A smash hit: New burger joint pops into town

A new local burger joint is coming to town and the entrepreneur running it only recently finished high school.

Alex Swierkowski is a 19-year-old Wareham resident and recent Upper Cape Cod Technical Regional High School graduate who is smashing into the restaurant industry with the opening of his new pop-up smash burger shop called Big Al’s Smash Burgers.

Swierkowski’s parents own the East Wareham restaurant Ella’s Wood Fired Kitchen located at 3136 Cranberry Highway and he will be running his pop-up out of their kitchen on Sundays and Mondays which started started Jan. 11 from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“I’m a little nervous but I’m definitely excited and I’m happy to see it all unfolding,” Swierkowski said. “It’s been two years of putting everything down on paper and making sure I do it all the right way.”

Having grown up around the restaurant business and working in kitchens since he was 14, Swierkoski never imagined following in his parents footsteps until his sophomore year of high school.

“I watched my dad do it and I hated how he was never home but then I went to upper cape and I really just fell in love with cooking,” he said.

During his time at upper cape, Swierkoski worked in the school’s kitchen, the Canal Side Dining Room alongside the school’s professional chefs and his peers which is where his love of cooking began to develop.

“Towards the end of my time there I didn’t feel like a student anymore, I felt more in charge of the kitchen,” he said. “I did a lot of extracurricular events for them and worked on the side for them.”

And in the same year he began developing the recipe for his smash burgers, especially his signature called the Big Al’s classic smash. A smash burger patty served on a brioche bun with American cheese, cajun seasoning, onions smashed into the beef and his signature sauce.

“We were actually running it on the menu for the Canal Side Dining room and it was just so interesting to see a different cook of burger,” he said.

He continued to develop his menu while in school and after a year of college, he decided to go into business for himself. 

But instead of opting for a sit-down restaurant like his parents have, he wanted to start small with grander goals for the future.

“My goal in the next year is to open a food truck for the summertime and then within the next five years I want to be able to open a second [truck] and possibly a permanent location,” he said.

But for now, the pop-up remains a small operation, being run by Swierkoski with the help of some friends and his parents watching over on opening day.

The menu consists of the classic burger, the Wareham smash, a smash burger with pepper jack cheese, cajun seasoning, sliced onions and chipotle mayo, a double-fried chicken sandwich dredged in buttermilk with a slaw mix and his “comeback sauce” which is sweet and spicy with hot honey drizzled on top and fries and soft drinks.