Dudley Market’s burger is too popular for its own good. But you can make it — and other famous L.A. burgers

Dudley Market has a burger problem, and that problem is that its burgers are too good.

The cozy restaurant and wine bar tucked just off the Venice Boardwalk specializes in fresh line-caught seafood, often hauled in by owner-operator and fisherman Conner Mitchell himself. While he would love to highlight the artful crudos drenched in seasonal bounty — like a current iteration of ahi lying in a pool of fresh Sungold tomato sauce, garnished with soft, marinated peppers — the burger is just too good.

“Every table has a burger,” he said, “and sometimes everyone at the table has a burger. It’s insane. It’s literally insane.”

Mitchell’s goal of reviving Dudley Market in 2019, making it less an upscale destination and more an everyday neighborhood restaurant, meant he needed a burger. Dudley Market’s then-chef, Daniel Somoza, developed a thick, hearty, still-pink burger dripping with dilly aioli, bacon jam, arugula and hand-grated, melty sharp cheddar. It’s sweet, bright and surprisingly not too heavy despite its meatiness; thank the generous herb and zingy vinegar in the double slick of aioli for that.

At first, the restaurant limited the number of burgers served to a mere handful each night. During the pandemic, without many items that would travel well in to-go format, that cap was removed, and the burger’s popularity exploded.

“We average 100 burgers a day,” Mitchell said last week on the patio of his restaurant. Last year he and his team sold nearly 13,000 burgers, and they’re on track to break 16,000 in 2024. To put that in perspective, Dudley Market sells around 5,500 orders of its second-most-ordered item, oysters, either by the half or full dozen.

Mitchell would love to make fewer burgers. It’s why he and his present-day chef, Gabriel Lindsey, agreed to share their methods — and the recipe for the burger’s bright, citrusy dill aioli — with the L.A. Times Cooking newsletter.

Dudley Market’s patties are made with American Wagyu beef in a blend of half hanger, half chuck, which keeps the fat content high. It’s cooked in a “ripping-hot” cast-iron pan with a hard sear and nothing but the Wagyu’s natural fats, and is flipped only once — cooking for roughly two minutes on each side.

The burger’s bacon-onion jam requires two days of prep, beginning with caramelizing the onions. Separately, they chop the pork belly bacon and slow-cook it in a large stockpot, rendering out the fat and adding a bit of that fat to the onions, plus a bit of sugar. The pork continues to cook until it’s browned. They then add the pork to the onions and let it all marinate in the fridge overnight, and cook it again the next day.

Right after the sharp Tillamook cheddar is added to the burger, they add a spoon of the bacon-onion jam, then stack an upside-down pan onto the cast iron to steam the jam and cheese onto the meat. A toasted challah bun gets a slick of dilly aioli on each side, with a tall mountain of farmers market arugula on the bottom; when the meat sits atop it, the greens slightly wilt from the weight and the burger’s juices.

Try this method at home, best enjoyed with a glass of natural wine as one might do at the restaurant. And use Dudley Market’s recipe for dilly aioli for just about everything, including dunking fries, spreading on turkey sandwiches and marinating chicken.

If you’d like to recreate other beloved L.A. burgers at home, scroll for some of our restaurant dupes, including a vegan take on Tommy’s chili burger, Jitlada’s spicy off-menu option, and some real, non-dupe tips and recipes from Nancy Silverton.

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Dudley Market’s Dill Aioli

The Venice restaurant brightens up its famous burgers with a double smear of this zingy aioli that’s got a potent hit of acid from fresh lemon juice, champagne vinegar and Dijon mustard. Paired with fresh garlic and no small amount of fresh dill, this is the refreshing herbal spread to make this summer.
Get the recipe.
Total time: 10 minutes.

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

Our Father’s Office burger dupe

There are few burgers in Los Angeles history more beloved and mysterious — and more contested — than chef Sang Yoon’s Office Burger. Drippy, rich and decadent, this iconic item piles a thick patty blend of sirloin, chuck and dry-aged strip with melty caramelized onion, bacon, Gruyère and Maytag blue cheese, and arugula, with absolutely zero ketchup. (Don’t even bother asking for it.) Yoon declined to share his recipe for this magnificent creation, but in 2002 we think we figured it out all on our own after many, many attempts — which is good news for those who’d like to try their hand and then add ketchup to their Office Burger at home.

“We called and asked for the recipe,” former L.A. Times Food staff writer Charles Perry said. “‘No, no, no,’ Yoon replied, muttering something about a chef’s secret. Yoon has never revealed the recipe — not even to Esquire magazine, he pointed out — and he wasn’t about to now,” Perry said. “That was enough for us. The Times Test Kitchen loves a mystery. We determined to figure it out for ourselves.”
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 65 minutes.

Father’s Office’s burger, seen here, is famous — but you can make our knockoff at home, and even serve it with ketchup.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Our Jitlada burger dupe

Spicy, sweet and herbaceous, Jazz Singsanong’s fragrant off-menu Jazz burger is the stuff of local legend. It blends her restaurant’s Southern Thai flavors with an American classic, folding the patty into lettuce with basil and other aromatics, but she’d never tell you exactly how she does it. “It’s so secret,” she told my colleague Jenn Harris, and many others who’ve been curious over the years. “So many secret things in there. I’ll never tell you.” But Jenn persevered, and believes she nailed the recipe in 2020. She recreated it in the kitchen with Singsanong herself on video.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 30 minutes.

L.A. Times columnist Jenn Harris, right, with her recreation of Jitlada’s off-menu burger, and Jazz Singsanong, the secretive chef behind the original.

(Los Angeles Times)

Our vegan Tommy’s chili burger dupe

When it comes to chili burgers, Tommy’s reigns supreme. That is, of course, unless you can’t eat meat. Thankfully, former L.A. Times Cooking editor Genevieve Ko created a vegan version, which she wrote “taste[s] (forgive me) better than the fast-food original.” The secret, she said, is in the browning and the salting. Even beyond the classic burger, the vegan chili in this recipe is good on just about everything, including hot dogs, fries and nachos — and, Ko said, is essentially indistinguishable from the meaty original.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 30 minutes.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Our In-N-Out Double Double dupe

When the craving for In-N-Out strikes, but so does the instinct to avoid the wraparound lines that always accompany these perfect griddled burgers, there’s the L.A. Times dupe recipe. Tested and enjoyed time and again by L.A. Times Food columnist Jenn Harris, these at-home burgers involve the special In-N-Out spread (good on everything, naturally) and a generous amount of American cheese.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 45 minutes.

Does our In-N-Out dupe look quite as delicious as this original? No. Is it still delicious? Absolutely.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Nancy Silverton’s home burger (not a dupe!)

Mozza magnate Nancy Silverton takes burgers very seriously. While anyone can taste patty perfection on Monday and Tuesday nights at the chef’s counter of her Italian steakhouse, Chi Spacca, she was gracious enough to let us in on how she makes burgers in the comfort of her own home. She employs just as much meticulousness regarding toppings and techniques as you might expect in her restaurants, but with more flexibility for you and your guests’ whims and cravings. This is a burger primer that every home cook should read and follow, from one of the city’s best chefs.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 40 minutes.

(Beatrice De Gea / Los Angeles Times)