With its red-and-white facade, retro murals and Coca-Cola logo, Berkeley’s Smokehouse is as much a city landmark as Sather Tower or the Claremont Resort & Club. For 75 years, locals have been lining up at the old-school stand for exceptional flame-grilled burgers — they start at $6.69 — and gathering at picnic tables on the grassy knoll with milkshakes at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Woolsey Street.

“It’s quintessential American,” general manager Shakaib Shaghasi told SFGATE. “There’s so many places that offer gourmet or sophisticated burgers. Ours is a no-frills experience. That’s the edge. It’s as simple as a backyard barbecue with the family.”

Smokehouse’s origin story is quintessentially American, too. The late Jean Kisner opened Smokehouse in 1951, tying it with pizzeria La Val’s for Berkeley’s oldest restaurant, on the site of a former gas station and cafe. Kisner charged 10 cents for burgers and cooked them over charcoal. In 1999, she offered the business out of the blue to Saleha Shaghasi, a longtime worker and immigrant from Afghanistan who was so devoted to Kisner that she showed up for work the day after giving birth to her son. That boy was Shakaib.

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Saleha Shaghasi, left, poses for a portrait in front of the Smokehouse mural in Berkeley, Calif., on July 16, 2026.

He was just 6 years old when his mom took over the restaurant, so he practically grew up in a cot in the back, refusing to go home and willing to do any job his mom would give him, including scrubbing milkshake residue off the walls. 

“I was fascinated by the whole thing,” he said of the business.

By 13, Shakaib was working as a cashier, taking orders from the construction crews, office workers, families and late-night diners who still comprise the core of Smokehouse regulars. He took over as operator nearly half his life ago, when he was 17. Over the years, the now 33-year-old has made small but critical changes, like accepting credit cards, which increased business by 40%. 

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“My mom was in disbelief,” Shakaib recalled, adding that every change was a “hard sell” to his mom. “You have to understand that this business landed on her like a lottery ticket, so she was hesitant to make........

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