Fatburger from Los Angeles is here, and it’s a big burger Texans can love
Fatburger is here, and this is a California burger a Texan can love.
The lines are long for this iconic 1950s Los Angeles favorite, and deservedly so.
Plan to go at 11 a.m. or else wait 30 minutes or more just to get inside the tiny burger stand in The Crossing shopping center, 6039 Precinct Line Road along Texas 26.
But once you’ll inside, you’ll find a burger that lives up to its cult following:
▪ It comes in 4-inch original (⅓-pound) or 5-inch large (half-pound) sizes.
The ⅙-pound “Baby Fat” kids’ burger is plenty for small appetites.
▪ It’s smashed on a sizzling griddle, so it comes with crisp, browned, uneven edges.
No cookie-cutter burgers.
▪ It’s topped with both pickles and relish and both mustard and mayo, along with shredded lettuce and the other toppings.
The combination fits together snugly and you wonder why nobody in Texas made burgers this way before.
▪ It’s available in beef, turkey, veggie or as a plant-based Impossible Burger.
Does any other major chain this good offer a turkey burger? Fatburger sold 1 million last year.
▪ It comes with a choice of three (!) kinds of fries: “fat” steak fries, regular fries or sweet-potato.
(Definitely order the fat fries.)
▪ Yes, there’s a chicken sandwich. Also a grilled chicken, a Cajun chicken and chicken wings.
But are you really gonna wait 30 minutes at a burger place for a chicken sandwich? I didn’t think so.
The North Richland Hills location is the first of three planned in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with more certainly to follow.
Local franchisee Maisha Bankhead is a California native who grew up eating Fatburgers an an early location on La Cienaga Boulevard in Los Angeles.
It was founded by the late Black entrepreneur Lovie Yancey but is now part of a diverse California-based company that also owns all-natural Elevation Burger, Bonanza Steakhouse and other concepts.
“My mother and I would go to Fatburger across from the Beverly Canter, and the milkshakes were divine,” Bankhead said.
“We really are a throwback to an old-school hamburger stand,” she said.
Fat Brands chief executive Andy Wiederhorn talked about Fatburger’s false start in Texas more than 10 years ago in far northwest San Antonio. It was too far out in the suburbs, in a neighborhood where few residents came from California.
(The North Richland Hills location is easily reached from Texas 26 or the Airport Freeway.)
“It’s great to be back in the Texas market,” Wiederhorn said, calling the opening “very strong.”
Fatburgers are “the kind of burger you would make at home,” he said.
That’s not an exaggeration.
Wiederhorn said more customers should try the hand-battered onion rings.
It’s easy to see how they get overlooked at a restaurant with three varieties of fries.
This Fatburger has a patio for safer outdoor dining, although it only has five tables.
For safer dining, take it home, or to a picnic lunch; 6039 Precinct Line Road, Suite 180, 817-576-4774, fatburger.com.
(This is not the same restaurant as Fat Shack, a Colorado-based chain with a Fort Worth location.)
This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
