This is a story about the reinvention of a centuries-old sandwich. But like so many origin stories, it’s one filled with mystery, folklore and myth.
In a small, working-class neighborhood of Santa Barbara, the world’s latest food innovation was unveiled in July. Research and development on a burger unlike any other — one shaped like a pyramid, yes, as in Egypt — began in 2024, and it’s a phenomenon that’s taking the burger world by storm.
“It’s an actual architectural revolution in burger technology,” Scott Sampler, a winemaker and burger aficionado who is the brains behind this revolution, told SFGATE. Sampler, an Angeleno with roots in Beverly Hills and Los Feliz, grew up loving hamburgers, and they were his obsession from an early age. The idea for a pyramid burger stemmed from one of his late-night childhood parties, when his living room turned into a make-believe burger joint complete with an eccentric owner.
One could order a triangular burger and get “pyramid power” once a paper hat was placed atop their head. Sampler had dreamed of this monstrosity — a shape, as the self-proclaimed burger connoisseur claims, is superior in every way.
As an adult, Sampler likens his hometown to the artistic revolution in first-century Rome when it comes to his favorite dish. “Florence is to the Renaissance as Los Angeles is to the burger,” he said…