“Houston’s first Smashburger is going into an unnamed strip center at the intersection of Main Street and Kirby Drive, right beside Reliant Center,” reports Globe St.‘s Connie Gore:
[Ryan McMonagle, Smashburger’s CFO] tells GlobeSt.com that Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston each will start with two “grade A-plus locations” this year and reach eight to 10 before 2009 ends, putting the new chain on “a clear path to 30 over the next three-year period” in each city.
What’s a Smashburger?
Jason Sheehan of the Houston Press‘s sister publication Denver Westword says it’s a burger joint where
the burgers are truly smashed — thrown and mashed onto the flat-top grill with a press that I at first thought was for show, then realized played an important role. When a half-pound of ground, nicely fatty Angus beef is whacked onto the hot steel, it produces a flood of meat juice that caramelizes instantly into a crispy halo of blood and fat around the edge of the burger. It’s like meat candy, the delicacy you lose when a burger is cooked on a slotted grill — the traditional cooking surface for burgers smashed by hand.
- Smashburger Makes Texas Next Stop for Expansion (PDF) [Globe St.]
- Cow Town [Westword]
- Smashburger, 7811 Main [HAIF]
- Real Estate [Smashburger]
Photo of Denver Smashburger interior: Flickr user johnny_nissan [license]
Looks delish, but I’ll bet their overhead will kill them. It’s not like fancy hamburgers are poorly represented in this town, and Goode Company and Beck’s Prime are just up Kirby.
You got that right marmer.
Houston is hamburger lovers dream. There are more places that have great burgers or just advertise burgers in the city than I’ve seen anywhere else.
Not that it’s a bad thing! Smashburger will have to just carve out their niche in the burger eating public.
Luckily the first joint will be near a heavily lunchtime oriented crowd. So they should get some lunchtime regulars.
Great. There is DJ’s across the street, Sonic a block down, a Jack and Burger Queen another block farther. They are going in the small strip center our company built next to our headquarters. I’m the VP of Advertising for that company (any guesses?). Damn, at least it is not quite as bad as a Krispy Kreme going in. I’ll report in with a burger review and a warning, I am damn picky about my burgers (Christian’s Totem for me).
I hear you on the Christian’s Totem!
A+ location? Main and Kirby? maybe Post Oak/Richmond/Galleria. going to be tough competition.
Christian’s is overrated. try Cahill’s or Langford’s (man, getting hungry and haven’t been to either in awhile)
JayC, not to hijack this thread, but I have been all over on the burger quest trail with many of my friends. Cahill’s and Lankford’s are good, but they do not meet the patty test that Christian’s (Totem only, not Tailgate) does. If you like Lankford’s, try Stanton’s City Bites off Houston, north of Washington. They make a really great burger you might like. Takeout only, though. Cheers.