Simply Smashing

A pair of Pacific Northwest transplants are bringing a West Coast simplicity and an artful approach to the smash burger craft with their brand-new food truck, Smash Buddies

By Shelby Metzger / Photos by Aaron Massey / Story Design by Atlas Biro

A new concept offering its own twist on a food we all know and love – burgers – made its rolling debut via food truck on June 1. The Columbus-area concept Smash Buddies puts a spin on the classic entree, cooked to enhance flavor and maximize crispiness, and even offers its own version of the dish at the middle of a social media craze: The grilled cheese smash burger.

Kole Nuehs and Jared France, two Army veterans-turnedchefs from the West Coast, have brought their creations to Ohio’s Capital City. Fueled by a newfound passion for barbequing and a decade of friendship, the Smash Buddies owners put their own twist on the popular smash burger, complete with a special sauce, and of course their Smash Grilled Cheese.

“We started making these in a garage, just hanging out, family barbecues and stuff. We realized how delicious they were, so we kept making them,” France explained. “And then, in our current position, what we were doing, we weren't super happy with our careers, and were looking for something else. So we both love cooking and kind of came up with the food truck idea.”

According to France, the duo is aiming to recreate the almost minimalist-level-simple burgers found across the West Coast. They’re not dressed up too much (this means you won’t find “a pile of veggies'' on their burgers), letting ingredients shine for themselves. In fact, this ethos has found its way onto the truck's four-item menu:

Smash Burgers, Smash Grilled Cheese, Tots, Drinks.

And while the burgers themselves are simple, or at least unadorned, according to France, the process of crafting the perfect smash burger certainly isn’t. It’s more of an art form.

“What a smash burger is, is… meat in a form of a ball, we put it on the grill, and then we crush it as thin as we possibly can. So we use 2.3 ounce ‘pucks’ is what we call them, because they're kind of the shape of a hockey puck that we make. We throw those on the griddle and then smash them all the way down as flat as we can,” France said. “The way we do it, as thin as they are, they cook super quick, but they also get really crispy edges. You're not biting into, you know, a half pound of meat. It's a super thin patty that's crispy, and it kind of gives it a whole different flavor than your typical cheeseburger.”

They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but in this case, it may as well have been. From conception to execution, Smash Buddies was born in just over a month ago.

But France and Nuehs weren't always barbeque connoisseurs. With a wide range of previous careers, they’ve each dipped their toes in a myriad of different waters before creating the popular food truck.

“We've had quite the eclectic journey to get here,” Nuehs said. “We were both in the army together. That's how we met. This was about 10 years ago. We served together, we both got out. I ended up going back to school, went to medical school, decided after a semester, definitely not for me. And then that brought me to Columbus working with an asset management company. And then a campaign, which is where we were both working at the time. And that's when we decided to start a food truck and quit our jobs.”

France had a similar range of job titles in the years leading up to the creation of Smash Buddies. After leaving the military, he spent 5 years as a police officer in the state of Washington before working at the asset management company with Nuehs. France then entered a security position for a political campaign.

“All the campaign and political stuff, it wasn't really our scene,” France said. “We're more cheeseburger kind of guys. We chose burgers over politics, is our saying.”

Despite their lack of restaurant experience, the reception of the mobile Smash Buddies has been overwhelmingly positive. Their opening day took place at the grand opening of an ER Auto Care, and the collaboration proved to be a success, selling hundreds of burgers and making hordes of new central Ohio fans.

You can snag one of their new grilled cheeses or crispy smash burgers – complete with a special sauce – at a range of breweries and local events, including the Local Love Pop-Up Market on July 15-16.

Instead of ending this story on a poetic note or a dramatic call to action, we’ve decided to take one from the Smash Buddies’ playbook and keep things simple; We’ve decided to let a recent social media review of the burger truck do the talking for us.

“Saw that this truck was in the area tonight and zoomed over to it. Ordered the triple cheeseburger and tater tots,” one Facebook user wrote in a local restaurant group. “Funny that the guy behind me took a couple bites out of his sandwich on the way to his car and yelled: “This is unbelievable!’”

To view the menu and see the truck calendar, visit sbohio.wpcomstaging.com