After conquering cookies, a Utah restaurant owner aims to make ‘the perfect burger’

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Hello, Eaters! Mike Jardine said he was looking for the perfect burger — and when he couldn’t find one, he started making them himself.

That, in a nutshell, is the origin story for Burger Fusion, a restaurant that opened Nov. 21 in Trolley Square. (The street address is 602 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City. Look for it on the south end of the building that houses the Whole Foods Market.)

A decade ago, Jardine and his wife started Twisted Sugar, a cookie-and-soda shop in Layton. The Jardines franchised Twisted Sugar, and it now has around 50 locations in 14 states. Then they sold their stake in the company and planned to travel the country. They even sold their house and bought a fifth-wheel RV.

“My goal was to do it for a year,” Jardine said. “My wife was tired of it after two months. You can guess who won that.”

The couple returned to Utah, except for a winter spent flipping a house in South Carolina, and Mike Jardine looked for something new to do.

“I’ve always wanted a burger place,” Jardine said. “I tell people: Cookies were a necessity, but burgers are my passion. … I could eat them every day. I love anything from the cheapest McDonald’s burger to really good, expensive burgers.”

The burgers on the menu at Burger Fusion are what he’s been making for friends the last decade or so, he said. The key is the mix of ground beef — about 80% ground chuck that “gives it good texture and good taste,” and 20% Wagyu beef that “gives it a good fat content,” he said. “We’re definitely not a lean burger.”

Jardine used to buy his beef at Harmons, then went directly to the supermarket chain’s supplier, Snake River Farms in Idaho. At first, Jardine would grind the meat in-house, but his supplier convinced him they could do it and spare him the liability issues.

Jardine also bakes the buns in-house every day. “I don’t like it when you get a burger that has a lot of juice and a lot of sauce, and by the time you get halfway through it, the bottom bun’s just kind of disintegrated,” he said. (Jardine added that he’s looking to hire someone to do the baking for him, and he’s considering turning the old trolley car near the restaurant — the former home of Trolley Wing Co. — into a bakery space that sells cookies on the side.)

The menu at Burger Fusion offers 10 varieties of hamburger — from the classic with caramelized onions ($11) to more exotic varieties, like the Savannah Gold Rush ($15) with grilled peach, candied bacon and a peach pepper jelly aioli.

One of the crowd favorites is the Velvet Smoke Show ($15), which features creamy peanut butter, berry jam, bacon, caramelized onion, hot honey pickles and a bit of pepper jelly aioli to add “just a little bit of spice.” (As tempting as that was, I opted for something different. Read down to “Dish of the Week” to see what I ordered.)

Also on the menu are fries and other deep-fried appetizers — such as the fried Havarti pickle spear ($6) and the Cuban Cigars ($6), which pack pork and ham in an eggroll, like a taquito version of a Cuban sandwich.

The deep fryers at Burger Fusion use beef tallow instead of vegetable oil. “It’s a lot cleaner,” Jardine said. “With the beef tallow, you just taste the food. You taste the potato in the fry. With oil, you taste the oil first, and then you taste the food.”

Burger Fusion is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. On a busy night, expect to stand in line outside the restaurant for a little while. It’s worth it.

Live deliciously,

Sean

Food News

Openings:

• A couple of months ago, my wife and I found Sri Annapoorani, an Indian place in South Jordan with a vegetarian/vegan menu that includes some tasty dosas — giant pancakes, rolled up and filled with masala. Behind the counter, the owners said they were looking to open a restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City. That time has come. Sri Annapoorani opened in mid-December at 170 S. Main, in the US Bank building, sharing space with the Mexican restaurant Mi Buena Vida. The first location, at 1776 W. 10610 South in South Jordan, is still going strong.

• Health-conscious, protein-driven restaurant chain Konala plans to expand into Utah. The company’s website lists three locations now — Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, Idaho, and Spokane, Washington. But according to industry publication QSR, the company recently signed a development agreement to add 10 locations in northern Utah and 15 across southern Idaho, with a franchise lease already signed for a Provo location. No word yet on when any will open.

• Mooyah, a burger-and-shakes chain, recently closed its location in Provo, near the Brigham Young University campus — but will reopen it sometime in early 2026 at the River’s Edge complex in Provo, the company announced in a release. The franchise owners, Art and Nick Depole, also have locations in Sandy and South Jordan and are planning to open one in Riverton in early 2026.

Booze (and Drink!) News

• The folks at Sunroom Coffee, a cafe at 470 W. 200 North in Salt Lake City’s Marmalade neighborhood, discovered something on Christmas morning: Someone had smashed the shop’s glass front door, trashed the place and knocked over their huge aluminum Christmas tree. The shop’s staff had to close on Friday, Dec. 26, to clean up — but they reopened on Saturday. A video of the damage went viral on Instagram, and the owners thanked their customers online for their show of support.

Dish of the Week

The menu at Burger Fusion features a lot of tempting options, but ultimately I landed on the Bleu Ribbon ($14), which features blue cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, balsamic glaze, a blue cheese aioli, hot honey pickles and slaw.

It was the juiciest burger I’ve had in a very long time. The mix of ground chuck and Wagyu beef makes for a succulent patty, and the sharpness of the blue cheese pairs well with the bacon.

I’d also recommend the Wasabi Tsunami ($14), which features pepper-jack cheese, katsu sauce and a wasabi aioli that’s milder than I was anticipating. It delivered a kick that never got uncomfortable, which I appreciated.