Opening in 2023 as an Outer Sunset farmers market popup, Maillards was a late bloomer in the Bay Area’s smashburger craze, which began taking shape in the mid-2010s but solidified into the region’s dominant style in the wake of the pandemic.
It quickly propelled itself to the forefront with distinctly crispy-edged beef patties that were gussied up with caramelized shallots and spilled out of a squishy Martin’s Potato bun. After years of lines and consistent sellouts, Maillards opened its permanent location in April inside of Two Pitchers Brewery in the Outer Sunset. Locals have been “waiting for us to get a space, a place where we don’t have to run out of burgers,” owner Max Ponzurick said.
The smashburger may be trendy, but it is now a well-established burger genre, and it’s easier than ever to find one in the region. A smashburger is what it says on the tin: During the cooking process, the patties are flattened on a ripping hot griddle, frying the beef in its own fat until it develops a magnificent crust – a byproduct of an accelerated Maillard reaction, the heat-induced chemical process between amino acids and sugars that turns meat (or coffee or toast) brown and deepens its flavor. Maillards is named for this bit of food science; its cartoon mallard mascot, in turn, is a visual pun.
Whatever one might say about reaching peak smashburger, here’s the rub: People will show up for a great burger, discourse be damned. And boy do they show up to Maillards. Ponzurick and his crew were overwhelmed by the turnout at the restaurant, which saw the wait time in its early weeks reach two hours, with lines trailing around the block. Staff weren’t fully trained on the new kitchen equipment, nor were they prepared to handle the volume. “I think we lost some quality and efficiency for the first week or two,” he admitted to me…