SMASHING SUCCESS
Stackers Burger Co. stands with the best in New Mexico
Basit Gauba is Albuquerque’s guru of the grill, its phenom of the fryer. Working in the cramped space inside his Tikka Spice food truck, Gauba attracted a following with spicy, flavorful fusions of South Asian and New Mexican cuisine. As the business grew, so did Gauba’s reputation: in 2023, he was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef in the Southwest.
In 2022, Gauba launched a spinoff called KuKri based on the popular crispy chicken sandwiches from Tikka Spice. He then tackled our nation’s de facto national dish with Stackers Burger Co., a smashed burger joint that started out, naturally, as a food truck. It now has two locations: a semi-permanent spot at ABQ Food Truck Park in the Northeast Heights and a nook inside 505 Central Food Hall at Fifth Street Downtown.
I’ve been to 505 Central several times since it opened in 2020, but I’ve never seen it as busy as it was during a recent midweek lunch. Lines stretched out from the various counters and conversations rocketed off the walls. Beepers given to customers to indicate when their food was ready were chirping all around like a convocation of crickets.
In spite of the clamor, Stackers looked to be running smoothly. Three people worked in the cramped space behind the counter. The cook set tennis-ball-sized spheres of ground beef onto the grill and commenced flattening them with a spatula. Sliced onions pressed directly into the burger kicked up an appetizing aroma as they
caramelized. Orders came out on aluminum trays lined with black-and-white checked paper.
Stackers’ menu offers six burgers and one chicken sandwich. Prices range from $8.95 for the Classic Cheeseburger to $13.95 for a Hangover burger that includes two patties, bacon and a fried egg. Fries and a drink add $4 to the total.
Top billing on the menu goes to the Duke City burger ($11.95) with green chile and American cheese. The two thin patties that extended well outside the bun showed off an appetizing char, and the onions smashed into the beef created a tasty blackened fringe around the edges. I was impressed both by the amount of green chile piled atop the burger and the sting it delivered. In between the patties, melted cheese mingled with a Stackers sauce that tasted like a spicy aioli. The brioche bun that held it all together was surpassingly soft and fresh. Eating this, it’s easy to see why Gauba and his crew walked away with three first-place awards at the 2022 Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown.
The fries, served in a cone
of paper, were crisp and lively with seasoning, if slightly underheated.
If the burger set the bar high, the Patty Melt ($11.95) topped it. The buttery Texas toast grilled to a golden brown stood up to the two patties and the gooey melted cheese better than the bun did. The proportion of bread to burger was also more ideal.
Anyone who’s eaten at KuKri or Tikka Spice knows that Gauba has crispy chicken down to a science. While the sandwich at KuKri is made with tenders, Stackers’ Crispy Chicken Sandwich ($11.95) is a full breast served over lettuce, tomato and pickles on a brioche bun. The craggy coating held fast to the moist chicken, and the sauce brought some heat. It’s a noticeably lighter option than the burger.
The server told me there are no glutenfree buns available, but they can swap out the bun for a lettuce wrap.
Tots are available as a side with the burgers for $5 or as stand-alone dishes served with either diced crispy chicken or ground beef. The Stackers Tots ($12.95) arrived piled on a tray and topped with salsa and seared nuggets of ground beef. Like the fries, the tots were crisp and well-seasoned. They maintained their texture even under swaths of garlic crema, sriracha and Stackers sauce. This was the spiciest dish I tried, but it was far from intolerable.
On the sweet side, there are five shakes available in some novel flavors for $7.99 each. The Banana Pudding version was thick enough to stand a straw in and had bits of banana threaded throughout. Its tropical flavor, with notes of rum and vanilla, refreshed after all the burgers and onions.
Stackers does not serve alcoholic drinks, but if you want a beer with your burger and fries, there are not one but two bars within shouting distance in the food hall.
Metered parking is usually easy to find on Fifth Street north of Central Avenue.
With Stackers Burger Co., Basit Gauba continues a string of successes. The burgers here stand with the best in New Mexico.