The smashburger craze isn’t over; it’s reaching a crescendo.
Hear ye, Hear ye — , the stylish yet equally unpretentious regenerative beef burger pop-up, is now the gold standard for burgers in the Detroit metro area.
When the scent of their double smashburger with cheese hits your nostrils, the aroma is intensely earthy, grassy, and beefy. The flavor? Strikingly fresh. It’s meat you feel good about eating before you even eat it. Each bite feels like a pure, unadulterated burger experience.
Often, the gripe with smashburgers is that you ’t taste the beef, that the flavor is lost during the Maillard reaction. Not here. Not with the cattle raised on in Hillsdale County, a farm which proudly touts their regenerative farming practices.
Melway Burgers is a joint collaboration between Melanie McElroy and Nicholas Ponte. Melanie, who spent many years working in campaign politics, is in charge of the farm’s retail operation. She’s also the daughter of Steve McElroy, part-owner and operator of McElroy Farms. Nicholas, who was formerly the head butcher at Marrow, serves as Melway’s in-house butcher and chef extraordinaire.
The farm’s beef is grass-finished, meaning zero grains are involved in the cow’s diet. It is the only smashburger in Detroit to use such beef. Due to its leaner properties, regenerative beef is rarely used to make smashburgers. In instances where the harvested cow has a particularly low fat content, Nicholas will blend beef tallow into the ground beef mixture. This makes the burger more fatty and smashable, but also doubles down on the animal’s rich, meaty flavor.
Regenerative beef, a term gaining steam nationwide, refers to the process in which the cattle is raised. McElroy is an 800-acre farm that allows cows to graze freely; they birth, breed, and feed naturally. Due to these holistic farming practices, the land becomes healthier over time. Melanie testifies that since they employed a regenerative cattle grazing method, the ecosystem of the farm, which for many generations was a crop farm using pesticides, has been transformed. Lush greenery, a plethora of pollinators, fungal life, and even birds have since migrated back to the land.
“You can just tell when you’re amongst a happy ecosystem,” says Melanie, whose goal is to spread the good word of regenerative farming practices through the burgers themselves.
Melway Burgers is an outdoor pop-up which operates out of what is essentially an indoor burger stand set piece — complete with a wraparound bar, stools, and counter space. Neon signs reading “100% grass-fed” and “smashburgers” provocatively light up at night. The whole thing is an ode to the white tile burger joints of Detroit. The name Melway is a nod to Telway Hamburgers — one of the city’s iconic restaurants.
The burger patties themselves are smashed on a flat top grill with thinly sliced white onions. Soft, wrinkled, squishy buns are delivered fresh from Metropolitan Bakery in Hamtramck. Nicholas makes the pickles from scratch, and each burger is topped with a homemade burger sauce. Each component perfectly accents the special beef from McElroy Farms.
It’s one of the hottest tickets in town, operating mostly outside of bars and coffee shops. Just recently, Melway celebrated their first Saturday pop-up at Eastern Market — a coveted vendor spot. The smashburgers sell out regularly, and Melanie is thrilled that it’s getting word out about the farm, a farm which has been transformed.
“We want to start a conversation about local farms, and how the city can do more to feel more connected with local farms and regenerative agriculture,” says Melanie, who has been flattered by the pop-ups’ rousing success, “I’m just a farmer trying to educate folks about soil health.”
If eating the best burger in town is a part of that education, well, you ought to be a scholar.
Melway Burgers will be set up at on Sept. 19. Follow them on for more the latest updates.
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