Parker Fisher recalls the moment clearly. It was five years ago and the family had gathered around the grill for burgers. His father – renowned chef Todd Fisher, then at the helm of Seventh & Dolores steakhouse – molded patties of ground beef, richly dotted with fat.
Then the elder Fisher did the unthinkable, smashing the meat on the surface of the smoking plancha.
Chefs once warned against such culinary malfeasance, especially as the gourmet burger trend took hold in the early 2000s. Press ground prime beef or Wagyu almost flat against the grill and the juices would spill out, they explained. And fat is flavor.
“It’s totally different from the old-school burger,” observes Josie Lewis, chef at Seaside’s Other Brother Beer Co. in defense of the smash burger. “You get that caramelized crust – a different texture, different flavor.”
Other Brother features two smash burgers on the menu. At Fisher’s restaurant, Bear + Flag Roadside in Carmel Valley, they offer it as a single or double stack. Tarpy’s Roadhouse in Monterey prepares their smash burger from prized Wagyu beef.
Sacrilege? Even under a sweet and raspy spread of onion jam, the brawny savor of beef stands out.
So much for the value of past conventional wisdom. According to Nation’s Restaurant News, the number of restaurants serving smash burgers jumped 22 percent from 2023 to 2024 alone. And Tastewise reports that the smashers now account for some 70 percent of burger-related Instagram posts.
Chefs have come to realize certain advantages from the smash burger. It cooks quickly, for one. By pressing the beef into the flattop, the hot surface scorches more of the meat, so its flavor becomes more pronounced. A thinner patty also cooks through more evenly. And fears about wasting precious fat have proven unfounded.
“The meat cooks in its own juices,” Fisher points out.
Indeed, fat content is critical to a proper smash burger. Lewis uses no leaner than an 80-to-20 meat-to-fat ratio. Fisher’s ground beef comes from The Meatery in Seaside, where they weigh in closer to 70-30.
“It’s all about the technique,” Fisher observes. “You’re not cooking the second side. And it should be cooked medium, at a minimum.”
Over the past five years, the popularity of smash burgers has soared. The crackling caramelization lends texture. And even when stacked, most smashers are easy to handle.
The charge of the smash burger across the culinary landscape has been so rapid and successful that Lewis is now hesitant to add a traditional burger to Other Brother’s menu.
“We’re pretty married to our smash burger concept,” she says. “I’m not sure why it has become so popular, but it’s a fun trend.”
The concept has a deeper history, although few people took notice until upper-tier fast food chains such as Shake Shack and Smashburger made it the centerpiece. While burgers served by most diners from the turn of the last century on were thin, many food writers credit a Kentucky spot named Dairy Cheer for introducing the smash burger sometime in the 1950s.
As the story goes, a line cook slammed a large can of beans onto a sizzling patty (the “why?” of this tale seems to have eluded researchers). But others point to Midwestern restaurants in the Depression era. Oklahoma’s onion burger – made specifically to stretch expensive meat and keep costs down – is an early relative.
Not everyone shares in the smashed enthusiasm. While he is not averse to pushing the burger norm – there is one with peanut butter and jalapeños, for example – Jose Miguel has yet to add a smasher to the lineup of more than 20 options at American Burger in Monterey. Miguel says he prefers the juiciness of the classic patty. But he admits the advantages of smashing.
“They are faster to cook,” he says. “And they have a lot of flavor from the grill.”
Earlier this year, the team at Food & Wine sorted through food trends over the past quarter-century. They selected the “re-burgerfication” of America as the most significant. In the early 2000s, signature burgers came into fashion. Now it’s the smash burger’s turn.
“It’s supposed to be fast, casual and delicious,” Fisher says. “I think it’s one of the best trends around.”
