The Burger That Made Guy Fieri Demand a Drumroll
“This is the balance… and this is out of bounds.” That’s how Guy Fieri described the moment he bit into Dad’s Burger at Dad’s Kitchen in Sacramento, California — a bacon and blue cheese stuffed burger so righteous it earned comparisons to burger legends Ho Dads and Squeeze Inn.
What makes this eight-ounce monster different from every other bacon cheeseburger out there? The bacon and blue cheese aren’t just toppings. They’re literally seared right into the burger — crusted on so completely that Guy called it “an amazing combination” and declared the technique produced “probably the juiciest burger you’re gonna try.”
How Kitchen Manager Luis Becara Builds the Beast
The process starts with chopping bacon into small squares. But here’s where it gets interesting: instead of laying the bacon on top after cooking, Luis crusts it directly onto the raw patty along with crumbles of blue cheese. The goal? Getting everything to stick together before it hits the flat top.
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Guy watched in fascination as Luis carefully formed the patty, then asked if he thought it would hold. “Yeah,” Luis replied. “Don’t say anything.” Guy went quiet, then asked: “Wait, is it quiet time right now? We don’t want to scare it?” Pure concentration was required to keep that bacon-cheese crust intact.
Once on the grill, the bacon goes down first, and the burger cooks in its own rendered bacon fat. “Holy crust, a bacon ninja sitting there cooking in that bacon fat galore,” Guy observed. The key detail Luis emphasized: the bacon must cook all the way through before flipping, otherwise “all the flavor will come out.”
The Secret Aleppo Spread
This burger doesn’t come with ordinary condiments. Luis makes a housemade Aleppo spread using the Syrian chili that Guy noted “tastes like hot paprika.” The spread combines roasted garlic (they brine it first), garlic oil, eggs as a binder, salt, pepper, and lemon juice — all blended until squishy. When Guy smelled the roasted garlic going in, his reaction was immediate: “Oh, it smells awesome.”
The restaurant also makes their own fries fresh every morning — because when you’re cranking out more than 7,000 Dad’s Burgers a year, you don’t cut corners on the sides either.
A Recipe Born In-House
When Guy asked who created this masterpiece, Luis confirmed it was his own creation. The technique of crusting bacon and cheese directly into the patty, similar to how some restaurants approach dishes like a Surf ‘n’ Turf Burger, sets this apart from typical stuffed burgers where ingredients hide inside.
Current owners Julio Franks and Christine Collins bought Dad’s Kitchen nearly two years before filming and made sure to keep the Dad’s Burger on the menu. Smart move — customers can’t stay away. As one regular put it: “You always want to come back and have it again.”
Guy’s final verdict placed this burger in elite company, calling it “a cross between Ho Dads and Squeeze Inn” and declaring it reached “that level of burger greatness.” For fans of creative burger builds like Italian Stuffed Jalapeños | Big Bite or inventive comfort food like Fresh Pasta in Baltimore, Dad’s Kitchen proves that sometimes the best innovations come from rethinking the classics.
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