{"id":86977,"date":"2025-09-12T09:52:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T16:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=86977"},"modified":"2025-09-12T09:52:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T16:52:59","slug":"mexican-smashburgers-beasties-long-beach-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/mexican-smashburgers-beasties-long-beach-open","title":{"rendered":"What food says SoCal more than any other? Beasties says it\u2019s their Mexican smashburgers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Beasties Mexican Smashburgers promises an \u201cindulgent flavor experience,\u201d they mean it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their signature burgers \u2014 at $8 for the single patty up to $16 for the triple patty \u2014 are all made with Angus beef, caramelized onions and jalapenos, white American cheese, chorizo, a special sauce, and queso to dip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere’s nobody like us out there in the market,\u201d owner Tom Capler said about his new shop, at the former Eat Fantastic location in the Marina Pacifica shopping center<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The inspiration for Beasties struck Capler while he was traveling for his full-time job as a private chef. On one trip, he had a hamburger that he said perfectly captured the East Coast vibe, which started him thinking about how to encapsulate the West Coast, particularly Southern California, in food form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He settled on taco stands and smashburgers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beasties combines these concepts by adding the chorizo, jalapenos and queso to all of their burgers. They can also be ordered in the form of a gluten-free taco, which comes two for $8; a burgerito, which takes everything that comes on the two patty smashburger plus their signature tallow fries and wraps it in a flour tortilla for $16; or as Beastie fries that come with all the fixings for a single patty smashburger on top of their tallow fries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Smash tacos from Beasties in Long Beach on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For dessert, they offer horchata and Mexican hot chocolate soft serve for $5 and San Diablo churros for $8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capler said it took about two years from the moment of inception to opening Beasties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTaking it from some idea I had one day at lunch to a place that you could walk in and sit and actually eat the food and to see people’s reactions, that has been the best part,\u201d Capler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tom Capler and Jon Rogan, co-owners, at their restaurant on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jon Rogan, Capler\u2019s business partner and \u201cthe cheese sauce master,\u201d helped develop the menu and figured out the restaurant\u2019s supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just really tried to focus on the best quality possible. That\u2019s really been a guiding light for us,\u201d Rogan said. \u201cWe\u2019re not taking any shortcuts or doing things just based on price. We\u2019re all about flavor and taste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beasties Mexican Smashburgers will have its grand opening Sept. 20-21. During the grand-opening weekend, they\u2019ll have giveaways including free burgeritos for the first 100 guests, gift cards, and tickets to Disneyland and professional baseball and basketball games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mini churros with dulce de leche, sweetened condensed milk, and chocolate dip at Beasties in Long Beach on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the future, Capler hopes to get a Beasties food truck to expand their reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI mean, the dream is to open more of them, but I’m also happy just to serve Long Beach, this community I love,\u201d Capler said. \u201cOf course, everybody dreams of opening a huge burger chain or whatever, but right now my focus is Beasties and the Long Beach community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new restaurant at Marina Pacifica is offering creations like the burgerito, filled with two smashburger patties and fries. Just be sure to save room for some horchata soft serve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":86919,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32346],"class_list":["post-86977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86977"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86981,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86977\/revisions\/86981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86977"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=86977"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=86977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}