From teenage entrepreneur to owner of a new restaurant at Norfolk Premium Outlets, Cape Charles native Henry Smith is smashing expectations
By Marisa Marsey
Don’t expect to catch Henry Smith chilling with his fellow Gen Zs at Mickey D’s. He’s building a hamburger empire of his own.
The 21-year-old Cape Charles native owns Smashers Burgers & Fries, a burgeoning conglomerate of two food trucks and a hopping brick-and-mortar quick-service restaurant at Norfolk Premium Outlets.
It all began the summer he graduated from high school with a seasonal food truck on the Eastern Shore, fueled by a $40,000 loan from his parents. He earned enough that first year to pay them back (but plowed profits into the biz, repaying them after year two).
Before he became a confident, articulate, 6-foot-3 businessman, however, he was a floundering teen.
“Everyone else went through puberty, I stayed weak and small and very lazy,” he says standing in the 2,000 square-foot, spiffy clean eatery he opened in September. “I didn’t think I was going to make anything of my life.”
He hated school, cut class and earned an underwhelming 1.7 GPA. The only subject that sparked his interest was math—numbers fascinated him—and he got into investing. “The first words of my senior speech were, ‘I like money,’” he recalls.
His picky eating habits inadvertently became a way to make it. One of the few things he liked was hamburgers (comprising 60% of his diet, he estimates).
“I became hyper-obsessed with perfecting the burger,” he says, and experimented tirelessly at home attempting to “nail every ingredient.” (His seven-spice blend alone took three weeks.)
He recruited family and friends as taste testers (they nearly cried “enough” when it reached six nights a week), but after half a year, the smashed patty prodigy perfected his product (deeming it better than Shake Shack’s) and watched their wowed reactions.
“It was the first time in my life that I really felt proud,” he says.
Smashers’ burgers are, indeed, superlative. You can taste the scrupulous care from the toasting of brioche buns in clarified butter to the pressing of Certified Angus Beef on the flattop for an evenly-cooked patty with a slightly crisped, caramelized crust to the calculated optimal burger:cheese:bun ratio. (That cheese, humble American, permeates the meat luxuriously.)
Shoestring fries are hand-cut, and velvety-smooth shakes feature Blue Bunny ice cream. “Except for the milkshakes, everything is fresh. Never frozen,” Henry emphasizes.
His food truck on a roll, he looked his parents straight in the eye when it came time for college and told them: you’re wasting your money. But they insisted, and off he went to Roanoke College where he daydreamed about Smashers in class (the rare times he went) and dropped out after the first semester.
He sounds like an MBA, though, expounding on “volume capacity” and stressing that “simplicity is our number one core value.”
Still a teen when negotiating his restaurant’s lease, some agents refused to work with this Doogie Howser of hamburgers citing his lack of experience. “I understand that,” Henry says with a Scout’s earnestness. “It made me work twice as hard to prove myself.”
The larger space allowed for more menu items like trending Chopped Cheese, but—sticking to simplicity—they draw upon existing ingredients. Moopie’s Bacon Grilled Cheese, for example, cleverly comes on what looks like rounded Texas toast but turns out to be Smashers’ inverted burger buns.
Moopie (aka Molly Brown) was one of his first team members in Cape Charles. “When I started out, I hired all the people I knew, my best friends, people I’ve known since I came out of the womb,” he says.
Colorful photos and a whimsical mural that makes you feel like you’re ordering at a food trailer depict those early days. His second truck, launched this spring, is bigger than the first and services Hampton Roads. “It has all the bells and whistles,” Henry says. Smashers’ catchy tagline, “Come Get Smashed” is made-to-order marketing for the social media age.
Ask Henry about hobbies or downtime and the answer is the same: “I don’t drink or do drugs or play video games. I love work; nothing gives me as much joy.”
His dad seconds his laser focus. “He’s with me on my nonexistent social life,” Henry shares, but that hasn’t thwarted his mom from matchmaking attempts or other parents trying to fix up their daughters with the boy-entrepreneur-next-door.
“I don’t want to be sidelined,” he explains, eyeing rapid corporate growth and, eventually, a national brand.
He credits his parents for his smashing success so far: “They are so supportive; they should write a book on parenting.”
And his 35 employees, many of them twice his age, who respect his drive and ambition. “I’m leveraging their experience,” he says. “And want them to grow with me.”
Before opening the Norfolk store, Henry worked at a Five Guys for four days. He hired his manager there to be Smashers’ GM. And during the buildout, he met Bobby NeSmith who was employed at Moe’s a few doors down.
Now Smashers’ Chief Operating Officer, Bobby observes, “A lot of small business owners go into this with passion, but not realizing it becomes your life. That’s been clear to Henry all along.”
Sure, his pals miss hanging with the old feckless Henry. You’ll find them at Smashers.
Learn more at smashers.com.
Photos by Jacqui Renager and Crow Renager, Performance Foodservice Virginia
Marisa Marsey
Marisa Marsey is a food, beverage and travel writer whose awards include 1st place Food Writing from the Virginia Press Association. A Johnson & Wales University representative, she has sipped Château d'Yquem '75 with Jean-Louis Palladin, sherpa-ed for Edna Lewis and savored interviews with Wolfgang Puck and Patrick O’Connell.
