Smash hit Burger buffs translate patty epiphany into flat-out success By: David Sanderson Posted: 2:00 AM CDT Saturday, Sep. 26, 2026

Île-des-Chênes — Who can forget the scene from the 1994 crime film Pulp Fiction where Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta, informs his hitman counterpart Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) that owing to the metric system, people in France refer to a McDonald’s Quarter-Pounder as a “royale with cheese.”

That causes Winnfield to openly wonder what the French term is for a Big Mac.

“Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it ‘le Big Mac,’” Vega responds.

The reason we bring up that cinematic exchange is because this hockey season, the married couple behind Duke’s Burger Co., a hard-to-miss, yellow-and-orange food trailer that from May to August operates along Highway 59 near Niverville, will be in charge of the canteen at Île-des-Chênes Arena, home of the South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League’s Île-des-Chênes North Stars. Given the fact Île-des-Chênes is a historically francophone community, we asked Duke’s owners Josh and Amanda Darlington if there is a French equivalent for smash burgers, their signature dish.

“Not that we’re aware of,” Josh says, admitting that his French is rusty, at best. “We can try and find out but I’ve got a feeling the answer is probably going to be ‘le smash burger.’”

Duke’s Burger Co. was founded in 2023 but its history goes back a bit further than that. Josh grew up in Vancouver and later moved to nearby Surrey, which was where he was living 22 years ago when he met Amanda, who’s originally from Kenora. She was there on vacation, she says, and within a few months, she had packed her bags and retreated west to join him.

The couple relocated to Winnipeg in 2010, four years after tying the knot. Both had full-time careers — he was a sales consultant and she was a human resources officer — but in 2012 they invested in a hot-dog cart, a dream of Josh’s for a while.

“Seeing them parked on downtown sidewalks, smelling the aroma of the dogs and smokies… it was something that was always super intriguing to me,” he says.

They ran J.D. Dogs for three summers, appearing at events across the province. Sure, it could be a grind around their 9-to-5 jobs, Amanda interjects — especially when they were setting up in Osborne Village to feed late-night crowds pouring out of the neighbourhood’s numerous watering holes — but they enjoyed the experience immensely, and only halted due to the birth of their son, James, in 2015.

In 2017, they purchased a four-and-a-half acre spread adjacent to Highway 59, five kilometres north of Niverville. Shortly thereafter, Josh, a big fan of TV cooking shows, began experimenting with smash burgers, a style of hamburger that involves pressing or smashing what looks like an oversized meatball onto a piping-hot surface, resulting in a thin patty that is charred on the outside and juicy on the inside.

“At first, I was just doing them for us,” he says, recalling he initially used the back of a ceramic plate to flatten his patties, before buying a heavy-duty stainless-steel implement specifically suited to the task. “As I got better and better at it, I started serving them to our friends and family, too, who’d say things like, ‘hey, you really know what you’re doing.’”

Buoyed by those comments, Josh and Amanda reconsidered the notion of a food cart or truck, only this time, an enterprise emphasizing smash burgers. They ultimately agreed to wait until one or both of them was retired, except “retirement” came earlier than expected, Josh says. In August 2022, he fell victim to cutbacks at his office. He considered applying for other sales positions but in the end he and Amanda decided to “go for it,” street food-wise.

There was still snow on the ground in March 2023 when Josh drove to Atikokan, Ont., to check out a for-sale, 21-foot-long food trailer that previously offered Dutch fare such as stroopwafels. He bought it on the spot and hauled it back to their property to begin converting it into a unit capable of cooking smash burgers, as well as sides such as fries, poutine and chicken fingers. And because they had more than enough room on their property, they reached out to the RM of Ritchot, asking permission to situate the proposed trailer close to the highway to cater to motorists who would be able to pull in to their extended, winding driveway.

The RM was accommodating. Unfortunately, it turned out the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario differ greatly when it comes to rules surrounding mobile kitchens, Josh says. There were “a million” hoops they had to jump through as they brought the trailer up to code, so it wasn’t until the third week of August 2023 that Duke’s — Duke was Josh’s late father’s lifelong nickname — was finally able to start welcoming customers.

Duke’s Burger Co. was an instant success, with the couple usually selling out of burgers and dogs, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. As well, they used their acreage to their advantage, erecting picnic tables steps away from their trailer for those who wanted to make an afternoon or evening of it by playing provided games like cornhole. (Amanda continued at her job that first summer, but resigned in June 2024 to assist Josh, who was struggling to keep up on his own.)

The Darlingtons’ original plan was to fire up the grill five days a week, from the end of April to mid-October, and take winters off. That all changed at the end of their second season. An opportunity earlier in the year to set up outside the arena in St. Adolphe and cook for people attending a hockey tournament led to an invitation to run the rink’s canteen on a full-time basis, during winter months. Word spread quickly about their presence there, and by November 2024, Duke’s fans who assumed they would have to wait until spring to chow down on their favourite smash burger were showing up at the rink, regardless of what was happening on the ice.

Last year, Duke’s Burger Co. became one of three food vendors that presently serve hungry fans at Niverville Nighthawks home games played at the 1,000-seat Niverville Community Resource & Recreation Centre. Was it a coincidence that the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Nighthawks won their first-ever Turnbull and Centennial cups that same season? Josh and Amanda can’t say for sure. “All I know is we pack a lot of burgers into bags for the players to eat at home, post-game,” Amanda says with a laugh.

The Darlingtons, who now own a second food trailer that gets parked at fairs, markets and private functions throughout the summer, are excited to add the Île-des-Chênes rink to their arsenal. They took over there in mid-September and have already spotted familiar faces in line, many of whom have made the short drive from Sage Creek, Southdale and Island Lakes. (Besides their usual fare, they will also be offering breakfast every Saturday and Sunday in Île-des-Chênes, the same as they do in St. Adolphe.)

“It’s definitely more than we intended to take on, now with three places come the winter,” says Amanda, who credits their staff of 13 for helping to make expansion possible. “But since our motto has always been, ‘building community one smash burger at a time,’ we’d be remiss not to do our best to serve the very communities we live close to. For us, it’s a matter of practising what we preach.”

As for future goals, neither Josh nor Amanda dismisses the concept of a dedicated, bricks-and-mortar spot for Duke’s Burger Co. or attempting to market their special “Duke sauce,” a mayo-ketchup-mustard-and-relish blend slathered on most of their offerings, including the “Duke” (an all-beef patty smothered with bacon, cheese, onion, lettuce and tomato) and the “chicken smash” (chicken patty, jalapeño-jack cheese, lettuce, tomato). (There’s also a “veggie smash” for non-carnivores, done with a black-bean patty.)

“We’re definitely happy with our current situation, being outside all summer and indoors in the winter, but who knows what the future has in store?” Josh says. “Our 11-year-old’s an absolute burger nut — he even has his own rating system whenever we stop to eat some place else — so we’re sure he’d be all over the idea of a Duke’s Burger Co. on every corner.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca