LA Favorite Smash Burger Specialist Softies Opens at USC Village

Eater

3 days ago

Softies, one of Southern California's most popular smash burger pop-ups and a former Smorgasburg vendor, opened its first-ever restaurant in USC Village just north of the main University of Southern California campus on Sunday, July 6. With a grand opening scheduled for mid-August, Softies will eventually expand its hours with breakfast service to coincide with the start of the fall semester.
Founded by Josh Kim and Sam Hong in 2022, the pop-up started out as a total experiment after Kim and Hong grew bored by their corporate jobs. Kim was previously in client relations at OpenTable, and Hong worked at a tech company after leaving a management position at Copa Vida Coffee; they worked briefly together at Cafe Dulce in Little Tokyo but otherwise had never cooked professionally.
With about $5,000 in cooking equipment, the two decided to cook burgers because it was easier to do than tacos (plus, Roy Choi had cornered the market on Korean-made tacos more than a decade prior). They set up at Thank You Coffee in Anaheim, preparing to cook a few dozen burgers, but ended up selling over 300 on the first day. Every three to four weeks, the duo announced a new pop-up, and hundreds of hungry smash burger fans showed up for Softies' griddled burgers topped with blackened onions, white American cheese, and pickles between Martin's plush potato buns. They resemble the highly seasoned Oklahoma-style burgers found at the likes of Goldburger and Alvin Cailan's Local Kitchens in Los Angeles.
'We're softies and mama's boys, but we work damn hard.' — Josh Kim, co-owner, softies
Kim and Hong popped up to huge success at Smorgasburg, selling over 450 burgers in 2023, and they joined the Arts District Sunday food festival shortly after as a regular vendor; they operated there until late 2024. Kim and Hong's eventual partner, James Choi (who owns Dulce inside USC Village), walked by the vacant former Wahlburgers and Stout Burgers space, inquiring on behalf of Softies. USC Village reps surreptitiously visited Softies at Smorgasburg, trying the food and realizing it would be a hit for the student population and South LA locals. In early 2025, Kim and Hong broke ground to convert the space into a kind of minimalist diner, with counter seating, booths, and two patio areas. They shared the entire process, along with questions about funding, profitability, and their vision, as part of a 12-part video series on Instagram produced by Kim's roommate and videographer David Rho. 'We made the videos mainly for our nostalgia later on, but they resonated with our followers, so we kept going,' says Kim about documenting the preopening process.
Though the brand started from the success of its smash burgers, it's already begun offering more in the way of fried chicken sandwiches, fried fish sandwiches, Korean pork rib sandwiches inspired by the McRib, Korean barbecue samgyupssal (pork belly) sandwiches, and more. Its opening menu at USC Village includes the Aji, slathered in Peruvian aji verde (cilantro aioli) with pickled jalapeños and crispy cheese, while the crispy mushroom burger comes with a tangled crown of fried enoki mushrooms. Along with French fries, a New York City bodega-style chopped cheese sandwich, and a Caesar salad with optional fried chicken cutlet were menu add-ons for the soft opening phase. A lime pie is the sole dessert offering but hinted at other sweets like a banoffee pie. Eventually, in the mornings, Softies will serve breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, and drip coffee.
Josh Kim (left) and Sam Hong (right) posting in front of Smorgasburg posters. Softies
'Burgers are ubiquitous, everyone knows them and has a reference, so they became a cool canvas. We don't want to be thought of as tacky or fusion, so we think the end product should always feel pretty similar to any other burger,' says Kim, whose favorite burgers growing up in Southern California were In-N-Out Burger and the Habit, which he enjoyed as a college student in Santa Barbara. 'Every single menu item needs to be able to tie back to a story for us, otherwise it's weird for us to make. We're very big on a story-based menu and approachable food.'
Regarding the name, Kim and Hong find comfort in the dissonance of the term, acknowledging that they didn't have any professional cooking experience prior to Softies. 'We're softies and mama's boys, but we work damn hard. We don't care to be perfect, but we care a lot about being really good,' says Kim. 'It's also an exploration of our cultural confusion. Are we Korean? American? Korean American? It's all of that constant tension that gets spit out into a dish.'
While this might be their first restaurant, Kim doesn't see the brand growing to In-N-Out levels of expansion. 'We advertise heavily that we're not chefs. If we have three restaurants and they're really good and have a good culture, I would rather have that than try to make an extra buck,' says Kim. 'To us, we want community, a home for people to hang out. We want to serve people and make it feel like an extension of dinner parties we would do at home,' says Kim.
Softies is open daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is located at 835 W. Jefferson Boulevard, Unit 1710, Los Angeles, CA, 90089. Come mid-August, hours will expand to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
The front of Softies. Wonho Frank Lee
Softies' dining area. Wonho Frank Lee
A double smash burger with cheese and pickles from Softies. Wonho Frank Lee
Crispy mushroom burger from Softies. Wonho Frank Lee
Softies' chopped cheese sandwich. Wonho Frank Lee
Aji burger from Softies. Wonho Frank Lee
Smashing the patties.
The counter at Softies.
Sam Hong (left), a cook, and Josh Kim in the kitchen at Softies.
The counter of Softies with the letter menu.
Chicken Caesar salad.
Fries with a number of sauces.
Diners at softies with memorabilia on the walls.
Softies logo with hours. Wonho Frank Lee