Breaking the Ice
with LA BURG || All photos shot on 35mm film
Let me introduce you to LA BURG better known as Sophie and Sisco. There are two things I reallllly don’t like in this world and if you know me well enough you will already know what they are. “Pickles and Mustard” are just ugh. I don’t like the smell, I don’t like the taste. Even the slightest touch of the pickle too close to my food will gross me out. I know you pickle lovers have things to say and you’ll judge. That’s fine, I am okay with that.All that to say - It has crossed my mind after having so many friends try and convince me to think otherwise that I am missing out on something special.
"I don’t think I've ever shared this story with you two, Sophie and Sisco, but on the first day LA BURG popped up on our block for a block party, Sisco dropped off some burgers for us to try. I noticed the pickles right away, and for some reason, in that moment, I decided to give it a try. I bit down into a juicy burger with spicy pickles! Turns out, I like spicy pickles on my burger."
Safe to say LA BURG has changed my life.
Read along for a fun interview with them and get an update on there lives. All photos were shot by me on 35mm Film.
These photos are from a lunch date we had at Yuca’s on Hillhurst. If you haven’t gone, give their burger a try! LA BURG & LA Laura approved.
*Tell us a little intro about you individually and who LA Burg is / how it was birthed! Was there a moment that solidified your new venture? Tell us the story
welllllll, La Burg was born when we were both still living in San Francisco. We had both been furloughed from our jobs at the restaurants we were working at due to covid and were really just trying to figure out what we both wanted to do and what our next step would be. I (Sophie) was already considering moving to LA because my sister was down here and I think Sisco was ready for something new outside of SF as he had been there for almost 10 years.
But there was one particular day
that I think the genesis of La Burg really happened. It was just a random day and restaurants were starting to do outdoor dining again and we went and got a burger…I won’t say where we were but the burger didn’t really blow our minds and we both kind of looked at each other in that moment and we were like we could make a good burger, even a really great burger. There was this habanero salsa that we both loved so much that our old coworker used to make and that was the inspiration behind our habanero aioli. We had the sauce, we hadn’t even made it but we knew it would be good on a burger and I think it was really in that moment that we were both kind of like “are we gonna do this? I think we are gonna do this”.
* If you could take LA burg out of CA would you? and where would you go?
Oh yeah big time, not necessarily moving permanently but we are always talking about where we can take the pop up before we open up a brick and mortar (which we do want to do - so just putting that out in to the universe) but use it as an excuse to travel and take the burger (and ourselves) to new places. I grew up in Florida and Sisco has never been over in the south at all so I think that is definitely a place we would like to do some pop ups. We have thought about New York because we have some connections over there. Realistically though, even though it is still in california, I think we have to take the burger back to the bay in San Francisco before we do anything else. We have had so much support from our friends up there and so many of them are all doing really cool things in food so we have been talking about what kind of collaboration we can come up with in their space. Look out, La Burg is trying to go on tour!
*What are some challenges you find yourself facing in this season of your bussiness?
I think the biggest thing for us right now is trying to find pop-up locations that people can easily find us at but that also excite us. We struggle trying to balance between the new pop-ups that we want to book to get our burger in front of new people or if its better to just stay really consistent at 2 or 3 different spots so people always know where to find us. It’s a delicate balance but I do think we are getting better at figuring out what works for us and what people really respond to.
What celebrity would you swoon over if they showed up at an event you were popping up at!
Ok what a great question, for me (Sophie) it forever and always will be Danny Devito. I love him so much. I just imagine him standing in line for a burger — I don’t think I would be able to stop smiling or giggling to myself because I think that is so funny. So Danny Devito whenever you are ready to try a La Burg… please come make my year.
Now Sisco says that if Mary Beth Barone showed up he would lose his mind. So much of the time when we are prepping we are listening to the RIDE podcast with her and Benito Skinner and Sisco just has the biggest crush on her. They both love interstellar and mayo so it sounds like a love connection if you ask me.
*How do you measure success in your new career?
I think a lot of how we measure our success (good or bad) is how our guests and the people that come to our pop-ups experience our pop-ups. I think it stems back to our fine dining days where if someone says something is “good” or “fine” we aren’t satisfied with that. We need the eyes rolling in the back of the head OMG reaction to feel like we have really done our job. We want everyone that comes to our pop-ups to feel at home and have fun and really blow their minds whether it be with the food or the experience. So I think a lot of how we measure our success is when we get the people coming back and saying “I haven't stopped thinking about this burger since the last time I had it” or the people that say “I had your burger last week and I just had to bring my friends to try it.” I think those are the moments that really make us take a step back and think about how cool it is that we can literally cook burgers for a living and meet new people and learn new things. Every email we get from someone asking us to cater or even just saying that they enjoyed the burger just makes us feel like we are doing something right and are so grateful for and are excited that people like what we are trying to do.
* What’s something you are excited about right now (This can be anything from a tool, place, food, or something you learned as an adult) share your secrets!!
Ok this is going to sound really silly but we just found out about PNG’s - well actually I can’t speak for Sisco he probably already knew what they were, working in the graphic design world and all but I had no idea, and man are they a game changer. I like making the little reels and things for our Instagram page so when we found out we could put our logo on anything we wanted- game over. I’m pretty sure Sisco has a PNG of any graphic he has ever made in the last 6 months.
Catch LA BURG at our shop on the 27th of July 1-5pm Block Party
