Tanner's Prime Burgers Opens in South Oceanside

OCEANSIDE, CA - Burger foodies lined up this weekend to sample the fast, casual gourmet burger menu at the newly opened Tanner's Prime Burgers.

The concept was created by Michelin-starred chef Brandon Rodgers and Eric Brandt of Brandt Beef, with the goal to launch the best burger joint in the world.

The Patch dropped by for a chat with co-founder Eric Brandt to get the scoop on their new smash burger place opening at the Freeman Collective.

Patch: Can you tell our reader's a little bit about Tanners?

Brandt: Well, it's a fast, casual gourmet burger, using USDA prime Brandt beef that my family raises just two hours East of here.

It's a smash burger concept that we started in Acrisure stadium in Palm Desert. That's where it was first born. And then Del Mar Thoroughbred Club had us come in and we took over the celebrity Grill and had great success there. Then, we went to the Del Mar Food and Wine Festival and won the show.

And then this opportunity came up here in Oceanside to do our first brick-and-mortar. So this is Tanner's number one, here in Oceanside.

Patch: What made you choose Oceanside for your flagship venture?

Brandt: It's such a great Community. We're just so excited to be here. You know, in the Freeman Collective group here, that's got all these other great restaurants. Right in the middle of them with great energy. Great people, great Community.

Patch: Can you tell me a little bit about your concept of putting beef in everything? I understand, you even put beef tallow in the ice cream.

Brandt: Well, we're in the beef business and so we're inclined to find creative ways to express the best of these animals that we raise.

We want to make sure everything's the highest quality and of course that is inspired by Chef Brandon Rogers. This concept really wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for him. He's the co-founder and executive chef with three Michelin stars under his belt.

Getting him to come and do this fast casual concept with us is quite a blessing. He's bringing those techniques that he brought to the French Laundry in Napa and with Benu in San Francisco, where they got three Michelin stars.

It's just bringing the techniques that are the level of precision that you need in fine dining but to a fast, casual concept restaurant with my family's beef. So it's a perfect blending of the two.

Patch: So are you planning to expand to other locations?

Brandt: We'll see. The intention is to have more but we want to make sure we get this one right and concentrate on the one place, first, before concentrating on 21.

I think you can already see the execution level that we have on day one is pretty exceptional. It's just very focused. We're very focused on producing a super high-quality burger that's executed the same every single time with the same ingredients. To keep it simple.

Patch: Everything looks delicious. What do you recommend for first time visitors?

Brandt: Just come try us out. We have a great team here under Brandon's leadership and we hope everybody has a great experience. We want to be part of the community and treat everybody so they want to come back.

There's so many great restaurants and so many great opportunities and we just want to be one of the best of them.

Patch: Is there any specific menu item you recommend?

Brandt: Try a little bit of everything. Like the beef tallow fries. We take our beef tallow and we make frying oil from it, and in my opinion, it makes some of the best french fries out there, they hold better they're crispy. They go great with Tanner's Hot Sauce. Our secret sauce is fermented and we make it ourselves.

Of course, we recommend our beef tallow ice cream. We call it the Fatty Patty and it includes a homemade cookie recipe from Brandon's wife's with the ice cream in the middle. It's just a great way to finish things off.

All that talk about their delicious food was making our mouths water so it was time to dig in and try the burgers.

We decided to start with the single patty of Tanner's Prime Burger. It's made with 100% USDA Prime Beef smashed with Cowboy Beef Bacon, carmelized onions, New School American Cheese on a Brioche bun, accompanied by the Tallow Fries.

The burger was exceptional and like all good juicy burgers required multiple napkins to eat. All the toppings complimented the burger and created an explosion of flavor that was so satisfying. The fries have a crispy beefy flavor that makes them irresistible especially when dunked in their burger sauce or excellent hot sauce.

Tanner's also offers a range of soft drinks, in-house beer, wine and hard seltzer to enhance your burger experience. There is both indoor and dog-friendly patio seating.

Next time you are in South O do yourself a favor and add Tanner's to your burger bucket list!

For more info visit their website, Tanner's Prime Burgers.