Smashburgers – I love to say I told you so

And a banana pudding

I think I finally get it that noone is going to be out there fighting my corner, career-wise, lifting up a picture of my 62% open rate and shouting “no but seriously, the other 38% of you should really open this”. It’s my job to do that! But I can’t. When people ask me what I do for work I normally say, oh, just writing, bit of writing, little bit of writing, mostly stuff you wouldn’t have heard of, nothing really, I do nothing, I’m a turtle. 

But I must say: I was writing about smashburgers in 2012. In the grand history of the smashburger that’s not very long ago, but in the context of the smashburger mania that’s been gripping us for the last while, it’s ages!

For the Sunday Times Travel Magazine, I planned and executed a burger loop of Texas. It started with this book, Hamburger America, George Motz’s state-by-state guide to great burger joints. I don’t remember how I came to own it but I remember it was everything I was excited about at the time and I could not think of anything more thrilling than sitting on one of the leather stools in the photos of old diners, grocery stores and bars. I picked a state, any state, and I wrote a pitch. I wanted to do Oklahoma as well but states are big. I could only manage one, and I really wanted to go to Texas. I wanted barbeque and frozen custard and pecan pie and actual Tex-Mex. I recall that “food trucks” were big at the time and I wanted to find the Coolhaus one in Austin, I wanted to wander the San Antonio River Walk with a frozen marg and I wanted to sing, “this is how they made me, Houston Texas baby”. I wanted the world. I wanted the whole world. I wanted to lock it all up in my pocket, it’s my bar of chocolate, give it to me now. One for the Veruca Salt fans there. 

I spoke to George Motz on the phone, and got on my way.