Burger Time

Pono Burger Bringing Hawaiian Grinds to Santa Monica’s Quonset Hut, April 15

The future home of Pono Burger
The future home of Pono Burger Photo: Hadley Tomicki

Look out Josiah Citrin and Shaka Shack, as another Hawaiian burger is heading to Santa Monica. Pono Burger is eyeing an April 15th opening at the Quonset Hut, this historic pre-fab, corrugated yurt you see above at 829 Broadway. Lead by Hawaiian chef Windy “Makani” Gerardi, the burger restaurant is focused on simple, direct burgers and fries using farm-sourced ingredients and organic, grass-fed beef sourced from a small Mt. Shasta ranch. What else can you expect here?

Pono will bake its own brioche buns and handcut its own Russet and sweet potato fries, promising food that’s never frozen, but cooked over wood and complimented with hand-squeezed lemonade, soft serve ice cream, shakes, and local beer and wine.

Gerardi operates a similar concept called Ultimate Burger in Kailua Kona, Hawaii and explains that “pono” means “to do things the right way or…with integrity.”

Pono Burger, 829 Broadway Santa Monica; 310-584-7005.

Pono Burger Bringing Hawaiian Grinds to Santa Monica’s Quonset Hut, April 15