When most people think of “American food,” one dish comes to mind more quickly than any other. It’s the star of our fast-food menus, a major player at roadside stands and bougie bistros alike, a dish with countless devotees and countless versions.
The good ol’ hamburger.
The fundamentals are simple – as long as there’s a patty and a bun, you can call it a burger with a straight face. But from there, chefs have free rein to play around with bold ingredients and techniques. And while Austin certainly loves a well-made classic burger with a beef patty, American cheese, pickles, onion, and maybe a touch of ketchup, this basic formula isn’t the end of our city’s burger story. Not by a long shot.
In recent years, Austin chefs have seized upon the burger as a prime opportunity to showcase flavor profiles from all over the world. According to Bob Somsith, chef/owner of Lao’d Bar, “a burger is the perfect canvas because it’s universally loved, and it’s all about balance – fat, salt, acid, heat.”
This allows chefs to introduce global tastes and elements in an approachable way that doesn’t take itself too seriously. “Burgers are fun, and they should be treated as such,” says Fermín Núñez, executive chef of Bar Toti. “You can layer in unique flavors or techniques, but it still hits that familiar, satisfying note people expect when they bite into a burger.”
Núñez dives into these priorities with aplomb when making his smash hit, La Smashburgesa. The Manor Road wine and aperitivo bar serves a food menu inspired by Spanish, French, and Mexican cuisine, and Núñez weaves those international influences into his signature burger by layering the patty with a slice of griddled ham, a common ingredient on tapas lists in Spain.
“Growing up in northern Mexico, specifically in my hometown of Torreón, most of the burgers I ate came with some sort of seared ham component,” Núñez shares. “So when the opportunity came to share a burger from one of our concepts with Austin, it was only natural to channel that memory.”
Núñez also touches on his Mexican heritage by using chipotle mayo instead of a “special sauce,” and he replaces standard dill pickles with a house-made escabeche – “a chopped mix of pickled jalapeños, carrots, and onions seasoned with oregano and coriander.” Finally, Núñez opts for a more traditionally American, but still upcycled, vessel for his unique burger: “a sesame seed bun made by our incredible pastry team, led by Derrick Flynn.”
The determination of Austin chefs to incorporate international flavors into expected burger architecture is testament to their skill. Somsith is committed to layering the “bold, funky, herbaceous flavors that define Lao food” into the Lao’d Smash Burger. He does so by swapping out a standard beef patty for pork sausage – made by his mother! – that’s seasoned with “lemongrass, makrut lime, galangal, and a little fermented funk.” Cabbage slaw replaces shredded lettuce, rice fermented pickles are used in lieu of dill, and Lao’d Bar’s “secret sauce” is an aïoli with jeow bong (Laotian chili paste). “It’s unapologetically Lao, but it still hits all the notes people expect from a burger – savory, juicy, crispy, and comforting,” says Somsith.
Even global cuisines that are popularly perceived as “fancy,” like French cuisine, find their way into Austin’s burger conversation. At Bureau de Poste, the French bistro connected to Tiny Grocer in Hyde Park, the BDP Burger counts among their most beloved menu items. “We sourced the finest French cheese and landed on a Gruyère [for this burger],” owner/operator Steph Steele says. “The method of making the [bacon] jam is French; [we] render the bacon nice and crispy, add shallots and garlic, and [let] them sweat in the bacon fat.” Other French touches include an aïoli seasoned with fines herbes (a classic French blend of chives, tarragon, and parsley) and a “brioche bun toasted with clarified butter.” All of these Gallic elements serve the “short rib patty seared on our plancha,” a cooking method that lets Bureau de Poste achieve “a beautiful Maillard reaction on the burger patty which keeps it juicy on the inside and nice and crispy on the outside.”
For Yellow Ranger in North Loop, a bar-snack destination focusing on Americanized Chinese food, adding a burger to the menu wasn’t always in the cards, but it became an important goal when the space’s history was taken into account. “We hadn’t initially planned a burger for the menu, focusing more on American-Chinese rice and noodle dishes,” explains Jeremy Young, chef/owner of Yellow Ranger. “Every day that we were building the restaurant, however, tons of local folks kept walking in asking for Burger Tex, the previous tenant for almost 50 years. We realized that we had the opportunity to respond to the direct demand from the community as well as the obligation to preserve the memory and legacy of an Austin institution.”
Because Burger Tex served burgers with Asian flavors, Young saw this as a prime opportunity to introduce Chinese influences to a classic bar burger. “We developed our Taiwanese Milk Bun recipe because fresh bread is the biggest quality changer in any sandwich,” Young emails. “Being an Asian restaurant, we swapped white onions for scallions and pressed them into the bottom of the patty to sear in the residual beef fat (which is a riff on an Oklahoma smashburger technique). American cheese grounds the burger in familiarity and comfort (and is always the best choice for a cheeseburger in our opinion).”
As far as garnishes go, “making our own pickles was mandatory and we reinforced the Asian influence by using rice vinegar and Chinese aromatics in the brine. Our house-made aïoli completes the flavor picture using wasabi/horseradish-y hot mustard as a nod to the familiar Chinese takeout condiment while connecting back to traditional mustard-based burger sauces.”
Our local burger scene is fertile ground for experimentation. “Austin’s burger culture in 2025 is a high-low mashup, where smashburger pop-ups, old-school joints, and chef-driven takes all coexist, fueled by obsession, nostalgia, and brisket fat,” Núñez says.
Somsith agrees. “Austin’s burger culture is fearless,” he says. “Chefs here aren’t just flipping patties, they’re telling stories through them.”
This article appears in July 4 • 2025.