After all, one of the Wahlbergs found the name so nice he used it twice. Mark Wahlberg is a legitimate movie star today, but prior to his acting career he was the lead rapper for Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.

Despite that, Mark is not the name that stands out on the menu. Instead, it is Joe, as in Mom’s Sloppy Joe. Wahlburgers is one of the few restaurants that features a sloppy Joe on its menu. (Personally, I think I would have called it Jokey Joe and the Messy Munch, but I’m also not a rapping restaurateur.) The sandwich is made with crumbled Angus beef that is saturated with a signature tomato sauce and served on thick, white toast. For good measure, the menu also includes a nacho dish that features the sloppy Joe mixture.

“The menu is pretty creative,” Thornton said.

It would have to be. While Mark Wahlberg may be the biggest actor in the family, he has competition for the title of the family’s largest creative genius. Brother Donnie Wahlberg was a founding member of the boy band New Kids on the Block. And get this, he is now a detective on the CBS series “Blue Bloods.” Almost every Friday night at 9 p.m., I summon the fellow occupants of my house to the TV and remind them of the great duality of life. (They are very excited, but hide it well.)

And, by the way, there is another brother, and he is a … chef. Brother Paul Wahlberg and his recipes were the driving force behind opening the first restaurant in 2011 in the Boston area, according to the company’s website. By 2014, the restaurant was the subject of a reality show on the A&E cable network. Since then, the restaurant has been franchising and has more than 50 locations in the U.S. and England.

In 2018, the company reached a deal with Hy-Vee to place Wahlburgers in select Hy-Vee grocery stores. While some Johnson County stores got a Wahlburgers fairly early on, Hy-Vee added the offering to its Lawrence location just a few weeks ago.

The Wahlburgers is in addition to the large number of food court offerings that Hy-Vee also offers. While Wahlburgers has its own separate counter and menu board area, guests can order from the other food stations that basically are just a few steps away from the Wahlburgers counter.

“If mom wants sushi and dad wants a burger and the kids want chicken strips, you can do all of that here,” Thornton said.

The Wahlburgers and the food court offerings share a large dining area that is connected to the store but tucked away from the main flow of the grocery. That dining area also includes a full bar area, Thornton said.

There’s also one other way that Wahlburgers and Hy-Vee are connecting on this latest venture. Ice cream shakes are a big part of the Wahlburgers menu. Thanks to the in-store bakery at Hy-Vee, the Wahlburgers also offers something called a “cupcake shake.” Thornton said the restaurant takes cupcakes made at the bakery, cuts off the bottom portion of the cupcake and crumbles it into the shake. It then places the shiny, frosting-filled remainder of the cupcake atop the shake.

That’s a twist even a boy band would be proud of.