Full Belly Files | Inside Santa Barbara Burger Week 2024

Credit: Ben Ciccati

This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on March 15, 2024. To receive Matt Kettmann’s food newsletter in your inbox each Friday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

As you may have noticed from yesterday’s colorful Santa Barbara Independent cover designed by Xavier Pereyra, the 2024 edition of Santa Barbara Burger Week is officially upon us. We’ve yet again thrown down the grubbing gauntlet, encouraging all of you to indulge in the 28 burgers being served for just $10 by 25 different restaurants throughout the greater Santa Barbara region, from Santa Ynez to Santa Claus Lane.

As I wrote in the introduction to the package, this is our biggest Burger Week ever. The idea began back in 2017 as a means of supporting the Santa Barbara restaurant scene while getting our readers excited about this classic American sandwich. I’m using this week’s Full Belly Files to explain a bit more about the concept and how it comes to be each week.

Very proudly, the Independent remains one of the few publications in the region that adheres to the traditional journalistic division of church and state. That means our advertising department has zero influence on our editorial product. Our words and images and covers are not for sale, and never will be.

Clockwise from top left: S.B. Fish Market & Restaurant’s West Coast Salmon Burger, We Want the Funk’s The Funk Burger, Kyle’s Kitchen’s Bacon and Egg Burger, Crushcakes & Café’s El Diablo Burger

However, with the creation of Burger Week seven years ago, we did launch a limited series of promotional issues in which we do write about those businesses that enlist as paid partners for that campaign. This has grown to include Burrito Week, Wine Week, and our beer-focused Indy Hops issues, and we try to be very clear about the nature of these article collections.

For those who aren’t paying attention to the details, this can cause occasional confusion. We often get readers saying “That’s not the best burger in town!” or “Why didn’t you include X or Y?” Well, they’re not included because they didn’t decide to become part of the promotion. (It’s similar to the annual Best of Santa Barbara® issue, where some complain that we picked the wrong winner, when the entire campaign is very clearly about the votes of readers, not our editorial decisions.)

Clockwise from top left: Mesa Burger’s Smash Burger, Del Pueblo Café’s Mexican Street Burger, Yona Redz’s Birria Burger, Home Plate Grill’s Haskell’s Burger

Many of the offerings of Burger Week are not on the regular menus of these establishments, and some of them don’t even usually serve burgers. We see that as a sign of success, that this promotion is bringing a wide range of participants who are eager to share their creations with a broader audience, whether they’re burger joints or not.

Back in 2017 when we launched Burger Week, we kept our editorial stories separate from the promotional partners. Our articles that year and in 2018 focused on stories about hamburgers that had little to nothing to do with the participants in Burger Week. That was confusing at best and, frankly, counterintuitive to the collaborative spirit that we were trying to cultivate.

Clockwise from top left: Padaro Beach Grill’s Get Smashed! Burger, La Paloma Café’s Ortega Smash Burger, Islands Restaurant’s Big Wave with Cheese, Mylestone Barbeque’s Smashie

In 2019, we developed a system that granted a healthy degree of editorial independence while supporting those businesses that decided to take part in the Burger Week promotion. In a formula that’s been replicated every year since — minus the 2020 pandemic year that sadly skipped the week — we collect the list of participating burgers a couple weeks in advance, and then send our staffers out to sample each burger, write a short piece, and snap a couple of pics to publish as the cover story for the week. The write-ups are not critical analyses of each burger, but rather celebrations of each bite and restaurant. (Getting good photos is the hardest part for these writers, though the increasingly user-friendly phone technology is helping us all out.)

Originally, Burger Week offered burgers for $7. That’s gone up over the years to today’s $10 rate. Given inflation and the high-quality ingredients that these restaurants are using, that price barely covers costs for most places. Many serve them at a financial loss, simply happy to get more people in their doors in the hopes of return business down the road. We’re excited to have them as partners, so please support them with the additional purchase of fries and drinks when you can.

Clockwise from top left: Home Plate Grill’s Waffle Burger, The Brewhouse’s Smash Burger, Mesa Burger’s Smash Burger Deluxe, Corner Tap’s Maple Chicken Burger

This year, for whatever reason, there seem to be less alternatives to beef than ever before. (I didn’t do the math, but it feels that way.) There is one chicken (Corner Tap), one turkey (Crushcakes), and one salmon burger (S.B. Fish Market Café in Goleta), but no specifically vegetarian options.

In years past, there have been veggie patties and even dessert offerings. We’re discussing ways to increase those options in 2025. But as my colleague Sarah Sinclair rightly pointed out, there’s so much good stuff on most of these burgers that you could simply order it without the beef patty and be perfectly satisfied with the ensuing deliciousness.

Clockwise from top left: S.B. Food Connection’s S.B. Smash, Bluewater Grill’s Bluewater Wagyu Cheeseburger, Validation Ale’s Validation Smashburger, Shalhoob’s Funk Zone Burger

Instead, the dominant style of Burger Week 2024 is the smash burger, whose current popularity is more pervasive than any burger trend in decades. Eight of the 28 burgers are in the smash style, and just tackling those over the next week would be a worthy challenge. Let us know if you go that route.

Clockwise from top left: The Victor Restaurant and Bar’s The Victor Burger, Yellow Belly’s Paddy Daddy, Three Pickles Subs’ Bacon Swiss Avocado Burger & Chili Cheeseburger, Hook & Press’s Comeback Burger,

The Nugget Bar & Grill’s Bob’s Burger (top) and Eureka!’s American Burger

Thanks to the excitement of the staff in this year’s edition — they snatched up almost all the burgers within 12 hours of the initial assignment email going out — my own preview duties focused on just two offerings: Crushcakes’ El Diablo Burger and S.B. Food Connection’s S.B. Smash.

Crushcakes’ El Diablo is a turkey burger that looks and tastes quite a bit like beef, thanks to the spice rack of ingredients in the patty, which includes mint, jalapeño, and cumin. Food Connection’s S.B. Smash is a classic smasher, with super crispy patties dripping in cheese and sauce, best enjoyed while watching the traffic of Milpas Street. Both are highly recommended.

Happy Burger Week!