Smash This.

Hendersonville, NC, July 14, 2026, Brooks Tavern—

On the menu at the Brooks Tavern is what they call a “Smashed Burger.” Which is delicious. If you are ever in Hendo (what the locals call it), I recommend you chow down on one.

They take one of their Certified Black Angus burger patties, slice it in half to make two thinner patties, and smash them on the flat top until they are cooked through. Then they put everything on it, a dollop of Ranch, and put this monster in front of you. Good luck. I couldn’t finish it. Try it with their lager and fries, and you’ll be a happy devourer.

The smashing technique creates voids in the meat, so the burger cooks evenly throughout. The chain Smashburger serves burgers cooked the same way in a fast food setting. These are also very tasty. In neither case do they ask you “how you want it cooked.”

Suddenly, you see this “burger smashing” appear on menus in establishments highbrow and low. But, where did it originate? And when?

I can tell you from experience it’s not a recent innovation. Here’s a clue: my mother enjoyed smashed burgers after class when she attended Troy High School in 1946. No one called them that at the time. They were K’s hamburgers, which opened in 1935 on Main Street in Troy, Ohio, and has been there since.

I had them after class in 1971 at the same location. Probably in the same booth Mom occupied in 1946. I’ve had them with Mom at K’s.

The cook, shown below in a similar white uniform and paper hat as the original in 1935, retrieves balls of freshly ground hamburger from a chiller and smashes them with a metal spatula into a rectangular pan of oil, rumored to contain a beef tallow starter from the restaurant’s opening day. The K’s burgers are all cooked to the same medium-well temperature.

They come in “burger” and “cheeseburger,” and Trojans have been gobbling them since before WWII.

K’s has also offered “Frosted Malteds” for as long as Mom can remember. Many a child in Troy experienced their first brain freeze at K’s Hamburgers. Frosted Malteds were served in conical paper cups held in metal holders like those used in ice cream shops at the time. Similar to this:

Wendy’s calls them Frosties. Or whatever the plural form of “Frosty” is.

I’m not claiming K’s invented the smashburger. But they sure as hell didn’t rip off the Brooks Tavern. Or Smashburger for that matter.

I’m just saying.