Swinging by Hammer Burger

 Hammer Burger

313 North Bush St. 

Santa Ana, CA 92701

Smash burgers are the hottest trend in the culinary world right now. They have been all over social media in the last few years. The trend started five years ago and has gotten even bigger lately. You know it has gotten out of control when national fast food spots, like Jack In the Box and Sonic, have smash burgers on their menu. Jack in the Box had to remove them from their menu for a month because they were such a hit that they had a meat shortage. It's almost like traditional burgers have become obsolete. 

My favorite OC smash burger comes from Hammer Burger. I have written about Hammer Burger once before, back in 2020. It was pandemic time, and they were serving burgers at a pop-up in front of their house in Orange. I ordered my burger a week ahead of time and went to pick it up in a small cul-de-sac. It smelled so good I had to pull over and eat it before I got home. Yes, I have no willpower. The burger was great, and I was one of the converts to smash burgers. I even visited them once more when they had a food truck a few years later. 

Over a year ago, Hammer Burger opened its first restaurant in downtown Santa Ana. It is situated near the corner of Bush and 4th Streets, across from the 4th Street Market Food Hall. Parking can be tricky in this area, but the city is making it much better for the businesses here by allowing free parking in the parking structures Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and two hours of free parking the rest of the time. A new parking structure is also being built right next to Hammer Burger, which will hopefully help parking problems become a thing of the past. 

The menu here has expanded from the early days of cooking in their driveway. Hammer Burger now offers different burgers, two chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, sides, loaded fries, and even two salads. They use high-quality beef for their burgers, their buns are Martin's Potato Rolls, and they make all of their sauces in-house, along with their pickles. I was here for their OC Restaurant Week special, a Truffle Burger and Truffle Fries for $19. Let's see if my hot streak with restaurant week places could continue with my fifth restaurant visit in five days. 

When this Truffle Burger was brought to my table, it kind of took my breath away. It looked almost too pretty to eat, but once I got a whiff of it, I knew I had to do my due diligence and dig in. This burger came with two truffle salted patties, red wine-infused cheese, mushroom, and garlic confit, and truffle aioli on a garlic-toasted brioche bun. Yeah, it's definitely not your everyday burger experience. Predictably, the dominant flavor profile was garlic and truffle. Even though truffles can be overwhelming, this was a reasonably balanced burger. The mushroom and the garlic aioli burst through at specific points, and the beef patty came through slightly. Another significant achievement of this burger was the bun, which did not slide around too much and made it easy to eat. 

Maybe my taste buds were shot out by the many things going on with the burger, but the Truffle Fries lacked any real truffle flavor. I think they just salted the fries with truffle salt. Their self-service sauce bar came to the rescue, though. The jalapeno ranch, chipotle, and garlic sauce were the best of the bunch. They all woke these fries up and elevated them in the flavor department. I'll get the loaded fries the next time I'm here. 

I had come all the way from South OC, so I did not want to try just one thing at Hammer Burger. I also tried the Chili Cheese Dog ($9). I'm thrilled I did. This chili dog is one of the best I have had in quite a while. The hot dog had a nice snap, and the chili was some of the meatiest I have encountered on a hot dog in my fifteen years of writing this blog. It also had great flavor and consistency to it. I did have two complaints about this, though, which, if rectified, would have put this chili cheese dog in a class by itself. The cheese needed to be melted, and the bun toasted to give it a little crunch. Still, it's in the upper echelon of chili cheese dogs in OC. 

I had no doubt that Hammer Burger would be just as good whether they are doing pop-ups, in a food truck, or at their own restaurant. Since this visit, I have been trying to find reasons to return to Downtown Santa Ana to try more of their menu. The Spicy Dog, Chili Cheese Burger, and the Spicy Flatty Melt, a patty melt version of their spicy burger, have all caught my eye. I'm also continuously checking out their Instagram page, as they routinely have special burgers available, and their burgers of the month are quite something to behold. The service was adequate, and my meal was served promptly. Even at the odd meal time of half past 3 in the afternoon, they had a steady stream of people eating there. It's proof that this might be the best smash burger in all of OC. It's the best I have had so far. 

Out of five bottles of sunscreen (because the hammerhead shark is one of the few animals that can get a tan because it spends so much time in shallow waters), five being best to zero being worst, Hammer Burger gets 3.5 bottles of sunscreen. 

For more information about Hammer Burger, head to their website by clicking here: https://hammerburger.com/

Hammering Away at Burgers in Orange

Hammer Burger 

Pop Up Event

Orange, CA

The times have definitely changed over the first part of this year. To say that the restaurant industry is facing some uncertain times would be an understatement. There's talk about closures, twenty-five percent capacities, and safety for employees and customers alike. Things I never thought I'd be writing about on my little restaurant blog.

I also never thought I'd be writing about pop up restaurants. To be honest, I find them to be a little too much trouble. Much like the food truck craze of the early 2010s, I find pop up events to be inconvenient. When I feel like I want to eat something, I just want to go and have it. Instant gratification is what I want. With pop-ups, I have to wait until they are serving, there are usually long lines, and there's almost always crowds present at these events.

So why am I writing about a pop-up? I changed my tune after having Heritage Barbecue a few months ago. Even though it took nearly three hours of my day to get my food, it was so worth it. It's also satisfying to get in on the ground floor before a place really takes off. That barbecue was the best I've had in OC, and I look forward to Heritage Barbecue opening in San Juan Capistrano this June. Fingers crossed.

Back to Hammer Burger. It was the perfect storm. I was off work for a week and saw on their Instagram page that they were going to be serving up burgers the following Saturday. I instantly went to get my credit card so I could reserve mine. This was on Monday. By Wednesday most of their slots had been filled and I think they were sold out the next day.

I tortured myself that whole week while I waited for Saturday to come by checking out their pictures on Instagram. I don't really know the whole story behind Hammer Burger. I know that when I ordered my burger I had to go pick it up in a residential area of Orange, near the 22 Freeway. Their barebones menu consists of a single, double, and triple cheeseburger, chips, Mexican Coke, and Topo Chico, which is a sparkling water from Mexico. That's it.

With my trusty GPS as a guide, I pulled into the dead-end residential street. I saw the easy up in the driveway, and a couple working feverishly behind the flattop smashing burgers. There was a table set up at the end of the short driveway with bags all ready to go. One had my name on it, and as quickly as it had taken me to get here, I was off with the aroma of my burger quickly filling my car. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it all the way back home to South OC, so I pulled over in a nearby industrial area to snap a few pictures and indulge.

This Double Burger ($8) came dressed very simply with two slices of American cheese, some translucent onions, house-made pickles, and Hammer sauce, which I'd describe as a light mustard sauce. Because this was a smash style burger, it was not as heavy as other double burgers. Due to the increased surface area of the patty to the heat source, the edges are crisped a bit, which is my favorite part of the smash burger experience. All aspects of this burger really worked well together. The cheese and beef patties melded together nicely, while the onions, pickles, and Hammer sauce were all mellow enough to allow the beef to be the star of the show. The bun was nice and soft while doing its job of keeping everything together. A very well put together burger.

As I inhaled my burger on the side of the road, I realized two things. One, I should have gotten two burgers, which I could have eaten very easily. Two, and more importantly, I do not need bacon or any other add-ons to enjoy a classic, well-made burger. This was a well-executed burger made from high-quality ingredients. Not to be corny, but you could taste the care that went into it. It really reminded me of the burgers from LA favorite, Burgers Never Say Die. The only distinguishing factor between the two is that these burgers only use their sauce, while Burgers Never Say Die adds ketchup and mustard. With the system that Hammer Burger has set up, it didn't take as long to get our burgers here as it did at the always busy BNSD. I guess I also learned one more thing from this burger experience. I'm now way more willing to go through the hassle of pop-ups, as long as the burgers taste this good. 

Out of five bald eagles, (because the city of Haines, Alaska is home to a Hammer Museum, and that city also has the highest concentration of bald eagles in the world), five being best to zero being worst, Hammer Burger gets 3.5 bald eagles.

For more information about Hammer Burger and when you can get yours, head to their website here: https://www.hammerburger.com/