OUR STORY · RED HOOK · EST. 2019
OBSESSION
OVER
EVERYTHING.
SMASH CO. started as a pop-up at a flea market and became one of Brooklyn's most talked-about burgers. Not by accident.
THE FOUNDER
MARCO
REYES.
Marco grew up in the Bronx eating diner smashburgers. At 19 he got a stagière position at a French kitchen in Manhattan and spent the next twelve years working his way through some of the most technically demanding kitchens in New York and Copenhagen.
The problem was that he kept thinking about smashburgers. The Maillard reaction on a flat-top. The way a double-smash develops a crust no other technique can replicate. He started studying it the way you'd study a sauce reduction or a protein denaturation curve — methodically, obsessively, in the margins of his kitchen notebooks.
In 2018 he handed in his notice. His sous chef thought he was having a breakdown. He bought a flat-top, rented a commissary kitchen, and spent six months developing the exact smash technique SMASH CO. runs on today.
“Fine dining taught me that every detail matters and every shortcut shows. I just wanted to apply that to something people would actually crave at 2am.”
“I walked out of a Michelin kitchen to make a better smashburger. That should tell you everything about my priorities.”
— MARCO REYES, FOUNDER
THE MILESTONES
HOW WE
GOT HERE.
POP-UP, RED HOOK FLEA
Marco started selling at the Red Hook weekend market. Sold out in 3 hours on day one. Ran every Saturday for six months.
BRICK & MORTAR OPENS
340 Van Brunt St. Former auto repair warehouse. 24 seats, one flat-top, one menu item. People lined up outside before we opened.
GRUB STREET "BEST NEW BURGERS"
"Possibly the most obsessively constructed smash burger in New York." — Grub Street. We printed that on a napkin and put it on every table.
FULL MENU LAUNCH
Added sides, shakes, and Build Your Own. The Sauce finally got its own line item. Still won't tell anyone what's in it.
CATERING & EVENTS PROGRAM
Started taking group orders and private hire after three different offices ordered for the same board meeting by accident.
THE COMPOUND DROP
Bone marrow butter. Cave-aged gruyère. A six-month R&D process. Sold out three weeks straight at launch.
THE PEOPLE
THE
CREW.
MARCO REYES
FOUNDER & HEAD CHEF
Twelve years in fine dining — two Michelin-starred kitchens in Manhattan, one in Copenhagen — before Marco walked out mid-service to buy a flat-top. He hasn't looked back since.
DEL SANTOS
GRILL LEAD
Del runs the flat-top six shifts a week and has the sear-to-flip timing dialed to the second. Was sourcing beef at 5am before most people have coffee. Doesn't talk much. The burgers do.
PRIYA MISTRY
KITCHEN MANAGER
Priya came from high-volume catering and brought the kind of operational rigor that means your order is right, on time, every time. She designed every workflow in this kitchen.
JAKE LIU
FRONT OF HOUSE / BAR LEAD
Jake built the drinks program — the shakes, the craft beer rotation, the whole front-of-house experience. If The Sauce ever gets a face, it's his fault.
OUR STANDARDS
THE WAY
WE WORK.
ONE SUPPLIER. ONE RANCH.
Our beef comes from Whitfield Ranch in Western New York. Grass-fed, dry-aged 30 days in-house, ground fresh each morning. No blends, no mystery trim, no commodity beef. Ever.
THE SMASH IS THE POINT.
We don't slow-cook, sous vide, or reverse-sear. We smash, hard, on a screaming-hot flat-top, and give it exactly 30 seconds for the Maillard reaction to do its work. That crust is non-negotiable.
HOUSE-MADE OR IT DOESN'T EXIST.
Every sauce, every pickle, every bun is made on-site. The brioche is baked at 4am. The slaw is pickled for 48 hours minimum. If we can't make it properly, it's not on the menu.
NO SHORTCUTS. EVER.
This isn't a slogan. It's the reason Marco left fine dining to do this. Because the shortcuts are always visible in the final product — and we'd rather close than compromise the burger.