Credit: Hungry in LA

HiHo at 10: The Wagyu, the Fries, and the Obsession Behind L.A.’s Cleanest Cheeseburger

8 Minute read

18 Nov 2025

Heather Platt

Journalist

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After ten years, HiHo’s wagyu-driven burger still proves that simple and clean can win in L.A.

On a sunny Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles, HiHo Cheeseburger co-founders Jerry Greenberg and Matt Levin sat down for lunch at the Studio City location of their popular burger restaurant. This outpost, in the pleasant shopping center The Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge, is their fourth HiHo location. After a decade in the burger business, the two are still excited to eat their signature order, the Classic: a simple stack of juicy wagyu, cheese, and ketchup on a fresh bun. And that, they say, is the point.

“We would like people to be able to come more than once a week and have a burger,” says Levin. From the beginning, the goal was to create a higher-quality burger people could eat often, one its own creators would never tire of.

Greenberg’s restaurant career began in 2008 with the hugely popular sushi spot Sugarfish, followed by the hand-roll bar KazuNori and the high-end omakase restaurant Nozawa Bar, all of which are part of the Sushi Nozawa Group. HiHo, a separate business, came later, driven by his desire to serve his young children healthier beef.

“When I had kids, I kept asking myself, how do I give them a burger that I can feel good about, something I would be happy eating every day,” says Greenberg of the question that launched his obsession with grass-fed wagyu. That search led him to New Zealand, where he eventually became part owner of First Light Farms, a collective of ranchers raising grass-fed cattle used for HiHo’s burgers. The size of the herd also determines the restaurant’s rate of expansion, which after ten years has remained modest at four locations, with two more opening soon in Pasadena and Calabasas.

“I am a food fanatic, a burger freak,” says Levin, who runs HiHo’s day-to-day operations and whose passion for old-school California roadside cheeseburgers helped land him in this role ten years ago, when he helped open the first HiHo in Ojai in 2015. A Pasadena native, Levin grew up immersed in L.A.’s burger culture and traces his fondness for burgers back to his childhood.

Although L.A.’s burger culture was in full swing when HiHo opened, Greenberg felt there was nothing quite like what they were trying to build.

“There really was not anything that was, what I would say, clean protein, clean beef, clean bun, clean fries,” says Greenberg, referring to HiHo’s fresh-baked buns, homemade minimal-ingredient fries, and ground-in-house beef. “There were some good burgers though. I am a big fan of The Apple Pan and Pie ’n Burger in Pasadena.”

As HiHo introduced its curated beef to Ojai in 2015 and L.A. in 2017, another burger trend was brewing. Plant-based Beyond and Impossible burgers, designed to emulate the juicy meat experience without animal products, were landing on restaurant menus.

“Our position on that was probably, at the time, unpopular, but it was, this is not good for you, nor does it taste very good,” says Greenberg of the highly processed fake-meat trend. “Our vegetarian burger is made with brown rice and beans.”

While vegan burger spots like Burgerlords and Monty’s Good Burger continue to thrive in L.A., the trends have shifted toward sustainable meat and smash burgers.

“A decade ago, people were saying, do not eat meat. Now they are coming around to the idea that clean, high-quality beef is a great source of protein,” says Greenberg, noting that L.A.’s burger scene has ballooned since they opened. Smash burgers remain a craze, with standouts like Burgers Never Say Die, For The Win, Goldburger, Heavy Handed, Love Hour, Marathon Burger, and Trophies Burger Club.

“We would never have predicted the number of burger places that exist now,” says Greenberg. “It feels like an explosion of burger places. Who would have thought we could rattle off 20 or 30 burger spots that have opened in the last 10 years?”

Levin and Greenberg attribute HiHo’s success to staying true to themselves and focusing on ingredients they are proud to showcase, even when it means taking the harder path, like grinding their own meat and making their own fries.

“It would be decidedly more profitable for us to buy fries in a bag with 10 ingredients,” says Greenberg. “But we are pigheaded about it.” Thanks to their connection to their farm, HiHo has also been able to keep burger prices down to $10, with the hope of making the restaurant affordable to visit often. “Whatever your favorite L.A. burger is, we love that we have a burger culture, and we love being part of that burger culture.”

18 Nov 2025