Ingrid Hoffman’s Delicioso program did a feature on Fritas which involved some footage shot at and an interview with El Mago De Las Fritas:

Busy on Tuesday? Univision will be filming a segment at El Mago De Las Fritas at 11AM. El Mago is located at 5828 SW 8th St. in Miami.

credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh

While he didn’t even sit down at El Mago De Las Fritas, President Obama took 1 Frita and 5 Fritas w/Cheese to go. What’s a Frita? Read this starter: All About The Frita. He also had a Materva (a soft drink whose origins date back to 1920s Cuba) to drink while there, which he finished on the way out. El Mago mentioned to me that he had no clue what was going on. All of a sudden Secret Service man filled his shop and next thing he knew, the President showed up.  Mago said the President was very friendly with everyone and engaged in conversation with all the patrons there. I hope he had the Frita without cheese.

I recently met Luis Fernando Fabara. He was in Sunrise, Florida for a week where he decided to to do a “Burger Tour” of South Florida. Naturally our paths crossed when he saw the article the Miami Herald did on the Burger Beast Blog. At that point, he had already been in South Florida for 4 or 5 days and eaten at quite a few places. He did listen to some suggestions I had for him and he checked out El Mago De Las Fritas, Charm City Burger Company and finally Latin American for a Cuban Sandwich (which oddly enough is where I finally met him). We talked burgers. I mean what else were we going to talk about? Everyone in the Latin American seemed dumbfounded as to what we were talking about with such excitement as we switched between English and Spanish. The cool thing was I found someone from Guayaquil, Ecuador whose love for burgers equaled mine. While I write the Burger Beast Blog to get my thoughts out there, Luis has created Burger Haus. It’s not really a place and it’s not so much a website. It’s a great idea from a South American burger visionary. Burger Haus present burger fests or how he refers to them “Manly Burger Fests” It started with him getting together a few close friends who loved Burger King. He would create burgers to their liking. I asked him a few questions below which should explain everything:

Luis Fernando Fabara

What is Burger Haus?

Well Burger Haus is about pleasing people. The burgers are made for you. You wait for it. You crave it while its being made. We can fine tune it. And finally, you get destroyed by it! And the Manly Burger fest is my only way right now to reach people.

So you charge?

Yes.

And how do you decide how much to charge?
It’s pretty expensive but by the amount of ingredients. Think Burger King but the Slow Food version of it. With only 1 Burger Maker/Consultant/Cook, In this case, it’s me.

Give me some examples of the burgers?

The Moskoller, was $19, but it was 512Gr of 15% fat meat, with no fillers at all, and 256gr of Chorizo, 9 slices of cheese (cheese is imported from the US ), & 6 Slices of Bacon. I start at $5 for Girly Burgers and stop at $19 so far with that monster. The Kilobyte was $20 but that was a show burger, it was for 2. I mean it was eaten by 2 brothers.

Where do you get the names?

I come up with them. Sometimes it’s a combination of the name of the first person that actually eats one. The Manly/Big Haus are my own. Every other one has been something made for a different person. For example, THE RAGE: it is a triple meat burger but each patty is bathed in Tabasco the night before, then cooked with Habanero, and Chipotle, Also raw jalapeños and cooked jalapeños. It is made only for Luigi Lantermo.

Greg’s Fat Mountain

Girly Burger

The Rage

Ogre Style

The Moskeller

The Kilobyte

So you make money off this or is it for the experience?

It is for the experience. So far, I recover my money each time. I gather some more equipment. No winnings whatsoever. Not counting the main gear like the fridge, or patty maker or The Grill.

How many Burger Fests have there been?

The first was for 4 people (very very close friends) All Burger King lovers. The second event, 22 people at my house. The third one, 75. Let’s see what happens at the fourth one next year.

You know Burger King is considered tremenda mierda over here?

Do you order them off the grill? Man, there is no real burger culture over here. There are good burgers but nothing like the U.S. And well BK was the first chain to be established here about 27 years ago and for a long time, the only one. Here in GYE people have grown up with BK including myself. McDonalds came about 6 years ago.

Planning on opening a restaurant or just continue doing this?

I would like friends to join and make Burger Haus as big as it can be. All the art is made by a friend of mine. He also does all the printing and stuff. The people that are shown in the fest helping? All were invitees! Customers! The cashier? Another one. Same with the sodas. They just wanted to help and be part of the Burger Fest Experience.I supervise all. If its just a small joint.. then let it be my home.. preferably at the beach.

Check out the Burger Haus Website and the Burger Haus Facebook Page while you’re at it. He’s a good guy.

Thanks to Manolo Helguero, David Chang & Luis Fernando Fabara for the pictures.