Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaela Welles.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
We opened Super Smash Burger about two and a half years ago, starting as a food truck outside of Legend Cider in Talent, Oregon. It all began when our business partner, Shane Skinner, wanted to go into business with my husband, Randal Welles. My husband brings a strong business background, while Shane has an incredible talent for cooking, so together they built the idea for Super Smash Burger.
From day one, our focus has been on quality. We source fresh, local ingredients whenever possible, including Cherry Street Market ground beef and bacon. We hand-cut our fries fresh every morning and fry them in beef tallow. I make all of our pickles, pickled jalapeños, and sauces from scratch because we believe every detail matters.
While great food is the foundation of our business, I don’t think it’s the only reason we’ve grown. We’ve made it a priority to invest in the small business community around us. I organize small business markets that bring together 15 to 20 local artisans who handcraft their products, partnering with local wineries and musicians to create events where vendors can thrive without paying outrageous booth fees.
I also produce our bi-weekly Small Business Sunday Spotlight series, where I interview and feature local businesses on social media to help shine a light on what they’re doing.
Giving back has always been part of who we are. We’ve raised over $1,000 for our local YMCA children’s programs, over $2,000 for a local farmer facing double foot surgery, and we regularly donate to local schools and community organizations.
At the end of the day, I think people come for the burgers, but they stay because they know who we are. They see the care we put into every burger, every event, and every relationship we build. We genuinely believe that when one small business succeeds, it creates opportunities for everyone else to succeed too. That’s the kind of community we want to help build.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely. Like most small businesses, we’ve faced our share of challenges.
One of the biggest was our food trailer itself. We invested in a custom-built trailer, but over time we discovered issue after issue. The tongue broke, supports failed, electrical problems surfaced, door and window seals leaked, and we even found that the hood system had been installed incorrectly with the wrong-sized fan. It felt like every time we solved one problem, another appeared. It was frustrating, expensive, and often meant finding solutions while still trying to serve our customers every day.
We’ve also learned some hard lessons about events. Early on, we’d be invited to festivals or markets with expectations of huge crowds, only for attendance to be far lower than promised. That meant lost product, lost revenue, and time away from our regular location where we knew our customers were waiting for us.
But every challenge has taught us something. We’ve become much more intentional about the events we commit to, we’ve learned how to adapt quickly when things don’t go as planned, and we’ve built a business that’s stronger because of those experiences. As difficult as those moments were, they’ve made us more resilient and better prepared for the future.
We’ve been impressed with Super Smash Burger, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I touched on some of this earlier, but I think what truly sets us apart is our commitment to quality and doing things the right way, even when it’s harder.
We source as many of our ingredients locally as possible, use fresh, never-frozen beef, hand-cut our fries every morning, make our sauces and pickled vegetables from scratch, and fry exclusively in beef tallow. We don’t cut corners because we believe our customers can taste the difference.
Something we’re especially proud of is that our fresh-cut fries are naturally gluten-free because they’re cooked in a dedicated fryer with beef tallow. To our knowledge, we’re the only restaurant in our area offering that combination.
The thing I’m most proud of, though, isn’t just the food—it’s what it means to people. I had two different customers in the same day tell me they hadn’t been able to eat French fries at a restaurant in years because of gluten concerns, and that ours were the first they’d been able to enjoy. Moments like that remind us that we’re not just serving burgers and fries—we’re creating an experience where more people can sit down and enjoy a great meal with their family and friends. That’s something we’re incredibly proud of.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I don’t think our success has come down to luck. I think it’s been built on a lot of hard work, consistency, and a refusal to give up, even when things get difficult.
We’ve also never been willing to compromise on quality. Whether it’s our ingredients, our customer service, or the experience we provide, we believe that doing things the right way pays off over time.
One thing that’s always guided me is that when a problem comes up, I don’t spend much time asking, “Why did this happen?” My first question is, “What’s the solution? What’s the next step?” That mindset has helped us move forward through every challenge.
The same goes for feedback. If we receive a negative review, we don’t ignore it or get defensive. We talk through it as a team, identify what we could have done better, and we’ve even hired secret shoppers to give us honest, unbiased feedback. We believe the only way to keep improving is to be willing to hear criticism, learn from it, and make changes when they’re needed.
For me, success comes from staying curious, staying adaptable, and always asking, “How can we be better tomorrow than we were today?” That’s the mindset that’s helped us grow, and it’s the mindset we’ll continue to have moving forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://supersmashburger.godaddysites.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/supersmashburg/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557310213286
