I’m not sure it’s a good thing to be told by a restaurant that yours is one of the biggest orders they’ve ever had — but that’s what happens when we go to pick up our Saturday night dinner from Dash Burger. In fairness, there are five of us eating and I’m under a professional obligation to try as many items on the menu as possible — but still… we aren’t holding back. If you think that a burger is a burger is a burger, and there’s not much difference between them, think again. (Certainly the lads who attempted the trip from Meath to collect their order from — allegedly — Gráinne O’Keeffe’s BuJo in Sandymount, only to be turned back in Ringsend and fined by spoilsport guards, would not agree. Yes, you can go beyond 5km to collect a takeaway, but 80km is pushing it). George Motz is a burger scholar (how’s that for a job description?) who has made it his life’s work to traverse the burger belt of the United States on a mission to identify as many different regional variations as he can. You’ll find Motz on YouTube and Instagram and his Great American Burger Book will teach you how to make many of these burgers at home. During lockdown last year, Dash Burger’s Barry Wallace went down a burger rabbit hole, specifically a smashburger rabbit hole. According to Motz, it’s the cooking method that distinguishes one regional burger from another. Some burgers are poached, others baked or grilled. Smashburgers involve taking a ball of beef mince, seasoning it with salt and pepper and smashing it on the griddle with a heavy meat pestle to flatten it out until it is very thin, and then cooking it on a high heat until the Maillard reaction creates a dark, crisp crust. The particular smashburger that caught Barry’s eye was the Oklahoma Onion burger, developed in the 1940s by someone who had the brilliant idea to reduce the amount of meat in the burger by 50pc, and add a quantity of very finely shaved onions on top. When the burger is flipped, the onions cook and their juices rise as steam into the meat. The resulting patty is crisp, craggy, juicy — and supremely tasty, with lacy edges that bring a bumper quotient of flavour to every mouthful. The double smash cheeseburger at Dash combines two patties with American cheese, onions, pickles and a secret burger sauce sandwiched inside a soft, pillowy potato roll. The roll is akin to those served at US burger temples such as Shake Shack and In-N-Out — pleasingly squishy, yet with enough grip to keep the burger contained within, so it’s not an overly messy eating experience. As well as being super-tasty, it’s notably not greasy. (Barry says he aims to make a burger you can eat at lunchtime without needing a nap afterwards). The key to a good burger is the ratio between lean meat and fat, 80:20 is considered ideal. Any less fat and the flavour will suffer. Barry is shy about naming the specific cuts he uses, but his burgers are made to order by Pat McLoughlin — the butcher who supplies many of Dublin’s best restaurants, including the two Michelin-star Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud — using 28-day aged beef. The chipotle version is pretty fine too, but for my money, the double smash cheeseburger is the one to go for as the flavour of the meat shines through. The chips are “not too skinny”, double-cooked and seasoned with a seaweed salt. Have them with a smoky, cheesy chipotle sauce if you are throwing all caution to the wind. I’d prefer if they were more crisp, but that’s a minor quibble. Free-range chicken tenders are pleasantly juicy. Dash Burger has quietly become the chefs’ burger joint of choice since it opened last September. “I knew the trend was coming,” says Barry, who applies the lessons he learned in a career in street fashion to fast casual dining. “In the last couple of years, all the places winning the best burger competitions in the US — Goldburger, Burgers Never Say Die, Tripp Burgers and Easy Street Burgers — were serving smash burgers.” Dinner for five costs €87.12.