Press
Lil’ Eagle is the Bay Area’s preeminent smashed burger pop up.
We have been reviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle, and by lots of other people who think the burgers are tasty.
Eater - Lacy Smash Burgers and Midwestern Garbage Salads Are Set to Take Over Taraval Street (July 2023)
Now, smash burgers from Lil’ Eagle Burger and Midwest comfort food from Concession are joining the fray with a joint installation at 3560 Taraval Street.
As of the first week of August, starting Monday, August 7, both pop-ups will take over the former Hotline space, Concession on the weekdays and Lil’ Eagle on the weekends.
San Francisco Chronicle - The Bay Area's best dishes of 2021 (December 2021)
Proprietor Zack Fernandes presses the living daylights out of his burgers to turn them, essentially, into lacy, beefy tuiles; melted American cheese glues everything together.
San Francisco Chronicle - The Bay Area is having a love affair with smashburgers. This is the one you'll want to eat again and again (July 2021)
But the burgers from Zack Fernandes, who runs the operation, are a reminder that a burger doesn’t have to be an excessive, beefy bacchanalia to be good. When he makes his smashburgers, Fernandes leans his full body weight onto the metal press, spreading tiny balls of ground beef into lacy and crisp meat doilies.
San Francisco Chronicle - Bay Area’s smashburger craze (November 2020)
His burgers are the most snackable in the Bay Area with nearly paper-thin 2-ounce patties, and he’s philosophically a purist when it comes to what belongs on a smashburger.
Note: I began contributing to The Six Fifty as a writer in November 2020. At the time the articles below were published, I had no professional relationship with Embarcadero Media, The Six Fifty, or the Peninsula Foodist newsletter.
The Six Fifty - Peninsula pop-ups & pastry delivery: Check out these local food events of note (August 2020)
Look out for a new vegetarian option inspired by his Indian roots: a crispy potato tikki topped with a tamarind sauce, green chutney and chiwda (a fried Indian snack mix) served on a Martin’s roll.
The Six Fifty: From crispy-cheesy birria tacos to yuzu shio ramen, 11 Peninsula pop-ups worth seeking out (March 2020)
“Burgers are such a quintessential immigrant food for me,” said Fernandes, who was born in Singapore and moved to the United States as a teenager. “George Motz talks about this in his book (“Hamburger America”) and some videos, but there would be no hamburger if the hamburg steak from Germany didn’t end up at a world’s fair in New York where some dude slapped it in between two slices of bread.