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Redwood City native Xavier Pereznegron doesn’t follow traditional norms.
He gives kids free milkshakes if they beat him at basketball. He proposed to his girlfriend after just three months. He hands out free French hot chocolate because he feels like it. And he’s opening an affordable burger joint inspired by something generally not affordable: fine dining.
“I’m opening a restaurant because I love food, not because I want to make money,” he said. “I’m opening it because I actually love cooking.”
Bay Burgers, formerly a Redwood City pop-up, is cementing itself in the community with its first brick-and–mortar restaurant, expected to open in March. Specializing in smashburgers, Pereznegron will also offer rotating weekly specials, including smoked meats, loaded fries, agua frescas, milkshakes and warm desserts.
Pereznegron’s smashburgers are far from basic. Built on pillowy soft Hawaiian bread buns, the 100% short-rib burgers are topped with cheese, grilled onions, banana peppers, homemade pickles and secret sauce and served with triple-cooked French fries, a technique he learned while studying in France. A quarter-pound burger goes for just $9.50, and a half-pound burger is $11.50.
“I don’t want to charge $15 for a burger. That’s insane,” Pereznegron said.
While the menu may seem streamlined at first glance, Pereznegron’s rotating weekly specials are where his creativity shines – and everything is housemade. He tops smashburgers with smoked pineapple and pulled pork, candied jalapeno bacon, smoked tri-tip or even lobster. He loads French fries with prime steak and chimichurri. He even bakes desserts topped with ice cream, including brownies, croissant bread pudding, sea salt-topped cookies and apple turnovers.
And don’t forget the drinks, which are also housemade and rotate weekly. Pereznegron makes agua frescas in flavors such as mango pineapple, watermelon, honeydew melon and more, and horchatas in flavors like strawberry, matcha or even ube. Chocolate, Oreo, strawberry and vanilla milkshakes are always available, and new flavors of milkshakes rotate in every week, such as berry or Fruity Pebble.
“Sometimes with weekly specials I go a little overboard because I think it’s my fine-dining background,” he said.
Pereznegron always wanted to be a chef. He started as a dishwasher at 14 before flipping burgers at In-N-Out for three years. At 18, he broke into the fine-dining scene, working his way up to chef de cuisine at La Mar, an upscale Peruvian restaurant in San Francisco.
Then an opportunity came for him to study culinary arts in France. He invited Kathy Espinoza, whom he knew from high school, to visit him for a week, and it was in Paris that Pereznegron asked her to be his girlfriend. Three months later, they were engaged.
“I knew she was the one, and I haven’t been wrong,” he said. “She’s helped me with everything, supported me. That’s why this (restaurant) is special, because we created it together.”
Pereznegron then underwent back surgery that required a full year of recovery, making him reconsider next steps for his culinary career. Espinoza suggested he open a pop-up.
And so they did. They started grilling smashburgers on a Blackstone at Hoover Park in Redwood City before relocating Bay Burgers in the summer of 2024 to a tent in an industrial area.
“I thought, it’s small, it’s good, and I hope people come,” Pereznegron recalled. “And then next thing you know, we’re packed every weekend, we’re selling out.”
In September, the Pereznegrons, now married, closed down to welcome their baby girl and redirect focus to opening their brick and mortar. Bay Burgers will be located in the former 5th Quarter Pizza, which Pereznegron used to frequent as a kid.
“I lived most of my life a two-minute walk from that place,” he said. “When I was young, I liked to go play the pinball machines and eat the pizza.”
Bay Burgers will have a modernized retro vibe with deep blue hexagonal floors, an open kitchen and three dark blue-and-white booths. Inside will seat about 70, and its outside space will add another 20 seats. Various free entertainment options will be available, including five televisions, a foosball table, a basketball machine and board games.
“It’s going to be pretty casual; someplace (you can) just go hang out and just bring your whole family, bring a date, and you’re always gonna have a good time,” Pereznegron said.
The menu, illustrated to resemble a cartoon, features three combos with a burger, fries and a drink named after Pereznegron’s family: K’s combo (with a single burger) is named after his wife, X’s combo (with a double burger) is in reference to himself and the Little K Meal (with a kids’ burger) is a nod to his 4-month-old daughter ($12-$19).
For vegetarians and vegans, Pereznegron marinates portobello mushrooms overnight before grilling them to order and using them as burger patties. A portobello burger with all the fixings is just $7.50. And for those who are gluten-free and don’t want lettuce as a bread substitute, Bay Burgers also has gluten-free buns.
Pereznegron is also working with Persuasion Brewing Company in Modesto to create his own Bay Beer to serve at the restaurant on tap and in cans. A monthly rotating selection of four options will be available on tap, such as Mexican lager, an IPA, pineapple seltzer and cranberry seltzer.
Pereznegron’s main goal is the same he’s had since he was a kid: to achieve a Michelin star. He explained that opening a fine-dining restaurant was always the ultimate dream, but that it’s very expensive to pursue such an ambitious project. He hopes to find success with Bay Burgers and make enough money to eventually branch out and open a restaurant that could be awarded the illustrious culinary honor.
“I want to make a fine-dining restaurant that’s more casual, or any average Joe can go and have a good meal with their wives without feeling like they’re breaking the bank,” Pereznegron said. “Everything local, all ingredients coming from here, all the fish from the San Francisco-Monterey Bay – that would be my main goal.”
Bay Burgers, 976 Woodside Road, Redwood City; Instagram: @bay_burgers_. Opening in March.
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