Halal-Friendly Smash Burgers: Ghost Kitchen Success Story

From Tech Pro to Halal-Friendly Burger Entrepreneur

Growing up in Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bu Bu Jubarah spent countless hours in the kitchen helping his mom cook. Later, as a student at Central Washington University in Seattle, he studied information technology and administrative management, but secretly longed to spend more time nourishing his cooking hobby.

After graduation in 2019 and a layoff from a Seattle tech company during the pandemic, Bu Bu Jubarah had time on his hands. A longtime fan of American food, burgers and Five Guys especially, that’s when he had the idea—what if he combined his halal dietary preferences with American-style smash burgers, his favorite “cheat” meal?

Identifying a Halal Gap in the Market

“I’m a Muslim and I love American food, but there were no halal options,” he says. “I wanted to make American food halal-friendly so other Muslims can experience what a real American burger tastes and looks like. It’s not enough for the customers to just tell them, ‘My meat is halal,’ though. Some of them, they want to see the certification. And a lot of customers will call daily, just to double confirm. They don’t play around.” Bu Bu Jubarah pays a slight premium to source halal-certified meat from only hand-slaughtered, not machine-based, processors but says the response and demand from his customers justifies the extra cost.

Launching a Ghost Kitchen in Capitol Hill

After a few years of perfecting his burger recipes, in 2023, as ghost kitchens were on the rise, Bu Jubarah signed a lease at a CloudKitchens shared facility in Capitol Hill. “I was just driving around and then I saw the CloudKitchens concepts—I reached out to them and then I learned the process of how to rent a kitchen—it was completely new to me,” he says. “I quickly learned that ghost kitchens are the way for new entrepreneurs—the overhead is not as expensive as opening up a brick-and-mortar location, and the risk is way less. When I looked through all the delivery platforms, DoorDash, Grubhub, I couldn’t find anything serving the Muslim community, so I felt like this was a good opportunity to fill an empty space in the market.”

The small kitchen, which only had an exhaust hood and sink, allowed Bu Jubarah to purchase his own equipment to ensure it never touched pork and could safely be used to prepare halal food. He opened his takeout and delivery-only business in October of that year.

Perfecting the Halal Smash Burger

Signature Patties & Seasoning

Instead of diving into Middle Eastern styles and flavors, however, Bu Jubarah stuck with the classics—using special seasoning for his hand-formed, halal-certified, fresh ground beef patties (hand-slaughtered only, sourced from Australia with help from his US Foods rep) and topping them with various housemade sauces. Jubarah’s “special sauce” combines ketchup, mustard, mayo, raw onion and relish—just like many American outlets. He also uses a ready-to-go truffle sauce sourced from US Foods, but he makes his own caramelized onion jam that takes seven hours of slow simmering for the base of his spicy and smoky sauces.

Cooking Techniques

For the burgers, Bu Jubarah gently rolls the meat into balls just before cooking and flattens them on a very clean grill. “It’s not like you can just like put the patty on the grill and smash it—there has to be a specific technique, a specific temperature and the griddle has to be very clean,” he says, working with his staff to perfectly press the burgers more around the edges so they stay crispy while the center remains juicy and not overcooked.

Specific Fat Ratios

He also ensures his meat has the right ratio of fat and makes the meatballs fresh by hand every day. “If you leave them in the fridge for two days, they’re going to get hard and when you smash them they won’t cook properly,” he says.

Branding, Presentation & Customer Experience

The buns get a signature “H” stamp using a branding iron. “We are a little hidden being a ghost kitchen, so we came up with the idea to stamp our burgers,” Bu Jubarah says. “It makes our customers feel special and encourages them to take pictures for social media.”

Scaling Up and Future Plans

Recently, Bu Jubarah expanded to a bigger kitchen in the same facility to ramp up production with his 12-person team. Everyone is trained on all stations, even dishwashing, to be able to maximize labor. He hopes to expand one day to other CloudKitchens in other states. But right now, he’s fortunate to be building burgers for local SpaceX employees and continuing to build his brand in Seattle.