THE GREAT SMASHBURGER BOOM
THE GREAT SMASHBURGER BOOM
How one comfort-food classic became the ultimate culinary sensation.
By now, you’ve likely had one. A patty of juicy beef, smashed on a piping hot grill, topped with a gooey ooze of melted American cheese, and griddled to crisp perfection. That’s then tucked into a buttery bun, perhaps with a slather of sauce, perhaps with a leaf of lettuce or few slices of pickle. Which sounds quite simple, sure. But that’s part of why smash burgers have quickly become one of the most popular sandwiches in America.
The smash burger is everywhere these days, including right here at Silver Diner. For the last year, we’ve been slinging this comfort-food phenomenon, and like elsewhere across this country, they’re now a menu best-seller—making nearly 2,000 of them a month at our Rockville location alone—now neck in neck in terms of orders with our bigger, bistro-style burgers, which dominated the last two decades of American dining. Says Chris Hiller of Silver Diner’s recipe development team, “It looks like smash burgers are here to stay.”
But how did we arrive at this moment? After all, “A smash burger is just a cheeseburger with more melt and crunch,” wrote Eater in 2024. Somehow, though, those two tweaks transform that red-white-and-blue staple into something even more decadent and delectable, while also being fast and cheap.
But how did we arrive at this moment? Well, the origins of the cheeseburger are a bit murky. Humans have been eating minced meat since ancient civilization, with the modern iteration of burgers likely dating back to the late 1800s, when menus started offering beef patties named after the first-rate German cows from which they came—via Hamburg, of course. Often, they were served straight on plate with a side of bread, so you can guess what happened next. Hamburger “steaks” became hamburger sandwiches.
“It looks like smash burgers are here to stay.”
Usually, these were everyman spaces like late-night saloons and, more importantly, lunch carts—the precursor of the diner, as you might recall. So into the 20th century, as diners proliferated across the country, so too did burgers, both being established as quintessential symbols of the old U.S. of A along the way. After all, what was a fast-food drive-in an evolution of if not a diner?
And those patties grew in more ways than one, over time becoming supersized—from single, double, triple patties to half-pound behemoths—and seriously customizable—from different levels of doneness, all kinds of cheeses, and fancy condiments to a feast of accoutrements like bacon, avocado, fried eggs, and onion rings.
But into the early aughts, a comeback was brewing for old-school burgers. In-N-Out started expanded outside of California. Five Guys started gaining a cult following in Washington, D.C. Lines at Shake Shack stretched down the streets of New York City. Then a few blocks away in 2019, Korean-American chef Jae Lee popped up in Manhattan—a moment that many say set the modern craze in motion. He served a Pavlov’s-dog inducing throwback burger, its pressed patties surrounded by extra crispy edges and slathered in a Big Mac-style sauce infused with a special touch: kimchi. It went Internet viral, reinventing a nostalgic flavor of American youth, but in a way that was anything but ordinary. And we’ve been insatiable ever since.
Today, you can’t fling a French fry without finding a smash burger, from the eponymous take-out chains to the trendiest restaurants where Michelin starred chefs are using them as canvases for creativity.
Creekstone Farms Beef, Koch’s Farm Turkey & Avocado and Vegan Beyond Meat Smash Burgers
At Silver Diner, we combine tradition with a modern touch. It all starts with a quarter pound of grass-fed Black Angus beef from Creekstone Farms. That’s thrown onto a flat-top grill over high heat and smashed down with a heavy weight. Given the thickness of the patty, it’s cooked a mere two minutes per side, letting the fat sizzle and sear every surface of the meat into a perfect, well-done crust. That’s topped with American cheese, caramelized onions, pickles, lettuce, tomato, and Thousand Island dressing, then served on a toasted brioche bun. Our vegetarian customers can even get in on the trend, thanks to a version made with Beyond Meat.
It’s not too big, not too small, with plenty of satisfying flavor for the whole family.
“It’s nostalgia, but better,” says Hiller.
No wonder smash burgers have taken over the nation.
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NEW SUMMER MENU
One of the hallmarks of Silver Diner is our season updates from Chef Ype Von Hengst. With the summer officially arriving this past weekend, that means a new menu is finally upon us. For the hot days ahead, find fresh seafood offerings like crab cake eggs Benedicts, tuna poke bowls, and roasted corn lobster rolls, as well as refreshing options like a citrusy beet salad and trio of special lemonades. And just in time for America’s 250th birthday, find patriotic sweets like French toast and desserts topped with blue and red berries! Happy Fourth of July to all of you.