Messy. Gooey. Sexy. Juicy. Adult. Those are words Los Angeles native Dave Culwell uses to describe the smashburgers he cooks at Dallas backyard parties, school fundraisers, anyplace he can drag his flattop for a Burger Schmurger pop-up.
Culwell’s favorite burger is the Schmurger, a double meat, double cheese monster, smashed thin and topped with a hairdo of curly yellow onions, house-made dill pickles and ketchup-mayo-mustard secret recipe sauce. It’s excellent.
But The Maverick has become my favorite burger in Dallas. I hesitate to even tell you about it, because I’ve had a personal relationship with The Maverick for a few months now, and she’s all mine. Well, maybe not: Burger Schmurger was gaining attention as a growing pop-up throughout 2022, and the Maverick won Best Bite at the Chefs for Farmers festival in November. Since then, people like me started following Burger Schmurger’s around-town appearances for another bite of that sexy burger.
Culwell, a self-described backyard cook and “not a chef,” is still surprised he won that competition against more than 60 chefs.
Culwell spent most of his adult life traveling as an upright bass jazz musician, then leading coaching sessions for real estate brokerages. He was good at both. But Culwell belongs in Dallas kitchens now.
Let’s get into it: The Maverick starts with the same two smashed beef patties and the same two slices of cheap American cheese that are used in the Schmurger. Next comes a pile of smoked pork belly jam, kept intact with a single slice of provolone that splays on top like a dome. Culwell toasts two burger buns — purposefully cheap ones; they’re Mrs. Baird’s — and turns them upside-down, smashing them into a mess of beef and cheese and bacon.
Some of the best bites come first, where the scalloped edges offer crunch and a punch of umami. Culwell calls those bites “meat lace.” Then comes the smoky-sweet taste of bacon jam, the salty cheese and the buttery bread.
It’s a two hands, no talking burger. Lots of napkins.
For about five months, 23-year-old chef Dylan Wyont has accompanied Culwell to events. Wyont had never eaten a Maverick burger, even though he made 1,600 servings at Chefs for Farmers. I was floored: He made that burger for hundreds of people and never ate one? So recently at Craft and Growler, the brewery near Fair Park where Burger Schmurger serves dinner six days a week, I asked Wyont and Culwell to eat with me. We cut a Maverick into four pieces and I watched them intently, almost as proud as they should be for having made this “adult” burger.
“Oh [expletive],” Wyont said.
The answer was in front of me. This is the best burger in Dallas right now.
‘A real grassroots, organic thing’
Burgers. Tacos. Barbecue. Those are the three food groups, Culwell says.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Culwell would invite his friends, his kids’ friends and neighbors over to his backyard for dinner to hang out safely during an isolating time.
He’d make burgers, tacos or barbecue, and friends seemed to love his food. But it was free. Don’t they always say that when it’s free?
“I always wondered,” Culwell says.
His daughter Stella, then 13 years old, challenged her dad to sell his smashburgers at a pop-up, to prove people would pay for them. Stella called them Schmurgers. Culwell learned to make them from his Granny, a 4-foot-10 cussin’ chain smoker who would invite Culwell’s friends over on Sundays and cook nothing-fancy meals when he was a kid in California.
Stella and her dad started selling burgers every once in a while at Oak Highland Brewery near their house in Lake Highlands in March 2021. The plan was once a month. But by December of the same year, he had 23 event requests. Burger Schmurger became Culwell’s full-time job by 2022.
“It was a real grassroots, organic thing,” he said. He still remembers being “stoked” when his Instagram page reached 100 followers.
What’s next
Superfans pop into Craft and Growler for a burger, but Culwell knows he should probably open his own Burger Schmurger restaurant someday. He hasn’t found the right place, for the right price.
He’s disillusioned by Dallas’ food truck regulations, but he’d love to be able to pull a trailer to events, too.
Culwell even has dreams of opening several restaurants someday, then franchising nationally, then internationally. (“And then I’ll retire,” he says.)
A lot has to happen between now and then.
Culwell describes a recurring dream he has at least two nights a week, where Anthony Bourdain sidles up next to him, sitting on a curb, leaning on a window sill or at a cafe. Bourdain offers Culwell some free advice. “Dallas is so behind on street food,” Bourdain apparently says.
“They’re going to keep saying no, and you’re going to have to keep saying yes.”
Culwell keeps that advice, even though Bourdain didn’t really say it. And, maybe, backyard parties and random pop-ups — serving Culwell’s Cali street food — are just the place for Burger Schmurger. For now.
Burger Schmurger does private events and sells burgers and fries at Craft and Growler, 3601 Parry Ave., Dallas, Tuesday through Sunday at dinnertime. Follow Dave Culwell around town at instagram.com/burger_schmurger/.
