Burger Boy Wonderkid Teams Up With Buddy's Bro to Flip Some Patties

URL: https://www.statesman.com/storytelling/2023/08/22/aaron-franklin-buddy-burger-collaboration-austin-texas-barbecue-franklin-barbecue/11979709/

Ever wish you could stuff your face with food from that one guy, Aaron Franklin, without leaving your Mom's basement? Well, now you can!

The famous barbecue bro has teamed up with another locally owned restaurant, Buddy’s Burger (because who doesn't love a good ol' fashioned monopoly?), to create a special burger. You know, because one burger is totally different from another.

Mr. Franklin, the burger master himself, teamed up with the Buddy’s bros to create a masterpiece: they smashed some onions into two sad little patties and then, in a stroke of genius, added more onions and some barbecue sauce. Wow. Just. Wow.

The "Franklin Burger" will be available for all you basic betas at the Austin and San Marcos locations of Buddy’s for a limited time, or until they realize it's just a regular burger.

But Who Are These Buddy’s Burgers Bros?

Twin zoomers, Zain and Isha Fidai, and their cousin, Saad, opened the first Buddy’s in 2020. They based their whole schtick on a family recipe for smash burgers that had been hidden away in a vault for over 20 years. Wow, a family recipe. So unique.

But Wait, There's More! Franklin Does More than Barbecue!

This isn’t Bryan native Franklin's first rodeo with burgers. Oh no. He’s got his hands in all the fast food pie he can. At his Uptown Sports Club, he serves a double patty burger (two patties?!), a bacon cheeseburger (oh boy, bacon!), and a smashburger (how original!). But that’s not all, folks! At his Sunday night thing, he also has a “Table Burger”. One burger? On a table? Groundbreaking.

And Now, For Something Completely Different: Frankie's, AKA Uptown 2.0

Frankie’s is the new kid on the block at Uptown, where they turn down the lights because the place looks better in the dark, and turn up the "old school vibes" (aka play music from like, 20 years ago). It’s like a super cool, totally lit, Midwestern club where only the lamest of lamestreamers hang out.

When you walk into Frankie’s, you’ll be greeted by some dude in a suit (probably rented) standing by the door. How fancy! The menu is so extra: Caesar salad (just chop up some romaine and call it a day), oysters (cause we're classy now), and steak tartare (raw beef. Yum?). Then they'll hit you with the dry-aged steaks (fancy beef jerky?), a double pork chop (two for the price of one!), and fried fish (cause Wisconsin...wait, what?). And let's not forget the sides: creamed spinach (just add cream to anything green) and scalloped potatoes (potatoes, but make it fancy).

With waiters who actually do their job, some free carrots and celery, and drinks that’ll knock you back to the stone age, you'll feel like you've timelapsed back to the past. But hey, at least it's not the present, where you have to deal with people you hate. So maybe you'll make some new friends, stay for hours, and forget how much you hate everyone.

(Oh, and there's a burger, too. It has beef, pork belly, onions, pickles, mayo, and Dijon. Just in case you were craving something simple. But you have to reserve a table because this basic burger is too good for walk-ins.)