Calgary loves a good burger. The city is stacked with great spots…some old-school, some trendy, some trying way too hard, some great, some not so great. Then, in 2023, Class Clown Hamburgers took over an old burger joint, and within months, people couldn’t shut up about it. I lived in Calgary for two years, and it’s the thing I miss the most. The item I crave. The one I dream of… anyway.

The place is simple: smash burgers, crinkle fries, and a perfect but simple drinks menu that still has something for everyone. No gimmicks. Just good food in a wood-paneled room that feels like someone’s cool basement bar from the ‘70s. The kind of spot where you could show up alone, grab a quick bite, or settle in for a long night with friends and a few rounds of cheap highballs or fancy natural orange wine if that’s more your speed.

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With a new smash burger place opening every 6 seconds in Canada (I didn’t fact-check), I felt like it was the right time to highlight Class Clown and why any hype about it isn’t doing justice to what it’s really like to eat here. I wanted the rest of the country to know (and disagree immediately, probably).

Calgary wasn’t starving for a good burger. Lil’ Empire has been holding it down for years. Every Concorde spot (IYKYK) has a delicious and slightly different option at each location. Even fast food joints like Peter’s Drive-In have their loyalists (nostalgia is powerful). But it’s not just a Calgary thing — Between 2 Buns and Hundy in Vancouver are killing it. Toronto? Too many to count. The burger scene is stacked. If you want to claim the “best burger” in this country, you better come correct.

Class Clown does. Here’s why.

It nails the two things we love most about a burger. There’s the steakhouse-style, fun topping burger and the simple, classic smash burger…nothing but cheese, sauce, a perfectly soft bun, and a patty so thin and crisped at the edges that it borders on burnt in the best way possible. Class Clown doesn’t pick one. It does both.

I went in on my last trip to Calgary for the 50th time just to make sure I wasn’t totally off base with this one. I grabbed a booth with a few friends who were skeptical but excited. Thankfully, it was all the same, as it always is…no pretentious menus, no 15-option burger list. Just a few well-thought-out choices.

Let’s get one thing straight: there’s no wrong order here. Every burger is just as good as the next. Pick the one that sounds best to you, and don’t overthink it.

We went for the California Classic and the Donald McRonald—two smash-style burgers that don’t try to do too much, just perfect execution, top-tier beef, and the right mix of sauce, cheese, and crunch. The patties? Smashed so thin they curl at the edges, crispy and caramelized all the way through. The buns? Soft, buttery, squishy, but with some structure. They don’t fall apart in the way a smash burger often can with a typical potato bun (which we like, just saying).

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The California Classic leans West Coast—mustard-grilled patties, trillion island sauce, pickles, shredded lettuce, tomato, and grilled onions. Messy in a good way. A balance of fat, acid, and crunch that tastes familiar but better than you remember.

The Donald McRonald is straight-up fast food nostalgia—two patties, two slices of American cheese, ketchup, mustard, raw onion, pickles. If the Big Mac had a glow-up, it would taste like this. It sounds too simple to stand out. It does.

But if you’re after something different, there’s more. The Winnipeg Fat Boy drowns a single patty in coney sauce (a thick, sloppy joe-style meat sauce), then piles on cheddar, mustard, mayo, pickles, shredded lettuce, tomato, and raw onion. It’s a little sweet, a little tangy, completely addictive.

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For some sweet, Southern heat, the Smell Like Someone’s Barbecuin’ stacks two patties, two slices of cheddar, grilled onions, bacon, BBQ sauce, and house jalapeños. It’s smoky, spicy, and rich…like a backyard burger that got its shit together.

And then there’s the Coney Island Cowboy: a burger, a butterflied Nathan’s hot dog, cheddar, coney sauce, house jalapeños, mustard, mayo, shredded lettuce, tomato, and onion. A burger and a chilli dog in one bite. If that sounds excessive, it’s because it is. But not in that “can you finish that?” gimmicky sort of way.

But this place isn’t just about burgers. There are two chicken sandwiches and two fish sandwiches, just in case you want a little variety. We also always have one of each and share it around the group because you come for the burgers, but when you also do a great fish sandwich? That’s hard to pass up.

The Chicken Royale is crispy fried chicken, shaved honey ham, pickles, cheese sauce, smashed Hawkins cheezies, and mayo. The Nashville Hot Cod takes battered fish and coats it in a house spice mix, then stacks it with American cheese, tartar sauce, house jalapeños, pickled onions, and vinegar slaw. Weirdly refreshing.

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And if you don’t get the fries, you’ve done this wrong. They’re crinkle-cut but can also be drenched in cheese sauce, topped with smashed Hawkins cheezies, or with coney sauce (or all of it). Want to level up? Add chopped chilis.

The drinks?

The all-natural wine list doesn’t play by the rules. It’s weird, funky, experimental, and exactly the kind of thing you want to drink while eating a cheeseburger but never really see. Not into wine? Local beers, highballs, and Fernet Branca (for the industry folks) are all here.

Here’s the move: get on the waitlist. Order a beer. Grab a glass of orange wine. If there’s a line, don’t sweat it — it’s just a pre-game for the main event. If you’re solo, it’s no big deal either because this is one of the least self-conscious spots in YYC to post up alone. The bar is chill. The staff is easygoing. No one’s wondering why you’re eating a burger by yourself.

Yes, people have things they say about Calgary…it’s Canada’s Denver. They’ve got pocket dawgs at the Saddledome. Ginger beef was literally invented there. And that if Michelin had the guts to come, there’d be red ribbons slapped all over the windows. All of that is true.

But the real reason to hop on that flight into YYC? Or if you live there, to venture those 50 steps outside of 17th Ave for a couple of hours?

The best burger in the country.

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