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Count me out of the "smashing" fan club. In my humble opinion, the primary reason to "smash" a burger is to cook it quicker. There is no doubt that a lot of juice is lost, it's common sense. If you have a hot grill you don't have to worry about a "crust".

I also don't like the fact that a company that knows how to put together a good sandwich is behind this burger enterprise. I plan on being a burger "king" myself someday (in a few years, I'm too busy selling subs for their rival), and too many good concepts are coming along. I hope they don't make it for purely selfish reasons.

Nice video and great looking burger. I had to laugh as Josh recoiled at being offered ketchup and mustard. Excuse me, anyone that embraces American cheese (myself included) should not scoff at ketchup and mustard the way this guy did. I'm a ketchup and mayo guy on most of my burgers, but I love mustard too. If you don't like it fine, but let's not get too "high-brow." There are a lot of burgers that are enhanced by such condiments.

Let me say first, that I'm an extreme AHT fan. This is my favorite site, and I hope to be a burgermeister someday myself. There's always room for more quality joints.

Currently I'm Subway franchisee so that will have to wait. Subway's a great business to own, in fact one of the least expensive franchises to get into, "What a country." The reason Subway is one of the most difficult to work at is simple, customers are a-holes and they take it out on employees all too often. Sure, the majority of customers are nice, but there's a high percentage of customers who look down on the people making their sandwich and I think that gets to employees after a while. Physically, it's pretty demanding as well. I don't blame former employees bagging on Subway, it's a tough business. I should know as I work my store every day.

The reason customers get three olives is, just like every other franchise, there is a formula for every sandwich, including the veggies. At the burger joint you don't ususally get to see your sandwich being assembled and tell people what you want on it. At Subway you get to stand there, as I witnessed a countless number of times watching people stare at their sandwich saying "more..., more..., more.." until they have an olive sandwich (or whatever topping turns them on). Trust me, most customers get everything they want at Subway because they are in complete control, much more so than at the burger joints. I believe that's the #1 reason for Subway's success. Especially with women, women are extremely picky and it's a match made in heaven. There are some unscrupulous owners who charge extra for extra veggies, but that's not the norm, and Subway certainly doesn't allow it. If they catch you, you are written out of compliance, which can prevent you from getting new stores.

To the point though, if you want a lowfat sandwich at Subway that's what you'll get. I noticed you didn't reference any of Subway's fat free dressings, most stores carry at least three. They're pretty decent considereng they are fat free. Also, we use light mayo on the "bain" and our light mayo has only 50% less fat than regular mayo. I don't understand how one teaspoon of light had 1 gram and regular had 12 grams per teaspoon. Something doesn't sound right.

The bottom line is I sell a ton of low fat no mayo sandwiches, primarily to women, (turkey breast is #1 with the chicks) with either/or fat free dressing, mustard, or vinegar. On the other hand, I sell a lot of 1/2 pound footlongs (sometimes double meat, a full pound of fully cooked meat) of pastrami, or carne asada, to you guessed it, men. The double meat pastrami or carne asada is too much meat for anyone to eat on a regular basis. We have a hard time closing those sandwiches with just the meat added. Obviously, the only reason Subway came out with heavy meat sandwiches is in response to the "six dollar" burgers.

Myself, I like the "Feast" sandwich, I was making those for myself at those stores three years ago. It's just an italian sub with turkey and roast beef added. Salt and pepper, oil and vinegar on mine.

I will give you what Fred Deluca told us when I was in franchisee school. People come to Subway for customer service, clean stores, and a perception of value. Subway doesn't try be the low price leader, or gourmet, Subway wants customers to enjoy their sandwich and feel they got what they paid for. Contrary to what a lot of people might say, customer service is #1 with DAI. No matter what food you sell in the QSR business, if you don't have customer service, they don't come back.

The two reasons for Subway's explosive growth: Baking bread in store, an Jared. Apparently those two things changed everything.

There is a difference between the smash the raw meatball on the grill to ensure maximum contact with the hot surface versus flipping over a burger that has already cooked on one side and then smashing it. The first method makes a nice crusty outside while the other way just makes for hockey pucks.

There is no best way of cooking burgers. Each method has its own merit and its a matter of prefference. Smashing burgers might seem to be against everything we know to achieve a fluffy and juicy burger, but who says that it has to feel like that all the time? At my restaurant I serve burgers using both methods and each method yields a different kind of burger. I love the smashed burgers for all classic diner style burgers, however I preffer gently hand formed patties for gourmet burgers (not going to be smashing kobe beef on the grill). Smashing burgers on the contrary is the best way to hide beef imperfections as it has a larger crisp surface area that tend to absorb most of the seasonings as well as cooking it more thouroughly. The quick searing by the smashing action might seal some juices, but those juices are trapped inside the patty and not in the meat particles. The extra juice is actually being picked up from the flattop. Try to go for the first burger and see how dry it would be in comparison with the 30th. I think that's one of the reasons why burgers taste better when it gets busy.

You know what, I was here just yesterday , and per the recommendation of my gf, had a burger.

It was fantastic. Definitely worth a trip over.

That is a mighty delicious burger! You would never guess to order that at a place like Veselka, but there it is... a very delicious bacon cheeseburger. Are they good at doing medium rare now? Because the patty is thinner, they seem to veer towards medium+ since they try to get that char on the outside.

totally agree bud...I'm actually a ketchup with a slight touch of mustard guy myself.