Crystal Wise
Jonathan Arguello
One of the city’s most popular food trucks is graduating to a brick-and-mortar location. Gustos Burgers + Stuff, which draws sell-out crowds for its incredibly cheesy smashburgers, will open a permanent location on the Near Southside, says owner Jonathan Arguello.
The restaurant, which will be renamed Gustos Burger Bar + More, will be located at 1229 7th Ave., in the spot previously occupied by The Radler Biergarten. Before The Radler, the historic bungalow, which was built in 1926, was best known for being the original home to The Bearded Lady.
Arguello says he’ll continue to run the food trailer but only for pop-up and catering events. For the past several weeks, the trailer has been parked outside Tulips.
“Right now, the focus is getting the restaurant open, so we won’t be at Tulips anymore,” he says. “We’ll still do bigger pop-up events and catering jobs. I need to keep my staff working and cash coming in for expenses tied to opening the restaurant.”
The restaurant will host a pop-up event on Saturday, Oct. 21 during Arts Goggle. It’ll then close so a few repairs can be made to an area in the kitchen that caught fire last month. The restaurant should open in November, Arguello says.
“The restaurant is 99 percent there,” he says. “I could open today if I wanted. But we want to test the waters during Arts Goggle, then make a few updates.”
Arguello began to make a name for himself in Fort Worth food circles last year when he started parking his food trailer in an alley next to the Hotel Dryce. There, he served outrageously cheesy smashburgers topped with Best Maid pickles, grilled onions, ketchup, mustard and gooey American cheese. He perfected the art of a true smashburger, pounding his patties ultra thin and perfectly crisping their edges.
The restaurant will give Arguello an opportunity to expand the trailer’s small menu, which consists of a handful of burgers and tater tots. New items will include additional burgers, a chicken sandwich, a Sonoran hot dog and, his biggest request from diners — French fries.
“I’m still putting ideas to pen and paper,” he says. “But another thing we’d like to do is barbecue sliders. We’re not a barbecue restaurant but we know how to cook a brisket. We did brisket sliders before and they killed.”
Arguello landed The Bearded Lady spot after, one day this past summer, he posted on social media about brutally hot temperatures.
“It was one of those days this past summer when it was really, really hot,” he says. “Which means it was really, really hot in our trailer. I posted a message like, `Come buy some burgers - it’ll help me open a store and then we can have AC.’ The building’s owner saw the message and that’s what started our conversation.”
He calls the move “surreal.” “For us to get The Bearded Lady building is just crazy,” he says. “I used to hang out there all the time. I remember when Texas Monthly named their Lust burger the No. 3 burger in the state. So, for us, a place that does burgers, it’s very surreal to go into a place already known for burgers. I can’t think of another place I’d want to be.”
