It can smell the coal of Wagyu hamburgers from the block, which is casual that often extends the line. But in the newest restaurant in Melrose Avenue, food is not the only draw. Marathon Burger is an ode for the late activist and rapper Nipsey Hussle, and its legacy continues with this new family business and extension of Hussle's Lifestyle Company.
“I was always talking about the brand, as' We need a marathon water, we need a marathon hamburger,” said Hussle older brother, Samiel “Blacc Sam” Asghedom. “This is definitely the vision and imprint of NIP. I know it would have been like, 'yes, this is perfect.' “
The winning hussle of the Grammy Award, legally called Ermias Asghedom, was Shooting in 2019 Out of the Hyde Park clothing store that he and his brother incorporated a lifestyle together. In later years, metroUralCommunity organizations such as the NIP Foundation, the music and memorials of the neighborhood have maintained the memory of Hussle Fuerte. Now, there is a branch of his legacy in the world of food.
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Marathon Burger celebrated its great inauguration on March 1, bringing fresh crowds to the old house of the original Johnny Rockets. Hussle looks from a great black and white portrait along a dining room wall, where guests stop to pose for photos. The new restaurant is owned by The Marathon Group, which includes Asghedom and The Rapper's Children through its property, as well as the new Casey Parker commercial partner, a second generation restaurateur from Los Angeles.
Inside, the guests perch in approximately a dozen stools in a counter viewed to the cooking and the grill. They ask for hot organic wings, fried tail shrimp, salads stacked with grid seasoned vegetables, fungal burgers marinated portobello during the night and beaters made with savings ice cream.
Wagyu, Asghedom headquarters, is hamburger meat with a better flavor: the high fat content melts in the mouth. They season it and crush the onions in the empanadas on the grill, and when they assemble the batteries, they cover them in a spicy spreads and spongy brioche buns.
Marathon Burger recently filled the old house of the original Johnny Rockets.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The marathon team always wanted to open a restaurant. At one point, Asghedom tried to buy the Bayou grid in Inglewood, where he and Hussle worked during adolescence; Later, they tried to buy a fish market next to one of their clothing stores, planning to turn it in a restaurant that bears the name of their grandfather. Eventually it would be a love for hamburgers that proved to be suitable for the marathon.
The informal races of the marathon team became a search for months to find the best hamburgers in Los Angeles, dissecting and discussing which components made Patty's batteries and sauces sing the sweetest. Finally, they realized that they could use all their flavor tests: they would open a marathon hamburgers, combining all their condiments, buns, ingredients and favorite meat mixtures.
Samiel “Blacc Sam” Asghedom, co -owner of Marathon Burger and older brother of Nipsey Hussle, opened the restaurant to continue with the marathon brand of his late brother and the mission promoted by the community.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
“Finally, he hit us, as, 'man, we need to do this ourselves,” said Asghedom. But it was not Marathon's first attempt.
Years before, Hussle helped launch a Fatburger location near the Marathon clothing store in Crenshaw and Slauson; He had negotiated a minority association and the execution of a special hamburger there. The agreement never materialized, but Asghedom said that last year the owner of that Fatburger began to announce a brand change as “marathon premium hamburger”, not affiliated with Marathon.
The Marathon group knew they would have to jump into action and announce their own legitimate marathon hamburger, even though they did not have a business plan. Anyway, they took Instagram, and last July announced that Marathon Burger would arrive soon.
“I'm glad that happened,” said Asghedom, “because when we saw that we said:” Hey, publication. Publish right now, make a publication that way we can inform people who are not ours. This is ours'.
Asghedom and Hussle had spent some of their adolescence years working at the Bayou Grille restaurant inspired by New Orleans. They started with $ 40 seasons cleaning the floors and garbage containers; When three of the chefs left, Hussle and Asghedom filled. Part of that knowledge base has reached Marathon Burger, with fried shrimp with corn flour similar to the Bayou grill, as well as the wings of secret recipe, now made in Marathon with Jidori chicken.
Wagyu broke empanadas on the grill in Marathon Burger in Melrose Avenue.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The chefs Adrian Vela and Eduardo Osorio had cooked for Hussle for years, and every time they did, Asghedom asked them to bring their picketers of fruits collected. Naturally, those arrived at the firm's marathon hamburger when they consulted the project.
The homemade vegan empanadas become fresh every morning in Marathon Burger.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Parker also lent a hand to develop the menu, especially when it came to vegan articles. Every morning, the team prepares empanadas built from whole ingredients, such as wild rice, potatoes, parsley, garlic and shalotes. At first, they started with only 20 empanadas. Now they are doing 150 vegan empanadas every day, and still run out.
For Parker, it is his way of continuing his father's legacy 24 -hour money from Larry Parker in Beverly Hillswhich became a center of club attendees, actors, hip-hop artists and other musicians at all hours at night. Parker wanted to build his own cultural center, musical and restaurant with the marathon team.
In a way, that is exactly what happened.
The celebrities such as 2 Chainz and YG have come to eat and, occasionally, jump behind the grill.
“The street feels better now,” said Parker, who was a minor partner in the previous tenant of the building, Nomoo. “If this place is happening, Melrose is alive, I have seen the difference.”
Nipsey Hussle acts at the Palladium in Hollywood in 2018.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Positive energy is unmissable. Family music, mostly old, looks out both indoors and in the patio. Friends run into each other, hug, laugh, dance. Like Hussle, Asghedom is also loved in the community. Periodically stops to take photos with guests or sign merchandise.
Brian Payne was one of those restaurants, posing with Asghedom in a corner of the restaurant. The Detroit resident carried a black hoodie for lunch that had “Legends Live Forever” written in gold, with a divided photo of Hussle and Kobe Bryant on the back.
“I had to stop here before I left,” he said. “I have been in many really incredible places since I've been here [in L.A.]But this touches my heart. Nipsey's legacy will always live, as Tupac, but seeing what his brother is doing when putting this here for the community is incredible. “
Payne brought his son and nephew with him, and called the hamburger Wagyu one of the three main hamburgers he has eaten in life.
“I don't know if I haven't known anyone other than a [Hussle] Fan, you know? “He said.” Not only for what he has done in the rap game and to be famous worldwide, but for what he has done for other people and where he is from. … It is ideal for the community that we have a place where to go and eat phenomenal and phenomenal foods. “
Nipsey Hussle Brian Payne (center), his son, Logan (left) and nephew Tyler Martin visit Marathon Burger during a trip from Detroit.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The support of fans like Payne, said Asghedom, has been overwhelming.
He has recognized approximately 20% of Marathon Burger's guests: friends, neighbors and collaborators, some of whom bought her sweaters out of the streets years ago, others who bought smuggling movies and others who still ate and Hussle's kitchen in Bayou Grille.
But he said that the remaining 80% is completely new to him, and the answer has been “1,000 times larger” than he had imagined.
The positive feedback and the lines of several hours in the block are not just an incentive for the marathon equipment to continue to press (they are already looking to expand to the west side). It is a test, especially for Asghedom, that the Hussle marathon continues for anyone who can use the success of the restaurant as breath.
“Hussle's mission is still going,” he said. “He shows that ideas and hard work behind ideas can flourish, and Hussle's mission was to inspire people.”
Marathon Burger is located in 7507 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, and the 11 am to 10 pm breakfast service is expected to resume in the coming weeks.
