Smashburger Jumps on the Gravy Train to the Middle East

Smashburger

Eat up, Dubai.

Looks like Brooklyn was a mere pit stop on Smashburger's road to world domination: Three months after opening its first New York location in a Fort Greene condo tower, the Denver-based chain has announced it will expand to the Middle East.

Nation's Restaurant News reports that franchisees for the company will open locations in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait over the next few years. Closer to home, Smashburger is planning to open 500 locations within the same time frame.

Smashburger, of course, is hardly the first American restaurant chain to put the Middle East in its crosshairs. Ponderosa, the Cheesecake Factory, IHOP, Chili's, Pinkberry, Elevation Burger, Quizno's, Magnolia Bakery, and Shake Shack (to name only a few) have been no less ambitious in their plans to conquer the region, which now looks in our imagination like the Mall of America's food court, only with more sand.

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