While Covid is responsible for some pretty strange hobbies (sourdough starter, anyone?), for the founders of Broken Hearts Burger Club – Jay and Annita Gordon, Chè Quaedvlieg and Pierce Thiot – it was the catalyst for their burger-smashing empire. The Broken Hearts story started in 2019, when Corona was still a tasty beverage and Jay and his wife were fulfilling a lifelong dream of living in Los Angeles. It was here that Jay became besotted by the gritty city’s street-food scene, specifically smash burgers characterised by In-N-Out Burger and Shake Shack. While they were (and remain) the big players in the burger game, it was the vendors with nothing more than a griddle and a street corner that truly ensnared Jay’s heart (and taste buds). As Covid put an abrupt end to their sojourn abroad, Jay and Annita returned to Brisbane and, like many of us, Jay was faced with a situation of no solid employment and too much time. “Everyone got a weird hobby in Covid,” Jay recalls. “Mine was replicating these burgers from LA.” To be clear, when Jay says ‘hobby’, he certainly wasn’t doing things by halves. He purchased his own meat grinder and filled the family freezer with bulk potato buns that he could only get in commercial quantities. In order to share his journey, Jay created an Instagram account called Peer Reviewed Burgers, which was dedicated to documenting his triumphs (and failures) in recreating those deceptively simple hand-smashed burgers he missed so much from his LA days. Initially, Jay started making free burgers for friends and family in iso, dropping off his creations in paper bags and gathering feedback on his recipe in order to refine it further. As things were starting to kick off for Peer Reviewed Burgers – quickly gaining a loyal following of fellow burger lovers – Jay’s long-time friend Chè Quaedvlieg suffered a tremendous personal tragedy and needed something to occupy his time. So, Jay brought him onboard to make Peer Reviewed Burgers something more than a home hobby.

With Jay and Chè channelling their full attention towards the project, Peer Reviewed Burgers suddenly established a lengthy list of hungry burger fans eager to wrap their mitts around the pair’s smashed-burger creations. Knowing there was no way they could ever possibly deliver to every one, they began planning their first pop-up event. The first one sold out in 12-hours. The second, 12-minutes. The third, in less than two minutes the allocations were exhausted. It wasn’t a clever scarcity marketing tactic Jay assures us, it was simply the maximum amount they could physically fit into their borrowed food truck. This was when the crew decided to take things a step further and create a bricks-and-mortar burger joint in Morningside (which to this day remains the group’s best-selling spot). Knowing he couldn’t take Peer Reviewed Burgers as a name for the new shop, Jay called a pal who, at the time, was creative director for Apple – Pierce Thiot. After a few brainstorming sessions, Broken Hearts Burger Club was born. Fast-forward to present and Broken Hearts Burger Club not only tops Brisbane’s best burger listicles, but it’s just opened the doors to its eighth store – and their first Gold Coast location – at Miami One Shopping Centre.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Broken Hearts menu is that it’s concise – really concise. There’s only two burgers, the classic or the fancy, which are available as a single-, double- or triple-patty stack. The classic is about as simple and delicious as a burger can be, featuring the venue’s signature patty – which is smashed ultra thin to deliver that crisp char on the outside – layered with a slice of American cheese, bread-and-butter pickles and a dollop of house-made sauce on a buttered and lightly toasted potato bun. The fancy is basically the same but with the addition of iceberg lettuce and sliced tomato. While alterations and additions aren’t really a thing here, you can opt to have your patties Oklahoma style, which smashes onions into the beef. Pair it with a side of fries and Ché’s special fry sauce (a mix of barbecue and Kewpie mayo), or commit to the food coma with a layer of gooey cheese-loaded chippies. You can bring your feast to a fitting finale with a shake (flavours include chocolate, strawberry, vanilla and lime), or opt for a soft drink. You won’t find a long list of ingredients spelled out on the menu, much to the grievance of first-timers. The reason, Jay says, is that understanding the intentionally vague menu is part of the initiation – when you know, you’re officially in the club. With each new store, the team releases ten Broken Tokens, which entitle the holder to free burgers until the year 3000. The tokens are given at random and to people who post about their Broken Hearts Burger Club experience, with rewards for the most creative entries. What are you waiting for? Broken Hearts Burger Club is now open!

Hit the Stumble Guide for opening times.