A new and colorful smashburger joint has opened in West Oakland, and it is proving popular already.
Hyphy Burger debuted this February at 898 West Grand Ave. in the space of a former doughnut and Chinese-food shop. The restaurant is decked out in a mustard-and-ketchup paint scheme and splashy logos declaring “Super Hyphy” and “Stupid Good!” There’s a short bus from the “Hyphy Unified School District” doing mobile advertising in the parking lot; a sign on the side warns the “vehicle will gas-break-dip.”
During the normally down hour of 3 p.m. on a recent weekday, the parking lot was jam-packed and the wait for a burger was 15-20 minutes. The scene was reminiscent of the action around a 1950s burger stand after the Big Game, complete with soul music and kitted-up autos with shiny hubcaps. Two dudes eating off their trunk declared the food “10 out of 10. We feel it’s better than In-N-Out.”
“If you go, get this,” added one, proffering a rainbow-colored milkshake swimming with Fruity Pebbles.
Hyphy Burger opened in West Oakland in February 2025, serving smashburgers and breakfast-cereal milkshakes. (John Metcalfe/Bay Area News Group)
Hyphy was co-founded by content creator Darion Frazier. He runs the Instagram channel @bayareafoodz, where fans can watch him tackle a very “big-ass taco,” all-you-can-eat snow-crab legs and other local delicacies.
The restaurant’s name is a reference to the Bay Area hip-hop subculture known as hyphy. If you’re unsure what that is, big-time hyphy guy E-40 explained it well in an interview: “It’s an energy. It’s a culture. It’s a dance. It’s expression…. It’s cars. It’s the sideshows. It’s the swinging of donuts. It’s scraper cars — the Buick LeSabres, the Park Avenues, the old-school muscle cars…. It’s the struggle. It’s the way we dress. It’s our lingo. It’s a culture, man.”
Hyphy Burger opened in West Oakland in Feb. 2025, serving smashburgers and breakfast-cereal milkshakes. (John Metcalfe/Bay Area News Group)
The Hyphy menu offers two kinds of smashburgers: a Hyphy Burger with two patties, American cheese, grilled onions, pickles and “You Feel Me” sauce on a potato bun ($8), and a Burnout Burger that adds jack cheese, jalapenos and peperoncini to the mix ($9). There are sides of fries ($4-$5), sodas and then those shakes, which come in flavors like Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Nutella.
And that’s it — which so far, is looking like a winning formula.
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