Written in partnership with Lana Walker
Recipe for a viral restaurant: take one hamburger patty, smash it to smithereens, grill it, pile on cheese, add “wild” sauce, another patty, a nice pillowy potato roll, and sure, add another burger patty or two. Then add social media to the mix, where influencers introduce your burger to the world, including a big movie star like Seth Rogen. And when he gives your burger a thumbs-up, you’re on easy street.
Or at Easy Street Burgers in East Hollywood, where Alfred Asatryan and his brother Fred started the burger joint in a pop-up tent in a parking lot and have graduated to a real building.
“I got the idea to start a cheeseburger stand with a smash burger because I felt we can elevate the common burger experience in L.A.,” Alfred says. “Our burger patty is almost smashed to smithereens, but it still holds up. The interesting part is that while it’s smashed razor-thin, it still holds lots of juiciness. A perfect package per bite, thin around the edges, seasoned with salt and pepper, and topped with cheese. Plus, we use a very specific dill pickle.”
Sure, luck seems involved in the success of the Asatryan brothers’ family burger restaurant. However, a closer look reveals they made their own luck by working hard and opening the door when opportunity knocked. Easy Street Burgers is near where celebrities and influencers hang out, and Alfred and his family worked hard to create their menu and recipes.
“The key ingredients that made Easy Street Burgers a viral sensation include our commitment to quality, our unique homemade wild sauce, and the crispy edges of our thin smash burgers,” Alfred explains. “These elements, combined with our story of resilience and community support, captured people’s attention and hearts.”
Asatryan’s perseverance is not only keeping the family business running during Covid-19 but capitalizing on the pandemic’s restrictions and unique struggles to capture a loyal audience of bored folks with cabin fever from shelter-in-place regulations and work shutdowns. People needed food, and they needed a diversion. A burger stand in a tent, observing masking and social distancing, was just what the doctor ordered.
It’s not enough to catch some breaks. For success, a business has to continue to connect with the customer and keep an eye out for upcoming trends and changes. Alfred Asatryan engaged with influencers and invited them to try Easy Street and share their genuine experiences. Asking for sincere opinions is risky because honesty can backfire if the answer isn’t positive.
Good reviews gave Easy Street both happy and tricky outcomes. The recognition drastically increased the family business’s visibility, heightened local and national media interest, and created longer lines. The main point, Alfred says, is not to panic. He and his family continued with the hard work and critical thinking that established their business initially.
“The transition challenged us to scale our operations and grow our team while maintaining our high standards. It pushed us to improve our processes and infrastructure to handle the increased demand without losing the personal touch that made us a local favorite.”
Easy Street Burgers can be a model for others looking for success, whether those entrepreneurs want to deal with food or other products. Asatryan advises anyone wishing to start a business to begin with a solid idea based on a quality product.
“Focus on creating a quality product you’re passionate about, engage with your community, and leverage social media to share your story. Authenticity and consistency are key to building a brand that people want to talk about and visit,” Asatryan urges.
He reminds potential business owners to look at what he and his family have done at Easy Street Burgers. Study how they planned their endeavor, swerved and swung when life threw them a curveball and continued to plan. Never stop and coast. Getting celebrity and influence attention didn’t make all of the challenges of running a business go away, Asatryan says. Remember why you want to be in business.
“Balancing authenticity with the hype involves staying true to our roots, focusing on the quality and experience that got us here in the first place, and ensuring our growth doesn’t compromise the values our family-run business stands for.”
Returning to actual recipes, Alfred Asatryn assures loyal customers that Easy Street Burgers is experimenting with new burger variations and may introduce seasonal or limited-time offerings to keep the menu exciting, which sounds like a recipe for success.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.