Cheaper than a Big Mac: Bourke Street Bakery co-founder opens smash burger joint
Bourke Street Bakery co-founder Paul Allam put seven intensive years of research into smash burgers in the US. The fruits of that investment will be unveiled today when his latest passion project, HiHi Burger, opens at Bondi Junction.
There's a lot to get excited about at HiHi, where they use Vic's Meat and a single smash burger is an affordable $7.90. (That's less than a Macca's Big Mac or Quarter Pounder, whose price can vary depending on location but cost $8 or more at some outlets.) Allam also backed his Bourke Street Bakery experience to update the potato bun, ubiquitous in US smash burgers: 'I thought we could improve it,' he said.
Allam moved to the US to launch Bourke Street Bakery NYC, with its four stateside outlets now established enough for him to relocate to Sydney. The experience taught him some lessons about the US market: while Bourke Street's sausage rolls have been a hit, pies remain a hard sell because consumers in New York associate 'pies with sweet over savoury'. It also taught him plenty about US street food.
Returning to Australia, he missed some of the staples of his life living in Brooklyn, although he points out Sydney has some good smash burgers. While Allam can't accurately count the number of burgers he consumed on his US smash burger hunt, what made a great burger of the smash genre became evident.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
20-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Reserve Bank has a special term for Donald Trump
Before rejoicing with some extra money in your wallet after the Reserve Bank's latest cut in official interest rates, grab the paper (or check out your digital version) and read the world pages. There, you'll see another photograph of Donald Trump and another story about something he's done. It might be his questionable decision to accept a $US400 million plane from Qatar, cutting essential services or blowing out the size of the budget deficit (now on track to surpass $US37 trillion within weeks). It's news, but the Reserve Bank has another word for it - 'uncertainty drag'. And that drag now has a number. While the focus for most of us is on the official cash rate and what that means for our mortgage repayments, the RBA is trying to set policy as the big orange man rampages through economic orthodoxy. Loading As best as it can determine, Trump and tariffs means a little slower growth here, a small bump in unemployment and inflation edging down to the middle of the bank's 2-3 per cent target band. But that's just on what he's announced (for now). Knowing that Trump could change policy direction if his Big Mac is not cooked properly, the RBA has looked at the best and worst-case scenarios. In the best-case scenario (or wishful thinking), Trump sees the error of his ways and brings tariffs back to where they were last year.
The Age
20-05-2025
- The Age
The Reserve Bank has a special term for Donald Trump
Before rejoicing with some extra money in your wallet after the Reserve Bank's latest cut in official interest rates, grab the paper (or check out your digital version) and read the world pages. There, you'll see another photograph of Donald Trump and another story about something he's done. It might be his questionable decision to accept a $US400 million plane from Qatar, cutting essential services or blowing out the size of the budget deficit (now on track to surpass $US37 trillion within weeks). It's news, but the Reserve Bank has another word for it - 'uncertainty drag'. And that drag now has a number. While the focus for most of us is on the official cash rate and what that means for our mortgage repayments, the RBA is trying to set policy as the big orange man rampages through economic orthodoxy. Loading As best as it can determine, Trump and tariffs means a little slower growth here, a small bump in unemployment and inflation edging down to the middle of the bank's 2-3 per cent target band. But that's just on what he's announced (for now). Knowing that Trump could change policy direction if his Big Mac is not cooked properly, the RBA has looked at the best and worst-case scenarios. In the best-case scenario (or wishful thinking), Trump sees the error of his ways and brings tariffs back to where they were last year.
The Age
06-05-2025
- The Age
Cheaper than a Big Mac: Bourke Street Bakery co-founder opens smash burger joint
Bourke Street Bakery co-founder Paul Allam put seven intensive years of research into smash burgers in the US. The fruits of that investment will be unveiled today when his latest passion project, HiHi Burger, opens at Bondi Junction. There's a lot to get excited about at HiHi, where they use Vic's Meat and a single smash burger is an affordable $7.90. (That's less than a Macca's Big Mac or Quarter Pounder, whose price can vary depending on location but cost $8 or more at some outlets.) Allam also backed his Bourke Street Bakery experience to update the potato bun, ubiquitous in US smash burgers: 'I thought we could improve it,' he said. Allam moved to the US to launch Bourke Street Bakery NYC, with its four stateside outlets now established enough for him to relocate to Sydney. The experience taught him some lessons about the US market: while Bourke Street's sausage rolls have been a hit, pies remain a hard sell because consumers in New York associate 'pies with sweet over savoury'. It also taught him plenty about US street food. Returning to Australia, he missed some of the staples of his life living in Brooklyn, although he points out Sydney has some good smash burgers. While Allam can't accurately count the number of burgers he consumed on his US smash burger hunt, what made a great burger of the smash genre became evident.
