Elite Event: Burger Tasting at SmashBurger

So I just learned about National Burger Week (and Day) this week via Unilocal.How did I not know about this sooner? I love burgers! LOVE! Let’s just say I will celebrate this ‘holiday’ religiously from this day forward…
Smashburger (in Sandy Springs) was nice enough to close down their store for the evening for a private event with Unilocal elites… I saw them turn away quite a few customers at the door who looked pretty sad that they weren’t going to be getting delicious smashburger burgers on National Burger Day. This was a really cool event, where we got to meet the owners (and regional rep) who explained where the food came from and how it was made and why Smashburger was called smashburger. The evening started with some drinks and fries (quite a few different kinds) as well as the haystack onions (yum). We then got to try 7 (that’s right, 7) of their famous burgers (my fave was a toss up between the bacon burger and the Georgia burger). They even ended the evening with a small oreo shake! Let’s just say I had to roll out of there…
Smashburger gave us some awesome food, and a location for a most awesome Unilocal event. I will be sure to be back for a lunchtime nibble in the near future.

Smashburger impressed me allot. So I was excited. Since I have drive passed this place a million times on Roswell rd and the one near Piedmont. They had all the area GMs, local franchise owner Robert an Angela from there corporate headquarters. All the speakers were very knowledgeable and passionate about the brand.
The Food
They started out handing out three different types of french fry’s.
Regular fry’s
Smash fry’s
Sweet Potato fry’s
Haystack Onion — my favorite!!!
Then the burgers; (All the burgers we sampled were cut in to 4s.)
Classic Smash– simple burger
BBQ. Bacon and cheddar burger– my favorite burger
Truffle mushroom Swiss burger– ok
The Regional Burger was the Georgian Burger– Oh my God. It was delicious
Avocado ranch black bean burger — alright
Spinach, cucumber and goat cheese chicken — ok. It. It was a interesting combination
Avocado club chicken– not bad
They were nice enough to make a salad for one of the elite (who is a vegetarian).
The salad called the Harvest. It was served in a huge bowl containing chicken !! Last on the the tasting menu was the milkshakes. I had the chocolate Oreo. It was good.
Towards the end of the event Smashburger handed out some goodies. One of them was a voucher for a free sandwich or salad. Ben Handed us Unilocal elite towels (Awesome!!) Thanks to Smashburger, Ben, JJ and Heidi for a great event !!

Thanks to SmashBurger for a gluttonously fun event!
Angela from corporate in Denver, Robert the local franchise owner, the area GMs, and their super friendly staff helped to make us feely truly welcome. As Addy mentioned, they were very interested in getting our feedback and recommending special ways of eating their premium products (adding white sugar to the sweet potato fries or special requests for fried pickles).
These people care about their ingredients, particularly the cremini mushrooms which they cut by hand and sauté with Land O Lakes butter, and the locally sourced Williams Brothers barbecue sauce. That philosophy makes for some tasty food!
Even just a quarter each of 7 burgers was more than I needed, particularly with the thinly cut fries of regular, sweet potato, and Smash (rosemary and garlic) variety, and the tastes of the PB&J and salted caramel milkshakes. Of the burgers, the Tuffle Mushroom Swiss and the Georgia were my favorites, and the Spinach, Cucumber, and Goat Cheese Chicken was my favorite non-​beef option. The salads that walked by for us to view looked pretty appetizing to me.
It was a fun event from the start to the finish — getting to leave with the SB schwag and the Unilocal Elite Beach Towel! Thanks to SB and the whole Unilocal crew for another great evening!

I am so glad I sent Ben a «hint hint I’m minutes from here if someone cancels last minute!» email because daaaaaamn it’s now two days later and I only finally feel not full from this.
As everyone else has already said, SEVEN quarter pieces of burgers. Plus we had smashfries and sweet potato fries, and the haystack onions, which are awesome. I am not a fan of raw onions but the second you put that stuff in a deep fryer I am in.
My favorite burger is probably a tie between the BBQ bacon and cheddar and the mushroom and Swiss. I don’t even like mushrooms very much but having just one slice on there was perfect, and I couldn’t even notice the mushroom (my thing is the texture of them).
The classic was also really good, as were both chicken sandwiches. I like black bean burgers, and did like Smashburger’s take on it (even smashed like you’d expect!) but I don’t think I would order it. I mean it’s hard to rank everything because it was so good, but the only thing that wasn’t a total hit with me was the Georgia burger, just because the cole slaw really felt like it overpowered everything else. Also now after looking up menus of other cities, I want to try so many of those haha.
Just when you thought you wouldn’t have to put another bite in your mouth, there was the chocolate oreo shake to try. I couldn’t even finish it but it was so good… and then suddenly there were fried pickles. Whaaaaat… you’ve convinced me to have one.
Everyone from the company, from corporate down to those employed by the local franchisee were SO nice and very interested in what we thought. I also wish I knew the franchise owner’s name because he’s my favorite person for calling one of my favorite hockey players a badass (it’s a fact).
I also liked that because I live in the area, Angela asked me what I thought would work for advertising. It is a pretty odd area for trying to get the word out, and I really appreciate that she asked my opinion even though I probably wasn’t entirely helpful. i TRIED.
I was actually not a huge fan of this Smashburger after a number of times having pretty poor experiences — but I think this was well before the new franchise owner as most of these things happened over a year ago, so I really can’t wait to go back more often now because I think things are definitely better than they were.
I was so full that sleeping was very difficult. Good thing I didn’t have to work in the morning? Haha.
Also way cool: the bag of goodies from Smashburger (including a free sandwich card I am soooo tempted to go use right now since looking at pictures of the event again has me craving), and the awesome Unilocal Elite beach towel!
Thanks for such an awesome event, Smashburger and Unilocal!It was also cool to see that this was happening at other stores around the country just for National Burger Day!

WOW! Smashburger went out of their way for us! The amount they gave to one person was enough food to feed 3 people! I felt like I was going to go into a food coma afterwards. Staff was super nice, the food was great, and we went into the back and smashed our own burgers and cooked them! How freaking awesome is that? I had a blast! Loved this event! My favorite burger was the Georgian, my least was the Veggie burger. All in all this was an amazing
so here is what they served us:
Classic Smashburger (definitely a must try); Bacon & Cheddar Burger (i did not try this but my fellow Unilocalers were raving about this one!); Truffle Mushroom Swiss Burger (I thought this was a little to heavy on the cheese); Georgian Burger (MY FAVORITE! a must have); Avocado Ranch Black Bean Burger (eh this was okay); Spinach, Cucumber & Goat Cheese Chicken Burger (I really wanted to enjoy this one, but the cheese was soo much! I like goat cheese, but it was definitely a very thick layer).; and lastly Avocado Club Chicken Burger
And for desert we had Oreo milkshakes (this was definitely good)
Thanks Unilocal CM’s for organizing this event!

in honor of national burger month (also known as burger binge month on Unilocal), the 2014 Unilocal elite crew were fortunate enough to sample smash burger’s menu. now that I think about it, this burger tasting felt more like a 13 course meal — 7 burgers, 4 sides, soft, and shake.
each burger/​sandwich was cooked in the order of how the menu had listed them. therefore, each burger was presented in details and brought out fresh from their flat top grill. also, they were all cut into quarters since there were 7 burgers/​sandwiches to sample. best of all, no one was limited to just one sample of each burger/​sandwich. although that was a nice bonus, I don’t believe anyone ate more than offered. or at least, not our table. we barely even made it through!
burgers/​sandwiches of the evening consisted of:
+ CLASSIC SMASH — american cheese, smash sauce, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, onion
+ BBQ, BACON & CHEDDAR — cranberry bbq, applewood-​smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, haystack onions
+ TRUFFLE MUSHROOM SWISS — truffle mayo, mushrooms, swiss cheese
+ REGIONAL (GA) — bbq sauce, pimento cheese, coleslaw
+ AVOCADO RANCH BLACK BEAN — avocado, pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, ranch
+ SPINACH, CUCUMBER & GOAT CHEESE CHICKEN — cucumbers, spinach, goat cheese, tomato, onion, balsamic vinaigrette
+ AVOCADO CLUB CHICKEN — avocado, applewood-​smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, ranch dressing, mayo
side items consisted of:
+ regular — sea salt
+ smash –rosemary, olive oil, garlic
+ sweet potato — rosemary, olive oil, garlic
+ haystack onion –fried thin slices of onion; similar to onion strings from chili’s
drinks consisted of:
+ fountain drinks — soda, tea, lemonade
+ honest tea — sweet, unsweet, raspberry
+ milkshakes — 2 flavors: chocolate oreo AND/​OR peanut butter oreo
awesome event! big thanks to smash burger for closing the place to make us feel extra VIP and being very organized with everything. also thank you ben & heidi for putting yet another fun, tummy filling, tasty collab elite event! (what a mouthful)

Wow, did Smash Burger pull out all the stops for the event! Not only was there so. much. food (seven burgers — split into fourths, three types of fries, crispy onions, and a milkshake sample!), they even gave us free reign with the soda/​tea beverage dispensers; They also closed the restaurant down for the event, annnnd the corporate marketing director, the Atlanta franchise owner, and five general managers from various locations were on hand!
Before they got the food rolling out, Angela — the marketing director — gave us a quick overview of Smash Burger and why it’s called Smash Burger (their patties). Everything is made fresh daily and they also try to source as much as they can locally. Definitely not your typical chain!
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed all the burgers served, though my favorites would have to be the «Truffle Mushroom Swiss Burger» and the Georgia Burger (featuring all local ingredients). I also really liked how diverse each burger was from the next — they have a very impressive selection of burgers.
Towards the end, they allowed those who wanted to go back into the kitchen to see the actual progress of making a ‘Smash’ patty, and we were given swag bags, featuring a SB tote, cup, chap stick, and a coupon — score! We were also the first to receive the new, very swanky Unilocal Elite swag of the year: a Unilocal Towel! Double score!
HUGE thanks to the amazing Smash Burger staff, who could not have been any nicer — seriously phenomenal customer service, that is how it’s done! And of course thank you so much to Ben, Heidi, JJ, and Keaton for putting together such a lovely event — like I keep saying, I don’t know how you guys do it — magic?

The Elite Unilocalers of Atlanta got to have a tasting of the burgers offered at SmashBurger. What an event! The owner, district manager, and managers from other SmashBurger restaurants were all on hand to talk about the burgers and be our servers for the evening.
Our tasting menu was made up of seven different burgers. The burgers were quartered so that we could get all of them in and it was still difficult. I was full after burger three. Before the burger tasting began we were given three types of fries: regular, Smash fries (with garlic and rosemary) and sweet potato fries. All were thin and good. I could not stop with the sweet potato fries. I just couldn’t.
Stuffed to the gills, we were offered a taste of their milkshakes. Some of us got Oreo and others got peach. I don’t know about that peach, but the Oreo was damned good.
These burgers are pretty good burgers that are inexpensive and tasty. The winners for me were the Classic, Mushroom, and BBQ bacon burgers. Don’t sneeze at the chicken burgers (can there be a chicken burger??? Jose tried to explain that something is a burger if it’s on a burger bun, but I still sense some confusion in my head… bygones). The chicken was very nicely seasoned and tasted very good coupled with some fresh veggies and goat cheese.
Some Unilocalers got to go to the back and actually smash some burgers on the grill. This is the act from which the name comes forth, smashing the meat onto the grill for 10 seconds. I think I was too full to get up and walk to the back for this part of the evening.
This was a great event and we were treated so well by the men and women of SmashBurger. Anything else? I’m glad you asked! Yes! We received Unilocal beach towels! Calm down Jackie. Okay.
Also, SmashBurger gave us tote bags which housed a cup, a sticker, and a coupon for a free meal. Won.
Some people, such as I, were able to take home some leftovers for lunch the next day. Yaaa.
SmashBurger really made a good impression. Thanks Ben and Heidi for organizing a great evening.
Go look at the pics!

This is/​was part of Unilocal’s Burger Bing Week, and happened on National Burger Day — rather momentous, no? SmashBurger graciously opened its doors for a group of Unilocal Elites to sample a variety of burgers and chicken sandwiches. The event was attended by the two Atlanta Community managers, Ben and Heidi, along with J.J. and other long-​time Unilocalers. SmashBurger also provided local managers, the franchise manager (David? and his wife), and someone from the main office in Denver. This latter group provided in depth descriptions of what we were sampling along with preparation and those details that differentiate SmashBurger from its competition.
Events like this make being a Unilocaler the most worthwhile — sure it’s nice sampling great food, but it’s the camaraderie and social event that makes everything great. Our fair community managers did a great job organizing this event for Unilocal Elites, as did the franchise owner, the local managers and everyone else involved. I won’t wax poetic on all the food — everything was great. We sampled much more than the average bear could eat including sides, burgers, chicken sandwiches and shakes. I liked hearing explanations regarding the food preparation, thought into the food invention and execution — all of SmashBurgers staff went well-​and-​beyond what most would have done to be accommodating, interesting and informative.
We also had a special treat — going into the kitchen and seeing the magic happen live. Several Unilocalers also got to try the burger «smashing» process — fun times. Nothing quite like a fresh ball of ground beef smashed into melted butter on a griddle! These guys have a great formula for success. Check out my photos for the various samplings and people who participated. Good Times!

Awesome, awesome, awesome event! I love going to Unilocal events and this one lived up the Unilocal experience! What a truly great experience.
Lets talk about the food; Smash Burger is one of my favorite chains. They have a creative menu and the quality of their food is stellar. If you’re looking for a well seasoned and well prepared burger, this is definitely the place to go! Last night we got to sample 8 different sandwiches but my favorites were the Hickory Smoked BBQ sandwich and the Blackbean burger. Owww.. and did I mention they gave us milkshakes? I was on a #PigOutfest overload and I know I’ll have to spend countless hours in the gym to make up for it. But who cares? It was awesome!
Lets also talk about the location; this Smash Burger is located in Sandy Springs and we had the awesome opportunity to meet the owner and his wife. They were such fantastic people who were so passionate about their store (immaculate by the way) and providing a great experience for us. I will be back to support them in the future.
Lastly, lets talk about the Unilocal event organizers. I always love running into Ben and Heidi! They are so sweet and everyone on the event staff does a great job at keeping things organized while ensure we all have a blast!
Thanks to everyone for hosting such a great event! My waistline, however, is not happy with you at the moment. #IAteTooMuch #SoMyFault #SorryNotSorry

It was a smashing good time! Although this is my 3^rd year as Elite, this was my first Elite experience and I couldn’t have asked for more. Tons of tasty free food, smash schwag, Unilocal schwag, great company, and close proximity to my house all warrant this experience a happy 5 stars.
Out of all 7 burger samples I devoured (no leftovers on my tray — oink!), the truffle Swiss and cucumber chicken were my favorites. The regional burger with pimento and Williams Bro BBQ sauce was also super tasty but probably would have been too salty for my palate if I were to have eaten an entire burger instead of the ¼ sampling.
In addition to the attentive SmashBurger staff, thanks so much to Ben, Heidi, JJ, Addy, Angela, and John for making this event so fun! Now if only I can make my way to more of these events …

I was floored by this event!!! It was awesome, amazing, and ass-​kickingly delicious!!! I will not be able to say enough great things about this event, but I damn will try.
First of all not only did they close the Sandy Springs location for the event but service was top notch from the crew that came from several different locations around the city. The franchise owner Phil (is that right??) and VP of marketing Angela were awesome to come out and speak with us. And Burger Meister Ben, J. J, and Heidi were the best hosts any Unilocaler could ask for!!!
Right when I walked in the door, I was set… I was the crazy vegetarian venturing out during not only burger binge week… but national burger day as well… and yeah you guessed it I had a salad to start with!!!
They checked to make sure I wasn’t vegan and brought me one of their tasty salads called the Harvest. So while I demolished my salad I continued to munch on the delicious sides of Smash fries, sweet potato fries, and onion rings.
Now while everyone else was sampling the burgers, I was biding my time til the veggie burger came out and enjoying the fun conversation around me. And I’ve tried their veggie burger before, but I wanted to give it a second try and on this go round I was pleasantly surprised.
Blackbean burgers are still rather soft in texture but the burger was well seasoned with a bit of a kick, the whole wheat bun had a good taste and texture and propelled that black bean burger to yumminess… shall I even say umami (but I jest)… It was good and I will definitely be visiting the Sandy Springs location again for normal service!
This event was fun fun fun, I appreciate how everyone socialized with one another and for a new-​ish Unilocaler like myself I definitely didn’t feel outta place. This type of event is what makes me want to attend even more events in the future!!! Thanks again for a fantastic evening and here’s to selfies in Unilocal beach towels…

May is National Burger Month. May 28 is National Burger Day. This week in Atlanta, it’s Unilocal Burger Binge Week. We took the binging to heart, almost literally, at last night’s burger tasting at Smashburger in Sandy Springs. These burger tastings have been done by other Unilocal communities at different Smashburger locations around the country.
We got to try almost every burger Smashburger has to offer on its menu. This consisted of seven burgers, an assortment of sides, and milkshakes, along with access to Smash’s self-​serve beverage selection which included Honest organic iced tea. After the gorgefest, we were taken back into the kitchen in small groups to see what goes on behind the scenes. We even had the opportunity to try smashing those all-​natural Angus beef patties ourselves. Instagram video:
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The owner of the Georgia Smashburger locations plus several general managers were on hand to welcome us, educate us about the franchise’s history and background, and walk us through each and every burger as they came out from the kitchen. Each burger was quartered. Seven burger quarters equal roughly two whole burgers. Leftovers were available afterwards too.
Here’s a rundown of what we had:
Burgers:
Classic Smashburger — classic cheeseburger
BBQ, Bacon & Cheddar Burger — cranberry BBQ sauce
Truffle Mushroom Swiss Burger — truffle mayo, crimini mushrooms
Georgia Burger — Williamson Bros. BBQ sauce, pimento cheese, slaw
Avocado Ranch Black Bean Burger — veggie
Spinach, Cucumber & Goat Cheese Chicken Burger
Avocado Club Chicken Burger
Sides:
Regular fries
Sweet potato fries
Smashfries — olive oil, rosemary garlic
Haystack Onions — like onion rings, but thinner, more delicate
Fried pickles
Sweet:
Oreo milkshakes with and without whipped cream
The burgers were enough to fill us up, so it didn’t help that there was a bevy of tasty snacks for us to munch on before and after each of the burgers was served. The sides came with a variety of dipping sauces like ranch dressing and a spicy chipotle sauce.
The favorite burgers of the night seemed to be the BBQ, Bacon & Cheddar Burger and the Georgia Burger. My personal favorite was the latter. I loved the slaw. I got seconds on the Georgia Burger. The least favorite was unsurprisingly the Black Bean Burger. We all know it’s not a «real» burger. Most of our bellies were full by the time the chicken sandwiches came out, but we managed to try everything. The Oreo milkshakes were icing on the cake.
Service was outstanding. I like how the managers came by and served us each burger. All staff were friendly and on-​point.
Since the event was for Elites only, some new swag for 2014 was unveiled: Unilocal Elite Towels! It even has its own hashtag: #YelpEliteTowel. Photo:
. Rad. Smashburger also gave us a goodie bag which included a coupon for a free entrée at any Georgia Smashburger location.
Overall, the event was just a whole lot of fun. I had a great time. Thank you, Ben, JJ, Keaton, and Heidi. Also many thanks to the wonderful people at Smashburger for hosting us! I’m still stuffed.

SO. FULL.
BELLY.
SEND. HELP.
A first glance at that tasting menu and you’re overwhelmed. But we had the owner of the restaurant, as well as a marketing exec from Denver there to walk us through everything. It was nice to hear them speak so passionately about Smashburger. Which, of course, left us all the more eager to dig in!
Classic Smash — YUM. Great take on the cheeseburger.
BBQ, Bacon, and Cheddar — My favorite. The haystack onions are amazing!
Truffle, Mushroom, Swiss — Did not try, sorry. Just say no to fungus!
Regional (Georgian) — BBQ sauce, pimento cheese, and cole slaw was a great combo!
Black Bean Burger — A decent vegetarian option, but a little soft for a patty.
Spinach, Cucumber, Goat Cheese Chicken Burger — A pleasant surprise! Yay goat cheese!
Avocado Club Chicken Burger — Classic club taste.
Regular fries — Duh. Delicious.
Smash fries — The rosemary was a nice touch!
Sweet potato fries — These were SO GOOD. I would come back just for these.
Haystack onions — Yuuuuuum.
Oreo chocolate milkshake — Dead and gone to heaven.
I’m really glad I got a chance to try this Smashburger, as it is close to my job. I’ll definitely be dragging co-​workers here for lunch in the future.
Huge thanks to Ben G. and the Smashburger team for putting together such an awesome event!
Now, off to lapse into a food coma!
Zzzzzz…

The food was good, the company was better. We were greeted by the marketing director all the way from Colorado. The franchise owners were also in the house. This event was flawless. We sampled 7 burgers, each cut into quarters. Descriptions were given of each one. My favorite is the classic, however, all of them were really good. We also had the string onion rings with that horseradish based sauce. I love those! Shoe string french fries, sweet potato fries and fried pickles also hit our tables. Drinks were on the house and location was closed to the public.
Smashburger smashed this event (corny? yeah.) Several of the GM’s from the local locations were there to serve us. They even took us back to the kitchen to show us the smashing process and even let a few of us try it. We were offered samples of the milkshakes. I tried the peach cobbler and it was flavorful with little bits of graham cracker crust and peaches. We all walked away with goody bags filled with beach towels and accessories, including a free entrée. This event was a hit! I don’t often visit SmashBurger but after they showed us favor, I have to go back and soon.

How cool this event was held on National Burger Day for a restaurant full of Unilocalers Only ! Yup the place was all ours.
What was to be sampled this night :
To get us started three kinds of fries were offered with ranch and a chipotle sauce, a few minutes later out came the onion strings, then four different beef burgers, two chicken burgers and a black bean burger. We were able to try all of them.
The burgers were cut into quarters and brought to each of the tables to be quickly snapped up and discussed. Now if that wasn’t enough mini oreo and peach milkshakes were distributed and quite sure that pushed everyone over the edge.
To finish off the evening we all received gifts (yah) the first was the new Unilocal Towel for 2014 and then a gift bag from Smash that included a card for a future meal.
It was an interesting, very filling evening and was happy to have been able to attend and finally meet and speak with Jackie H. and John E.
Watching people leave the song «Roll Out» popped into my head as this is how I felt, like someone should roll us out of there.
Thanks to Heidi and Ben for a great evening well done !

I guess tasting menu is accurate b/​c we were served ¼ burger portions but when you multiply that by 7 different burgers over a 2-​hour period incl. 3 different kinds of fries PLUS a milkshake, it was more like an «above-​n-​beyond» tasting experience :)
Smashburger did a great job showcasing their menu — 4 different kinds of beef burgers, 1 veggie burger and 2 different chicken burgers. My favorites of the evening — tie between the Truffle Mushroom Swiss Burger and the Georgie Burger (with Pimento Cheese, Slaw, Jalapenos and Williamson Bros. BBQ sauce), and I loved their SmashFries with the rosemary and garlic.
But what impressed me most about the event was having their owner, the corporate marketing person AND servers all genuinely interested in getting feedback on their food, learning about us, and learning about Unilocal.They came to each of the tables often. Honestly that doesn’t happen much at these kinds of events although you’d think it would b/​c you’re hosting people who love giving feedback. Kudos to the SmashBurger staff and thanks again for inviting us and introducing us to your menu. I’ll definitely be back. Also hats off to Ben G, JJ, Keaton and Heidi for putting the event together and yes, the amazing Unilocal Elite Beach Towels — I can’t wait to show it off!
And finally, Happy National Burger Day and Burger Binge Week, everyone!

Sooooo aside from the fact that I forgot to drive my crane here in preparation for the after math of this event, I had such a great time. Let’s start with the fact that they closed the place down for us to host this event! Talk about VIP status. Our community managers sure now how to make elites feel… well ELITE!
Back to back burgers is all I can say. We started with the classic burger, had the bbq cheddar burger, mushroom truffle burger, black bean burger and some chicken burgers. Wow, events like these really makes me have to question who I am! I thought I hated mushrooms. As a matter of fact, I tell people I’m allergic to mushrooms because of an incident I had a few years ago at the Melting Pot. But the truffle sauce burger may have been my favorite! I knoooe, shocking! I’m shocked too!
Either way, all of the burgers were amazing! I enjoyed each and every last one. The sweet potato and smash fries were great sides. The onion hash was delicious too. At the end, we had milkshakes and fried pickles to top off the night. Everyone was sooo warm and welcoming. I’m so glad I was able to come and I’ll definitely be back. Thanks guys!

This is what a Unilocal event is all about! Great hosts, food and friends!
Smash Burger did a great job walking us through their multiple burger options. They take great pride in their food and it really showed. Even though they were making food for a large group of people, they still took in special requests. For example, I don’t like any cheese at all, and Smash Burger made specific burgers just for me with no cheese! Ben, Heidi and JJ were all amazing hosts. They took the time to talk to every guest as well as getting more drinks for guests so we could continue our sparking dinner conversation!
In addition, we got a lot of free Unilocal swag. I can’t wait to use my awesome new Unilocal Beach Towel!
P. S. Shout out to my new friend Laura R. It was great meeting you!

«Double bacon cheeseburger. It’s for a cop.» — Super Troopers (2001)
It’s neat to be elite. It’s also very filling — almost gut busting at times. For that, I have to thank (and curse) Sir Ben G. and the fabulous folks at Smashburger (both corporate and local). I hurt a little bit, but thankfully gravity works and I have been standing upright for a couple of hours now and I might just survive and be able to sleep tonight after all.
So let’s talk noms… I think «burger tasting» is a gross understatement of what Smashburger handed out to us tonight. Luckily, they handed us ¼ sandwiches all night, but they also offered up seconds (and even thirds to some crazy Unilocalers) and to-​go boxes at the end. Did I mention the fries, rings and milkshakes… no? Okay, here was the menu:
«Appetizers»
French Fries
SmashFries — you take the plain fries and smash them up with rosemary, olive oil and garlic
Sweet Potato Fries — they will smash these suckers for you too — we tried them both ways
Haystack Onions
Fried Pickles
and the sauces on the side:
Ranch
Spicy Chipotle
Smash Sauce
And the burgers/​sammies (in order):
Classic SmashBurger
BBQ, Bacon & Cheddar Burger
Truffle Mushroom Swiss Burger
Georgia Burger *regional selection
Avocado Ranch Black Bean Burger
Spinach, Cucumber & Goat Cheese Chicken
Avocado Club Chicken
My overall favorite was the Truffle — no one that knows me can possibly be surprised that this revelation. Me + mushrooms = winning! The truffled mayo really knocked it home for me. The BBQ Bacon was a very close second, but believe it or not — the mushrooms beat out the bacon this time. What makes these great, even though it is a chain, is the smashing the burger on the griddle. Getting those crispy edges, with still having a juicy burger… delish.
You can customize however you like, but they have some great combos on the menu if you aren’t sure where to start. I’ll be back for that truffle (maybe adding bacon). As for the sides, the sweet potato fries were a winner for me — hands down. Then add in the spicy chipotle to dip them into and you had the sweet and spicy combo that I could not stop eating (this may have been my ultimate downfall).
I was also a fan of the mini shakes they passed around — mine was Oreo (not sure how Loren B scored a Peach one… she is lucky she was not tackled, but I was not aware while at the event). The Oreo had big chunks of cookies in them while still being super creamy and not overly sweet. A nice little ending to the evening despite my over-​fullness and need to stand for the last 20 minutes.
A very successful event and a fabulous and attentive staff. It was nice to hear they were from all the different locations around town — this tells me that each location has quality people on staff (not just Sandy Springs).
I think I need a burger break and another 30 minutes before being able to be prone. Thanks for the full tummy and the happy taste buds Ben and Smashburger. I’ll return for sure.