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Located on the first block of busy San Benito Street, The Burger Factory is very likely a familiar sight to most commuters, visitors, and residents passing through Hollister. The compact diner, about the size of two large food trucks, has a host of loyal customers.
“It’s the freshness of the food that I like,” said regular Ed Boffy. “If you want it fast, there are other places to go. Here, you get a very good burger that tastes just like it came out of a home kitchen.”
For its size, it is a very busy place. Standing at the grill three years ago on his first day as co-owner, overwhelmed during a rush of orders, Paul Len paused long enough to think to himself, “What the heck is going on?”
“I was all hyped up,” he said, “But the pace was so fast, my head was spinning. I thought I had 10 minutes to get a couple of things done, and all of a sudden, the time is up. And it’s like I hadn’t done anything yet.”
He and his co-owner wife, Mey, have long since perfected the skills needed to keep turning out a menu of made-to-order offerings, including quarter-pound burgers, marinated chicken sandwiches, grilled hot dogs, chicken and beef teriyaki bowls and more.
And they do it nine hours a day, six days a week.
It’s not the first time the couple has worked together. At one point, Paul got Mey a job at a software company, Simplicity in Salinas, where he worked in sales. They commuted to the job together for a few years before Paul, a longtime poker player, moved on to become a dealer at Banker’s Casino in Salinas.
Being on the other side of the table, Paul said, offered a perspective on customer service he had never had in the corporate world, and it has defined his approach to The Burger Factory.
“When players lose a hand,” he said, “they blame the guy in front of them. And I was once that guy. It requires not getting mad and focusing on customer service. In a company, I only had one boss, but in the casino and here, the customers are my bosses. If they want something, I do it.”
The decision to buy the diner was, in part, a practical one. They had heard that the owner, Sokmeng Bao, was interested in selling, and the couple was intrigued.
“It was just the right opportunity for us to do something different,” Mey said. “It gave us a chance to work for ourselves. We did not plan to go into food, but it was close to home, so we didn’t have to commute.”
Neither had experience in cooking beyond preparing meals for their family. They spent six weeks learning the business, with Paul observing, but not doing the cooking until his very first day as owner.
“I had to improvise,” he said, “A lot of it is common sense. The process is the same for cooking for a couple of people as it is for a big group. At home, I cook rice once for lunch and dinner. Here we do it four or five times a day.”
Mey said the first day was hectic and overwhelming, with her trying to juggle walk-up customers and phone orders.
“There was just the two of us,” she said. “Paul cooks, and I take orders and handle the sides. And we could only do so much. Now we can just look at each other and know what to do without talking.”
Some of the most important aspects of the job were not revealed to Paul and Mey until just before opening day, such as how to filet the boneless chicken thighs used in the popular teriyaki bowls, which come with rice and homemade potato salad.
“After a month of training,” Paul said, ‘I asked, ‘How about teaching me how to fillet chicken? I never see you do it. Shouldn’t you be teaching me step by step?’ But nope. I had to take charge and think of a plan.”
Filleting is a big part of the daily preparation. After arriving at the diner at 9 a.m. to get ready for the 10 a.m. opening, the couple works until closing at 7 p.m. They go home, clean up, have dinner, then Paul begins prepping the chicken until after midnight. He then gets up at 6:30 a.m. to finish the work, and the cycle begins again.
“It is the same thing,” he said. “I am very competitive. I want to prove that I can do it. When I was here training, there were never more than 10 patties on the grill. I can put 20 patties on the grill. We should hold a cooking contest, right?”
The care that goes into preparing the marinated chicken is indicative of The Burger Factory’s no-shortcuts approach. Everything is prepared fresh, including the teriyaki sauce for the bowls and the house dressing Mey has developed for the salads, which is so popular that customers have been begging her to bottle it.
And sadly, no, she won’t share the recipe other than to say it is sweet and sour and has mayonnaise. You will just have to try it…
The burgers, of course, are the stars. The juicy quarter-pound patties are quality beef and the produce is bright and farm-fresh. There are variations, including a French on a roll, a Jalapeno, and a Western Bacon topped with BBQ sauce and onion rings, the most popular item on the menu. All available as combos with a drink and a side order of the absolutely perfect golden French fries.
Upgrades are also available, and the kitchen is always ready to accommodate what Paul calls the “almosts,” the special variations customers want, like the “almost number one, with no cheese.”
Perfection is the point, Paul said, saying that Mey helps to catch any slip-ups he may have missed.
“We check each other all the time,” he said, “because you can lose your mind when it gets busy. If something is wrong, I throw it out. If I wouldn’t feed it to my family, I wouldn’t feed it to my customers.”
Despite the long hours and the close quarters, Mey said that she and Paul are enjoying themselves, taking it one order at a time.
“It is a lot of work,” she said. “He knows his job, and I know mine. But we have a great community of regulars. I know they come to support us, and we are so appreciative that I want to give back from my heart.”
The Burger Factory
125 San Benito St, Hollister
(831) 313-3525
Monday-Friday 10 a.m.–7 p.m.
Saturday 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
Sunday Closed
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
BenitoLink thanks our underwriters,Hollister Super and Windmill Market, for helping expand the Eat, Drink, Savor series and for giving our readers the stories that interest them. Hollister Super (two stores in Hollister) and Windmill Market (in San Juan Bautista) support reporting on the inspired and creative people behind the many delicious food and drink products made in San Benito County. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.
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