The smashburger’s origins are somewhat hazy. Legend has it Dairy Cheer in Ashland, Kentucky, first smashed its patties with a can of beans in the mid-1900s, but Miner-Dunn in Highland, Indiana, has been serving them since 1932. And the OKC burger, a specific style of smashburger, traces its roots to the Depression in the 1920s.
Regardless of these humble beginnings, the smashburger is undeniably having a moment. While it’s available at Valley fast food options from the eponymous Smashburger to Shake Shack, it’s also abundant on local menus. You can find smashburgers in some of the most unlikely places in Las Vegas, so please dig into our favorites.
STAY TUNED BURGERS
Arguably the most famous local smashburger is from Bobby Meader’s Stay Tuned Burgers, nestled inside the rustic but recently remodeled Hard Hat Lounge. A Vegas native, Meader developed a passion for smashburgers while hunting down LA’s best renditions. After he relocated back to the Valley, what began as a literal backyard pop-up at the end of COVID landed him at Vegas Test Kitchen via a recommendation from the Yukon Pizza crew, and eventually to a permanent home at Hard Hat.
As for his burger, it’s a $9 charred classic. Meader uses shoulder clod ground and smashed in-house. The patties are topped with a paprika-infused secret sauce, American cheese, house-made pickle chips, and copious chopped white onions—although grilled onion jam is also an option—in between a butter-griddled potato bun, delivered with remarkably delicious consistency. And the vegan version is almost indistinguishable and made on its own vegan grill. 1675 S. Industrial Road, 702-384-8987, staytunedburgers.com.
NO PANTS AT THE GREEN FAIRY GARDEN
The No Pants burger with Star Tots
While sampling hundreds of burgers in the name of research, Spiegelworld executive culinary director Anna Altieri had a singular goal: to create a memorable rendition. She’s succeeded with her No Pants Burger in the unlikeliest of locations: served from a repurposed shipping container in the Green Fairy Garden outside the Absinthe show tent at Caesars Palace. You have to neither be an Absinthe ticketholder nor without britches to enjoy it, but the Gazillionaire certainly encourages both.
This is truly an OKC-style rendition, with thinly sliced onions smashed into the 75/25 chuck brisket/short rib burger. But unlike the Depression-era cooks, Altieri isn’t looking to ration meat; rather, she liked the way the veggie helped moisten the peppery, paper-thin patties. The $14 double-patty burger, a steal by Strip standards, delivers a bit of every ingredient in each bite with a trick: sandwich-sliced dill pickles in lieu of chips. These are in addition to American cheese and a tangy, mayo-based sauce, all swaddled within a butter-toasted pretzel bun. Caesars Palace, spiegelworld.com.
DELMONICO STEAKHOUSE
Plenty of fancy steakhouses—and Emeril Lagasse’s Venetian fixture certainly is fancy—have burgers on the menu, but those tend to be the thick-patty renditions and not the more accessible, fast-food variety. But when chief culinary officer Ronnie Rainwater and his team were talking about their favorite burgers over pre-shift family meals, they kept coming back to a smashburger.
That’s the genesis of the Delmonico Smash Cheeseburger, the comically large, $26 lunch-only offering consisting of a pair of gargantuan patties overflowing the house-made potato brioche bun. I’m not an advocate of eating a burger with a fork and knife, but you might not have any other option with this beast. The meat is a blend of ribeye brisket with some trim, including Wagyu, and the flavor shines with dry-aged funk, even in griddled form. The accompanying lettuce, tomato and onion on the side allows you dress it as you like, but it comes adorned with bread and butter pickles, American cheddar—a welcome departure from the norm—and a tangy fry sauce. It’s a treat well worth escaping to the Strip for a lunchtime excursion. Venetian, 702-414-3737, venetianlasvegas.com.
YUKON PIZZA
Remember that mention of Yukon Pizza from Stay Tuned’s origin story? Well, they have a smashburger of their own, but it started as a joke. Chef Justin Ford thought it’d simply be funny to have a burger on the pizza’s place early menu, never thinking it’d stay. But the joke’s on him, because the $10 burger is one of Yukon’s best-selling items.
This smashburger, with great char, delivers a surprising bit of heat. Some of the spiciness can be attributed to the togarashi-tinted secret sauce, which consists of the Japanese spice blend plus sour cream, mayo, and a lot of garlic powder. But the 80/20 chuck patties are also seasoned with a 70/30 mix of togarashi and Maryland-favorite crab seasoning Old Bay, infusing the meat with an amalgam of spicy and salty. White American cheese, caramelized onions and house-made pickles finish it off. It’s no joke to order a burger at a pizza place! 1130 E. Charleston Blvd. #160, 702-509-6691, yukonpizza.com.
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