The fun in Cheeseburger Week isn’t just in the eating—it’s in the creative leaps chefs are willing to take. At Foothill Restaurant, that leap comes in the form of the “El Greco,” a limited-edition cheeseburger that blends the American cheeseburger with a distinctly Greek point of view.
“It’s such a yummy addition that we have to our menu for Pasadena Cheeseburger Week,” said Manager Savannah Monterrosa.
Unlike Foothill’s usual burgers, which are served on house brioche buns, the El Greco is built on a bun from Homeboy Cafe (Homeboy offers jobs and training for former gang members and at-risk youth).
“For this week, we did it on a Homeboy bun, because we really want to get more involved with the community and everything that we’ve got going on,” Monterrosa said. “Pasadena’s very much ‘your neighborhood table.’ So we definitely want to dive into that and be really involved with our neighbors and everything we have going on.”
The idea taps into a long-observed culinary pattern: Greeks running many of America’s beloved burger joints. Foothill owner Jimmy Christo has been fielding that question for decades.
“I’ve been asked that question for many, many years,” he said, sitting in a booth on a crowded Friday evening. “The reason why Greeks are, first of all in the restaurant business, the hospitality industry, is because they come from a land that has been conquered and invaded—the crossroads of Asia, Africa, as well as Europe. They had to make friends very quickly, and they love to share the culture, but also their food.”
That instinct to welcome and feed people, Christo said, explains why Greek restaurateurs are found across the country. “You go to Atlanta, if you go to New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland—you name it—Greeks are in the restaurant business because it’s in their lifeline, their lifeblood,” he said. “They love taking care of people and strangers, friends. It’s the kindness they give to strangers.”
Makes perfect sense.
We return you now to the burger: the center of the burger is a de rigueur wagyu patty. And what gives the El Greco its personality is what Monterrosa describes as the burger’s “secret cheese.”
“What makes it yummy and ‘El Greco’ is going to be that secret cheese that we have on there,” said Monterrosa. “It’s a fire feta with tzatziki. And that mixture is going to be the cheese for the cheeseburger because everyone does your classic cheddar, yellows, whites. We wanted to do a little Greek twist on it, since our owner is Greek.”
That Greek influence goes beyond ingredients. There’s a long-running belief in restaurant circles that Greeks simply have a knack for making great hamburgers, something Monterrosa readily agrees with.
“We definitely pride ourselves on this one,” she said. “When we came out with El Greco and we were formulating it and getting it together, oh my God, it’s so good. It’s just like I order it like every other day.”
The El Greco was created specifically for this year’s Cheeseburger Week, making it a true one-off. “We just created that this year,” Monterrosa said.
For diners wondering what makes it different from anything they’ve had before, she doesn’t hesitate. “Right now it is a limited edition,” she said. “I do think it’s something that when you taste it, you have not tasted something like this before. The fire feta in it is just to die for.”
The burger is served with feta fries, reinforcing what Monterrosa describes as a small but meaningful personal touch. “It’s kind of like a little Greek American experience. A little bit of home here. A little bit of home there.”
Today, Saturday, is the final day of Pasadena Cheeseburger Week.
If you can get up out of your chair, vote for your favorite cheeseburgers right here.
Foothill Restaurant is at 2835 Foothill Boulevard, Pasadena. (626) 449-2337.
