The sweet, soft buns known as Martin’s Famous Potato Roll are to the modern-day hamburger craze what handmade Sonoran wheat tortillas are to your Sonoran tacos, a nearly ubiquitous, cult-status bookend to smashburgers and celebrity chef cheeseburger chains the world over.
But following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade, dismantling the rights to universal reproductive freedom and equal liberties for women in the U.S., a handful of burger-makers local and otherwise are looking for a new bun. All due to the company’s perceived political leanings.
Three local burger chefs, including Eggslut founder and AmBoy Quality Meats owner Alvin Calian, and Alicia Lopez and Cecilia Ledezma, owners of El Sereno-based smashburger sensation Hangaburs, are both speaking out on social media in the last few days about their refusal to purchase and use Martin’s anymore.
At issue are donations from Martin’s executive chair, Jim Martin, son of the founders of this family-owned business-cum-global-corporation, as well as its former president, totaling over $100,000 to Doug Mastriano, the GOP nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, which Martin’s calls home.