Bringing smash burgers to Redwood City

Running a restaurant is a lot like teaching eighth grade, according to Nicolas Wynn.

Or so he is learning. 

Wynn brings the skills he’s garnered over the years in and out of restaurants and, currently, as a teacher at Charles Armstrong — a school for students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences — to his most recent endeavor as one of the owners of the new burger joint, Woodside Roadhouse.

“The people skills that you use in a restaurant, being able to talk to people, being able to identify what their needs are and how you can accommodate those needs, and how they can have a positive experience and walk away happy, that’s really what a teacher is,” Wynn said.

Specializing in smash burgers and Nashville hot chicken, the new restaurant, located at 1551 Woodside Road in Redwood City, brings its take on national crazes to locals with an intention of becoming a neighborhood staple.

“Food brings people together,” Wynn said. “In our mission statement, we talk about friendships because we want friends to come here, have that burger, share those conversations and create those memories. We want the roadhouse to be where kids grow up coming here, leave, and when you come back, you say ‘Let’s meet at the Roadhouse.’”

Creating a space for locals has been something the team has cared about since the beginning and has already been successful at achieving, Wynn said. The restaurant is currently running a special: Children who come into the restaurant in their jerseys after baseball games will get a free side. 

Another goal for the owners, affirming their intention on community, has been to offer quality food at a reasonable price. Wynn said he didn’t want to be another spot that only offered tasteful burgers at fine dining prices.

Co-owner and head chef Brandon Paige said there was a specific moment when he really had to consider how they were pricing their food. He said a customer came in and split a slice of their French bread pizza among a family of five and, without hesitation, he felt something needed to change. 

“Being a parent myself now, it was just one of those moments where — I think it was the pepperoni pizza for $9 and they were splitting it — I asked myself, ‘Is this what we want to be doing, consciously?’ It was quickly a ‘no’ because in my heart I wanted to double the portion,” Paige said. 

Running a restaurant is ultimately a business, Paige said, but affirmed there is still a focus on affordability the team cares about maintaining.

“It’s all about the value of what you get for what you pay,” he said. “We want you to come back. Repeating customers is what is going to help us in the long run and let us open up more stores in the future.”

Beyond a care for customer experience, Wynn said the food speaks for itself and is what is ultimately going to get customers coming back again. 

The most popular item on their menu since opening in October has been the Wildcat burger drizzled with its in-house barbecue sauce, grilled onions and bacon. Its Nashville Chicken Plate has been a close second.

It wasn’t until after 55 attempts at getting the hot chicken just right that the team finalized its recipe. The precision and care into each aspect of the dining experience — the chicken is soaked in pickle juice for over 48 hours — seems inspired by Paige and co-owner Adam Torres’ experience in fine dining. 

Paige was initially brought on by Torres to help generate a menu in just two or three weeks. He said it wasn’t a difficult task.

“If you’ve never done it, yes, it might seem fast. But, if you take a poet and ask him to write some poems or a songwriter and put them in a room with a producer? This is my poetry,” Paige said. “Everything is not a win but this just came together.”

Paige said he was away from the restaurant business for about eight years before coming on to this project, but the familial aspect of the team and the vision he had for the restaurant is what kept him on board.

“I’ve said this before, where I said, if I didn’t see two or three of these down the road, then something would be horribly wrong and I would be heartbroken,” Paige said. “That was a true statement. I think what we’ve put together here was super special.”

Wynn said the team they’ve established at the Roadhouse so far is what really keeps the business afloat. They make decisions together and there is a respect for one another that allows each person to grow. 

Wynn went to high school with Torres and the two used to dream of opening a restaurant together. Customer service specialist Bricia Mendoza, who is known for her warm smile and great customer service, is married to head line chef Francisco Mendoza. Paige has known Torres for more than 20 years after meeting at the Village Pub and said Torres “made it so I never had to work for somebody else another day in my life.” 

The years of friendship and connection seeps through the way the team raves about one another. 

“Our specials are where [Paige] gets to be the genius Mad Hatter,” Torres said. “He gets to experiment and try new things that are always so great. He’s always thinking of what else we can do.” 

The current special is their Ballpark Burger, which includes homemade chili, jalapeños and Fritos topping it off.

The team has big dreams of more Roadhouses down the line — each member has a city in which they’d love to see become established, such as Miami, San Diego and even Downtown Disney in Anaheim — but, for now, they’re focused on getting steady business.

“When I say we’ve made it, it’s when this place is busy every day,” Wynn said. “When there’s a line out the door every night because people are coming in from everywhere to try our food and to experience what we have to offer here.”

For Wynn, the success of the restaurant will further affirm the lessons he teaches on a daily basis at school. 

“I’m trying to prove to them that the skills they’re learning in our classes, I’m applying that same thing right now to make my restaurant be successful.” 

As someone with dyslexia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder himself, Wynn said he hopes to inspire the children he teaches by way of this restaurant as well. 

“I teach kids who are about to go to high school to chase their dreams. I have to have them evaluate what they want in that next phase in their life and I have to be able to tell them, ‘Hey, if you got a dream, you got to go get it,’” Wynn said. “I’m living it. This has given me an opportunity to pursue a dream and be able to use my skills. If I didn’t have ADHD, I couldn’t do this.”

Go to woodsideroadhouse.com for hours, menu and more information.