Smash burgers and vintage decor: 3 local spots dishing out pure nostalgia

What makes a good smash burger? Crispy, pressed beef patties; melted American cheese and well-caramelized onions are obvious factors to consider, but some of DFW’s top concepts are also heavily banking on old-school jukeboxes and vinyl booths to create an experience that warrants nostalgia.

Smash burgers have experienced a rapid surge in popularity in North Texas and across the country. More and more new concepts are bucking the thick, brioche-sandwiched burgers that dominated the 2010s for the trendy style, with many recent additions choosing to serve their product in spaces that feel like a time-warped 1950s luncheonette.

The style isn’t just a new fad, despite its resurgence in popularity. Stretching ground beef by pressing it onto a griddle with a generous helping of onions was a way for food counters to save money during the Depression, while smash burgers have traditionally enjoyed popularity in Oklahoma and other parts of the U.S. And with them lurching back into the culinary mainstream in the Lone Star State, it’s only natural that the resurgence takes on a timeless look, down to the checker board wrappers the burgers are served in.

Neon, vintage memorabilia, wooden accents and yellow paint are all good indicators you’re in one of these up-and-coming spots. They all lean into a classic feel, though it’s not copy-and-paste — the inspirations and execution behind the concepts reflect the owners who envisioned them.

So, what does a retro build-out have to do with a good smash burger? We spoke with three business owners to find out why the style seems inextricably tied to themes of decades past.

Patty Lou’s Smashburgers | Downtown Plano

Patty Lou’s, made its debut a few weeks ago in downtown Plano. It’s owned by Nathan and Bonnie Shea, who also own Urban Crust, Urbano Cafe and Urban Seafood, all of which are located in a one-block radius of each other.

Their smash burgers are decidedly on the larger side and come on a soft potato bun that lets the crispy combination of onions, cheese, pickles, house sauce, and grill-pressed ground beef inside speak for itself. There’s the Patty Lou Smashburger, which follows the standard recipe, and the Texas Sweetheart, which comes loaded with jalapeño radish. Both are odes to Bonnie’s family history.

The Patty Lou’s space housed a Starbucks up until last year. When it closed, the Sheas used the opportunity to realize a concept they’ve been envisioning for a while. That’s also where the name comes in. They chose to name it after Bonnie’s mother, Patty Lou Peters, a Western Swing performer who toured around the country in the 1940s and 1950s. Her name is also well-suited to a concept trying to make a name for its patties, which are made from wagyu beef produced at its ranch just north of Denton.

Bonnie explains that her mother had stopped performing before she was born and was not very forthcoming with details of her musical exploits. So, after years of research to fill in the gaps and her decision to open a smash burger spot with her son-in-law’s recipe, it was only natural to combine the two, she says.

“I’ve done research probably 20 of the last 24 years, literally newspapers.com and finding things because we never knew the history of what all she actually did, and so I had been putting that together,” Bonnie says. “It was just an evolution of, ‘Well, let’s do this inside the actual restaurant.’”

Their team designed Patty Lou’s as a hybrid museum-throwback burger counter with Western themes to reflect the singer’s career. A display case stands in the entrance and gives customers a chance to look over sheet music, photos and an accordion used in her mother’s time touring with Patty Lou’s and Her Texas Sweethearts. There’s also an original amp, but the main draw is her performance guitar on display at the front.

“The comments we’ve gotten are this is one of the coolest spaces we’ve seen. It’s amazing,” Nathan says. “It’s small, but even the old school lights, everything about it. I think it’s got a fun feel too.”

Above the counter, there’s a mural painted by a local artist using motifs from Patty Lou’s career, including Route 66 and Longhorn Ballroom. Around it, old photos, dark woodwork and a jukebox create a Western-tinged throwback feel Bonnie says families can enjoy.

“A little more upscale than a classic diner,” she says. “Experience is really where we have the passion too. We want it to be an experience for everybody in this area. We love it because generations come together here.”

Burger Schmurger | Old Lake Highlands

After operating nomadically for years with a presence at the now-closed High Fives on Henderson, Burger Schmurger finally landed a brick-and-mortar location in Old Lake Highlands last year. The concept launched as a backyard pop-up in 2020, and owner Dave Culwell was one of North Texas’s early adopters of smash burgers.

The brand has gained acclaim and awards over the past six years, largely due to the quality of its “Schmurger,” which comes with housemade sauce and pickles. While the Schmurger is the classic, he also spices things up with smoked bacon jam and an uncommon cheese choice in provolone for the ‘Maverick.’

“It’s an easy burger to eat, and it’s not a half pound of meat to make it like that,” Culwell says. “I think it lends itself to the decor of a diner, or retro-style diner that kind of plays into like the old tiny greasy spoon restaurants.”

His space leans heavily into the classic diner look, with yellow leather booths, mid-century seats and neon accents opening a portal to the ’70s off Buckner Road. A wall in the back hosts dozens of framed portraits of supporters, friends and family, including Culwell’s grandmother, who was a significant part of his childhood and is credited with creating Burger Schmurger’s ice box cake. The checkered mustard tile floor gives a sense of sitting in her kitchen, which Culwell describes as his “culinary school.”

“Our whole restaurant is like wood panels, kind of like houses from back in the ’70s and ’80s,” he says. “And my grandmother, a lot of people’s grandmothers, have all their family pictures either going down the hallway or dead or something like that. They’re all family pictures from me and my family, my partners’ families, and then a lot of the people who were instrumental in the development of Burger Schmurger…”

“It’s kind of cool. It’s real special, real personal.”

When asked why retro spaces lend themselves so well to a concept like his, he says it all comes back to familiarity.

“I think it’s classic,” he says. “And I think there is a comfort to it. We have people who come in celebrating their happiest moments, and we have people that come in that just went through a breakup, or losing their job. It’s a place where they come for comfort.”

Herby’s Burgers | Elmwood

Herby’s Burgers in Oak Cliff’s Elmwood neighborhood is the oldest brick-and-mortar of the three. Since the debut in 2023, it’s been owned by Will Rhoten (a.k.a. DJ Sober), Jake Saenz and Elijah Salazar.

If there’s a crispier edge on a smash burger in Dallas, let us know. Herby’s specializes in textbook, no-frills burgers teaming with grilled onions and a healthy helping of cheese, although you can add mac sauce if you’re needing some extra carbs.

As an owner who jumped on the trend early, Rhoten says the propensity of smash burger proprietors to lean into sentimentality may correspond with their age.

“Maybe a majority of the people opening Smash Burger spots are possibly like around my age, and maybe it’s just like because we grew up in an era where there was a lot of things still lingering from the ’70s and then the ’80s,” he says. “I think if you’re close in age to me or you’re Gen X, you live through multiple decades, and kind of seeing those things get phased out, and I think everything comes back full circle.”

Inside of Herby’s, Rhoten and his co-owners have created a kitschy callback to burger joints of old. The space is floored in pastel-blue checkerboard tile and comes equipped with laminate diner booths, hand-painted signs and an antique jukebox. Behind an ordering counter, tots and grilled cheese are advertised with marquee letters on a classic Coca-Cola menu board.

“It almost looks like a TV set of like an old school burger joint because like it’s clean, but also that you have the nostalgia there,” Rhoten says. “It does have a throwback feel, but also has a little bit of my own twist to it.”

Also sitting behind the counter is a mini disco ball, a Big Boy statuette and a host of other throwbacks sitting atop a case of VHS tapes. Rhoten’s interior inspiration comes from film, he says, adding that, like a great concept, movies stick in memory.

“I always like gravitate towards movies that were filmed in the ’70s and ’80s,” he says. “Even before this, I watched a lot of stuff that had restaurant scenes or little diners, or whatever. Just taking things from my past and memories. Nowadays I feel like every spot’s just like a modern ‘box,’ and I don’t think like any kid is gonna remember that experience.”

His joint takes on a decidedly old-time feel even before passing through the doors. Out front, yellow accents and a Mad Men-esque cartoon depiction of his dog, Herby, set the vibe for visitors. Rhoten wants people to remember that sign and his product, which might point to why owners are leaning into the past. Smash burgers have been part of America’s collective culinary story for decades, and now, these owners want the next generation to make greasy memories of their own.

“Man, I hope that someday a young kid remembers being in the back seat of their parents or grandparents and driving down Edgefield and be like, ‘Oh, it’s the sign with the dog on it.’” he says. “Even maybe before they could read, it’s just that iconic thing that stuck in their memory.”