Houston Pop-Up Boo’s Burgers Lands a Permanent Stand on East End’s Esplanade
Chef Joseph Boudreaux’s burger pop-up will permanently join East End icons like Ninfa’s and Oso Coffee Co.
If you’ve missed out on securing a smash burger from the often sold-out pop-up Boo’s Burgers, there’s hope for you soon. Chef and founder Joseph Boudreaux is opening a permanent burger stand in East End’s esplanade on Navigation Boulevard early this year.
Joining various other local businesses, including the Original Ninfa’s location and Oso Coffee Co, Boo’s Burgers (2510 Navigation Boulevard) will offer Boudreaux’s signature burger and will debut fries, drinks, and a dessert menu.
But Boudreaux says he intends for the focus to be on what he does best — burgers. Boudreaux says he’s always sought to make the best burger in Houston, using quality ingredients, including a single meat patty that’s smashed on a grill with a crispy char then propped up on a locally sourced bun and topped with a smoky yet bright remoulade sauce, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, homemade pickles, and the most significant essential: American cheese. “My biggest thing is American cheese goes on burgers — nothing else,” he says.
Boudreaux says he thinks of the stand as more than just a restaurant. “We’re building a space where food, culture, and community come together. We want Boo’s to be the kind of place where people feel connected to Houston’s past and future.” The stand itself, which features patio seating, is slated to evoke a comfortable, familial feel, with odes to streetwear and hip-hop, as well as a variety of community events and programming with other players in Houston’s dining scene.
Drea Karolina
With Creole roots, the self-taught chef and Houston native embedded himself in the local dining scene, working at local restaurants, including Leeland House and Tiny Champions, before co-founding coffee shop the Tipping Point. Intending to activate the coffee shop and use it as a space for community, Boudreaux launched the epic annual Crawfish & Brews event, which celebrates its 10th year this year. In 2021, he decided to run another pop-up focused on burgers — building on his fixation fueled both by local cookouts and trips to local burger joints with his father and friends. “For me, burgers are at every cookout. They’re at every family function, and I grew up going to these burger places,” he says. “It’s just a comforting thing, and it gives me this nostalgic feeling. I don’t know very many other things that do that for me. ”
Boudreaux named the burger pop-up after his nickname — Boo, spelled phonetically to avoid people mispronouncing his Creole last name — and the ghost mascot came shortly after. “It just took off from there,” he says, hosting a three-year run of successful pop-ups, many of which sold out.
Eventually, Boudreaux says he made it a goal to launch his own space. He parted ways with the Tipping Point. Though he believes coffee will likely always be a part of his trajectory, “burgers took over my life, and I owed it that much to go pursue that,” he says.
Drea Karolina
Now, Boudreaux is gearing up for his first physical location. In the spirit of Boo’s Burger’s pop-up beginnings, he’ll lead up to opening day with the Boo’s Burger Run, a collaborative pop-up tour during which Boudreaux will take residence at some of his favorite burger spots throughout Houston and, more specifically, East End. “It’s kind of an awesome way to show that we’re closing on a chapter of a pop-up and moving into brick-and-mortar. We’re going out the same way we came in,” he says.
“We’re just really excited to get started, to hopefully become a pillar in the neighborhood, and to engage with the city in a different way than we have before.”
