When did you have your first burger at Irv’s? Fans share memories on reopening day

Everyone has an Irv’s story, or so a local adage goes. The beloved burger shack along Route 66 served as an iconic spot for a bite in various iterations from 1946 until its 2018 closure and is now in its surprise reprisal with a reopening that took place earlier this month. Chatting with customers on the day of the restaurant’s return, it became immediately clear that Irv’s is so much more than a pit stop for a burger and fries: It’s a gathering place, a West Hollywood stalwart and, like a burger-based Cheers, an institution where everybody — or at least Sonia Hong — knows your name.

After a four-year hiatus, Irv’s Burgers reopens in West Hollywood.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

A few years ago, a family death, an injury and frequent plans for the demolition of its previous space on Santa Monica Boulevard inspired owner Hong and her mother to bow out of the business permanently. Now with new ownership — from restaurateur and Off the Menu app creator Lawrence Longo — Irv’s is back, and so is Hong. Though no longer the owner, she can once again be found behind the counter taking orders, greeting guests and, when it’s not too busy, sketching her famous doodles of customers on their plates. Here’s what a few customers had to say about their years visiting Irv’s, and especially visiting Hong, the restaurant’s decades-long figurehead, on reopening day.

Customers Dovie Mamikunian, left, her husband, Laurent Suchel, and their dog, Mercer, have been checking social media for months to see when Irv’s Burgers would reopen.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Dovie Mamikunian and her husband, Laurent Suchel, have been visiting Irv’s Burgers for nearly 20 years despite living in Paris, until their recent move back to Los Angeles. Every visit to L.A. meant a stop at Irv’s — immediately. “On the way to the airport, we would go here and have a hamburger before the plane,” she says. “When we got off the airplane, first place we’d come is here.”

They’ve popped into Irv’s for so long that they’ve patronized both of the restaurant’s previous locations and have brought their daughter since she was in a stroller. They come for the food, but also for Hong: They love that she wouldn’t just draw their faces on plates and napkins when they came to visit — she’d also draw Mercer, their dog, who came for the reopening-day action too.

Mercer resists all temptation to snag a bite outside Irv’s Burgers.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Suchel and Mamikunian say they were heartbroken to learn of Irv’s closure in 2018, but roughly three months ago, while at her hairdresser’s, Mamikunian heard the news of its comeback: “We were totally depressed when we found out that it closed, and I kept checking and checking to see if it was reopened,” Mamikunian said. “I said, ‘Where can you get a decent hamburger in L.A. now that Irv’s closed?’ And she said, ‘Oh, my friend just bought it!’ So I’ve been tracking it.”

Originally from Los Angeles, Mamikunian first discovered Irv’s with her brother and decided it was the best patty melt she’d ever tasted. On reopening day, she ordered one again, though with the restaurant’s recently pared-down menu it’s no longer a standard item. Mamikunian figured out a cheat, though: She simply ordered a tuna melt but replaced the fish with a burger.

Food

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The burger shack on Route 66 returns this month with new ownership. But the famous doodles, and their author, are still around.

July 21, 2022

James Evans, along with his dog, Mia, wait in line to order at the reopening of Irv’s Burgers.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

James Evans walked by the last location of Irv’s for years until finally stopping for a burger out of curiosity. He was instantly hooked. “Sonia was the nicest person in the world, and it just made me fall in love with the place,” he said. “I started walking here once a week. Her and her mom, they’re just always so great. She always draws a little picture and she remembers you, and she remembers which street I live on.”

As a regular, he usually flew solo, except on one visit when a friend tagged along — and Hong took the opportunity to roast him: She drew faces on the paper plate as she normally would but labeled it “James and his only friend.”

When Irv’s closed, Evans, like so many who were there on reopening day, said he was upset by the news. “I was devastated — I felt so bad for them because they’re such a staple of the neighborhood.” As soon as he learned of the reopening, he began marking the days until he could return, this time to the new location, for his go-to order of fries, a Coke and a single cheeseburger (sometimes with bacon, sometimes not). On reopening day, he didn’t bring “his only friend” to get roasted again, but he did bring his dog, Mia.

New customer Rose Ghavami, a.k.a. Rose Knows, waiting for her first taste of Irv’s Burgers at the restaurant’s pickup window.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Rose Ghavami had never been to Irv’s, but she’d been curious for months. Ghavami, a DJ who also goes by Rose Knows, works just down the block from the new location and had noticed the new signage and the commotion. “I’ve been seeing the progression of the reopening,” she said, “so I’m like, ‘What’s the big deal here?’” But what really caught her eye, she shared, was the enlarged, framed photo hanging on the wall of the new glassed-in dining room, a shot that’s iconic to Irv’s lore: the Clash stationed out front of the burger shack in 1982, taken by celebrity photographer Bonnie Schiffman.

“I was like, ‘Well, if it’s good enough for the Clash, it’s good enough for me,’” she said. “I trust in Joe [Strummer].”

Though the new Irv’s menu sports pastrami sandwiches, hot dogs, vegan burgers and tuna melts, she played it classic for her first meal there: a single-patty cheeseburger with fries, a Coke and a side of the house-made Irv’s sauce, plus a sprinkle-topped birthday cookie because it was cute.

The verdict? “It’s f— amazing,” Ghavami said, one bite in. “Very much worth the wait.”

Customer Ted Sroka sips one of the new milkshakes available at the reopened Irv’s Burgers and wears some of the restaurant’s new merch: a bright yellow snapback, placed over the hat he arrived wearing.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Ted Sroka first rolled up to Irv’s decades ago — extremely hungover. (It was, he said, back in his barfly days, circa 2000.) But he still remembers the experience of meeting Hong, word for word. “She was super, super cheery, and I remember thinking, ‘Even if this burger is terrible, I have to come back here,’” he said. “And it was the best burger I ever had.”

Hong always remembered his name and his favorite items, and gradually Irv’s became Sroka’s favorite spot to bring new friends. When Hong’s struggles to keep her restaurant space began to surface, Sroka helped her with applying for the restaurant’s classification as any kind of landmark, which they hoped would help stave off development of the lot; Irv’s was designated by the City of West Hollywood as a cultural resource in 2005, though it eventually closed in that location in fall of 2013 before reopening down the street at the start of 2014.

Hong texted Sroka to let him know of Irv’s first return after the restaurant’s 2018 closure, a 2021 pop-up organized by Longo. Naturally, he was back for this month’s opening too. While Sroka’s order varies depending on his mood, on reopening day he opted for a bacon cheeseburger and a shake, plus a bright yellow snapback — one of a number of new Irv’s merch items available — which he wore atop his other hat.

Customer Anthony Slusker gives the new Irv’s Burgers a thumbs-up alongside former owner Sonia Hong on reopening day. Customers can still find Hong serving up burgers and fries, as well as her famous paper-plate doodles.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

As a child, Anthony Slusker lived across the street from Irv’s and had always been curious about the burger shack, but due to his grandmother’s admonition that it was “junk food,” he stayed away until he was 8 or 9, at which point he couldn’t resist the allure. Unfortunately, he didn’t love his first burger there; his first taste was pre-Hong’s tenure, but as Slusker grew and continued to pass by the restaurant on his walk to school, he began to notice a new owner. It was Hong who brought him back.

“She was always like, ‘Come on in,’ and pulling people off the street with free samples, and I honestly fell in love with her burger,” he said. “She made the best burger I still to this day have ever eaten. I’ve eaten all over the world, and just the way that she makes the food — and the love and the family, community aspect of it — just made everything taste better, I guess.”

As a teenager, Irv’s became a gathering spot for Slusker and his friends, and he says Hong became like family to him. Once, he brought her a burger-shaped cake. Another time, the restaurant even became a hideout. One day, he’d been tagging the sidewalk and bus stops in West Hollywood with a friend when they got caught by the cops but managed to escape and run.

“Somebody caught us when we were in the process of running away, and we had nowhere else to go,” he said. “We couldn’t go home, so the first place that came into my mind was Irv’s. It was right there, so we ran up, and they’re coming after us, and she just panicked and put us into the fridge where all the onions and potatoes were.”

(They were never found, nor charged.)

On the day of the reopening, Slusker brought his little brother, whom he calls a second-generation Irv’s fan. He first introduced him to his safe haven “as soon as he was able to walk.” In a past iteration, Hong had whipped up a special burger just for the elder Slusker — a bacon, egg and cheese burger with barbecue sauce — but now, in the new home, he’s ordering a straightforward cheeseburger. And he’ll definitely be back for more, though he probably won’t be hiding in the walk-in fridge.