Brand Shoutouts
Jon Thompson spent 20 years learning high-volume operations across 14 Outback locations — then made a mistake with pork belly trim on a COVID food truck that changed everything.
By Justin K. Sellers · 12 min read · May 22, 2026
Three weeks before this article was published, Jon Thompson posted something on LinkedIn that most QSR founders only figure out after their second location fails.
"Most concepts don't stall because people don't want the food. They stall because the operation can't reliably serve more guests in the same amount of time. Throughput quietly becomes the ceiling." — Jon Thompson, Backslash Burger
He posted that while running one burger counter inside a brewery in Frederick, Maryland. No second location. No franchise team. No investor demanding expansion timelines. Just a founder who has already pre-diagnosed the failure mode that ends most single-unit concepts — before he has to live through it.
That is the signal.
Jon Thompson is a Montgomery County native who started working at Outback Steakhouse in Germantown at age 16. Over the next decade he worked at 14 different Outback locations — not because he was transferred, but because he wanted to understand what consistency looks like at scale across different markets and management styles. He later served as general manager of Growlers in Olde Towne Gaithersburg, then became area director for Red Hot & Blue, where he overhauled recipes, pursued food science coursework, and built the operations infrastructure from the inside out.
That is not a hobbyist who got good at cooking. That is two decades of training in what it takes to run food consistently at volume — at the exact brands that teach you what breaks when you grow.
The burger itself came from a problem. When COVID hit in 2020, Thompson partnered with a longtime friend to reopen a barbecue truck in Washington, DC. Faced with pork belly trim that couldn't be sold — the slicing was imperfect, the product couldn't move — Thompson and his partner ground the bacon into the beef to avoid the waste. The result cooked with an exceptional crust, stayed remarkably juicy, and delivered a depth of flavor that immediately stood out from everything else on the flat-top.
[REELPAIRSTART: DYk0WJtDqCP] !Two beef-bacon smash patties pressed hard, American cheese pulling in sheets, Backslash sauce oozing over a Martin's roll. Via @backslashburger
Accidental products that become category leaders share one trait: the accident reveals something true. The truth here — that bacon fat fundamentally changes what beef does on a flat-top — is chemistry. That is not positioning. That is product construction.
Thompson launched the Fifty Fifty food truck in October 2021 and opened the brick-and-mortar inside Olde Mother Brewing at 526 N. Market Street, Frederick, in January 2023. In February 2026 he rebranded to Backslash Burger — and was transparent about exactly what that involved: [REELPAIREND]
"What didn't change was the food, the team, or the standards. The goal wasn't reinvention. It was focus. Giving the brand a name and voice that better reflect what we actually do."
"Behind the new name and visuals was months of work balancing brand clarity, operations, SEO, guest communication, and internal alignment — all while keeping the day-to-day business running."
This is not a founder who thinks a name change is a marketing exercise. It is a founder who built brand infrastructure before expansion, in the correct order.
Backslash Burger is built on one belief: bacon makes beef better. Every menu decision traces back to that premise.
The half beef, half bacon smashburger is the foundation. House pickles engineered for the fat content of the patty. Sauces built for balance. Premium ingredient partners — Martin's rolls, Duke's mayo, Heinz, French's — because Thompson believes quality compounds. Eight named builds. A clean customization bar. No seasonal sprawl. In his own words:
The Backslash Burger — the namesake. Onion smacked directly into the patties and seared with mustard, finished with Backslash sauce and house pickles. Single, double, or triple. The Oklahoma Animal — the top seller. Thinly sliced raw onions pressed directly into the patty, mustard cooked into the meat, tangy chipotle mayo, and house-made apple cider vinegar pickles engineered to cut through the richness of the bacon. The pickle is designed for the fat content. That detail signals a chef, not a line cook. The Belgian Black Label — spicy patties and bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup on fluffy Belgian waffles. The build that draws the most word-of-mouth outside Frederick. The Peter Piper — roasted poblano cream cheese, hot pickled cherry peppers, and bourbon molasses sauce. She's My Cherry — herbed goat cheese and sour cherry jam. The most unexpected build on the menu. It works. I Can't Feel My Face — ghost pepper sauce, candied jalapeño. Labeled "EXTREMELY HOT. EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK." Thompson means it. The Ogre — tiger sauce, caramelized onion, raw onion, beer-battered onion rings. PBPB&BB — crunchy peanut butter, spicy patties, pickles."Not every customer is your customer. Not every dish needs to be on your menu. Brands that try to serve everyone usually end up serving no one particularly well. Serve less. Mean more."
All builds available single, double, triple, or fried chicken. Plant-based available on build-your-own. The Old Bay Fries — straight-cut, coated in potato starch for extra crispness, seasoned with Old Bay, served with Backslash sauce — have their own following. Sweet Potato Fries come coated in cinnamon sugar with house-made blueberry ketchup. Beer-battered onion rings round out the sides.
[TIMELINE] Spring 2020 | Thompson develops the beef-bacon patty on a Washington, DC barbecue truck October 2021 | Fifty Fifty food truck launches January 2023 | Brick-and-mortar opens inside Olde Mother Brewing, 526 N. Market Street, Frederick, MD February 1, 2026 | Brand officially rebrands to Backslash Burger May 2026 | One location open, confirmed. No second location at time of publication Actively exploring | Silver Spring, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Mount Airy, and Aberdeen — no signed leases, no specific opening dates [/TIMELINE]
The markets being explored are the most important signal in this expansion story. Silver Spring, Rockville, and Gaithersburg are the Montgomery County communities where Thompson built his career across 14 Outback locations. He knows those labor pools, those customer demographics, those neighborhoods. This is not a founder expanding blindly — it is a founder expanding into geography he already knows cold.
The throughput post matters because it changes what "exploring expansion" means for this brand. Most single-unit founders explore expansion until the operation breaks under demand — then they learn about throughput. Thompson has named that ceiling publicly and is building toward it deliberately. That is a different starting position for location two than most concepts bring.
Backslash Burger is owner-operated with a single location and no franchise offering as of May 2026. No FDD exists. No investment range or royalty structure is publicly available.
- Visit: 526 N. Market Street, Frederick, MD 21701 — inside Olde Mother Brewing - Order: order.toasttab.com/online/backslashburger - Hours: Monday–Saturday 11 AM–10 PM · Sunday 11 AM–7 PM - Contact: hello@backslashburger.com - Instagram: @backslashburger - Owner on LinkedIn: Jon Thompson
QSR Research Hub sources customer voice from TripAdvisor, Yelp, DoorDash, and the Wanderlog travel community. We identify patterns — the same theme appearing across multiple reviews, multiple reviewers, multiple time periods. A single observation is noted but not weighted. We prioritize the most recent reviews available.
THE GOODOn bringing family for the first time — TripAdvisor, November 2025:
"I spent a few hours here catching up with my son and meeting his girlfriend for the first time... we got food from Fifty Fifty Burger. The Old Bay Fries were good and you absolutely want to go with the Old Bay over the regular ones."
— NeoWasHere, Frederick, MD, TripAdvisor, November 2025
On coming back year after year — TripAdvisor, July 2025:
"We did not have beer or ales but the fifty/fifty smash burgers were great. The onion rings were good also. Love how they are served in paper bags. Will be back next year, hopefully here again."
— gram2trips, White Oak, PA, TripAdvisor, July 2025
DoorDash reviewers in 2025 tell a similar story — regulars who have been coming since the brand opened, citing consistent execution across customizations and calling out the fries as their favorite in Frederick. One reviewer noted they return specifically because plant-based guests can order off the same specialty menu as everyone else at the table — She's My Cherry, the Belgian Black Label — and receive food that is "consistently fast, fresh, hot, delicious, and prepared correctly, even with all the customizations."
The Wanderlog travel community surfaces a recurring framing across multiple independent reviewers: the half-bacon, half-beef blend "takes the taste to the next level" and draws comparisons to "an elevated Five Guys."
The Pattern: When this location hits, reviewers independently describe the same things: the patty texture and juiciness, the Old Bay fries, the ability to customize without errors, and the repeat-visit impulse. The plant-based data point deserves specific attention — it confirms Backslash has a verified customer base spanning beef eaters and plant-based guests at the same table. That multi-audience reach is an asset for any operator targeting DMV markets with diverse demographics.1. The product is structurally differentiated — not just positioned differently. Every other smashburger in the DMV uses 100% beef. Backslash's 50/50 beef-bacon patty produces a different crust, juiciness, and flavor because of what the patty is made of — not because of how it's marketed. The MoCo Show described it as a patty that cooked "with an exceptional crust, stayed remarkably juicy, and delivered a depth of flavor that immediately stood out." No major chain replicates this at scale. That is a real moat.
2. The Yelp and TripAdvisor rankings are earned, not bought. #1 best burger in Frederick, MD on Yelp as of April 2026. #3 overall restaurant in the city. 4.6 out of 5 on TripAdvisor across 28 reviews at Olde Mother Brewing, ranked #51 of 334 restaurants in Frederick. A single unit inside a brewery holding those rankings across multiple independent platforms is not an accident.
3. The founder's public operational thinking is a signal most single-unit brands cannot offer. Thompson's LinkedIn is not a highlight reel. It is an operator working through throughput constraints, menu discipline, the digital guest journey, and the cost of "good enough" — all while running one location. His own framing on quality: "A burger that's slightly off slows everything down. It needs to be adjusted or remade, or it goes out and creates a worse problem later. What actually takes time is correction, reworking, rebuilding trust with your customer." A founder who articulates multi-unit failure modes before he has multiple units is operating at a different level of readiness than one who discovers them in the field.
4. The rebrand sequence was correct. Build the product. Prove it in the market. Then build brand infrastructure for expansion. Thompson ran that in the right order — and documented every layer of the rebrand's operational complexity in public, including the SEO transition, menu and packaging changes, and the guest communication strategy.
5. The menu has a philosophy. Eight named builds. No seasonal sprawl. Pickles engineered for the fat content of the patty. Premium partners chosen because quality compounds. This is a menu built around one belief, executed with precision — not a menu built around maximizing SKU count or satisfying every consumer segment.
This is not a franchise opportunity today. No FDD exists. No investment range is publicly available. Backslash Burger is owner-operated, single-unit, and in active pre-expansion mode.
These are exactly the brands to watch before the franchise development team exists — before the territory map is drawn and before the investment minimum locks you out.
What the data shows right now:- #1 rated burger in Frederick, MD on Yelp (April 2026) - #3 rated restaurant overall in Frederick on Yelp (April 2026) - 4.6 of 5 on TripAdvisor, 28 reviews, ranked #51 of 334 Frederick restaurants (May 2026) - Founder publicly documenting operational discipline and throughput strategy pre-expansion - 20+ years of high-volume QSR operations across 14+ locations - Structural product differentiator no major chain replicates at scale - February 2026 rebrand signals formal growth phase has begun - Active exploration of Silver Spring, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Mount Airy, and Aberdeen
[DEEPDIVECTA url="https://www.instagram.com/backslashburger/" btnLabel="Follow @backslashburger →"] No FDD yet. No franchise deep dive yet. Here's what the data already shows. - The founder is thinking about scale correctly — and he's doing it before opening location two - The product has a structural advantage no major chain is replicating at volume - The expansion markets he's targeting are the ones he spent 20 years learning inside and out - When Backslash Burger files for franchise registration, QSR Research Hub will produce the full deep dive: Item 7 investment range, unit economics modeling, supply chain analysis for a fresh beef-bacon blend at multi-unit scale, and territory white space across the DMV Until then, follow the brand directly. The story is worth watching before it has a prospectus. [/DEEPDIVECTA]
Every Brand Shoutout is built on independently sourced information:
- Financial Data: No FDD exists for Backslash Burger. No investment range, royalty rate, or AUV has been publicly disclosed. All financial context in this article is absent by design — the brand has not entered the franchise system. - Customer Reviews: TripAdvisor (listing d9766457, 28 reviews, May 2026), Yelp (84+ reviews, updated April–May 2026), DoorDash (multi-reviewer, 2024–2026), Wanderlog (multi-reviewer aggregate). - Leadership Information: Jon Thompson LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/jon-thompson-397209137) — 8 posts reviewed, May 2026. Tier 1 primary source per QSR Research Hub standards. Instagram @backslashburger reviewed for brand voice and product presentation. - Growth Metrics: The MoCo Show (February 2026) for expansion timeline, rebrand details, founder background. Visit Frederick and backslashburger.com for location confirmation and hours. - Operator Perspectives: EpicFrederick local lifestyle coverage (affiliate-disclosed — used for consumer sentiment context only). Menu and ordering platform reviewed directly via backslashburger.com/menu and Toast.
We never ask brands for permission before publishing. Sponsors get placement, not editorial control. We write what the research shows.
- No FDD exists. No investment range, franchise fee, royalty rate, or AUV is publicly available. Any operator evaluating a future relationship should contact Thompson directly at hello@backslashburger.com and request any available financial disclosures. - Expansion markets are exploring, not signed. Silver Spring, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Mount Airy, and Aberdeen are potential future locations — not committed leases, not signed development agreements. No specific opening date or timeline was publicly available at time of publication. - No AUV or unit-level financial data. Single location, owner-operated. No financial performance data has been published. There is no basis for estimating what a second or third location would generate. - No employee review footprint. No Glassdoor or Indeed data was found for this brand at time of publication. This is typical for a single-unit independent concept. Prospective operators should request direct access to the operation — specifically the morning prep shift and peak-hour execution — before any partnership conversation. - One honest customer signal to note. One TripAdvisor reviewer (January 2024) noted the fries appeared frozen, giving a 3-star food rating while calling the atmosphere 5 stars. The current menu lists Old Bay Fries coated in potato starch for extra crispness — a fresh-prep technique. Whether this reflects a change in practice between 2024 and 2026, or a single reviewer's perception, cannot be confirmed from public data. Operators should verify fry sourcing directly. - No multi-unit operational proof yet. The 50/50 beef-bacon patty is a fresh-prep product. Holding quality across multiple locations — supply chain, training, daily prep replication at volume — is a question the brand has not yet been required to answer publicly. Thompson's throughput posts suggest he is thinking about it. Thinking about a problem and solving it at scale are different things.
QSR Research Hub is not affiliated with Backslash Burger and received no compensation for this coverage. No affiliate relationships, referral fees, or placement deals exist with this brand.
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Subscribe to QSR Research Hub1. Jon Thompson. LinkedIn profile. Posts reviewed May 22, 2026: throughput/capacity constraint post; "good enough" operational cost post; rebrand launch post; rebrand process post; menu engineering/discipline post; "serve less, mean more" post; differentiation post; digital guest journey post. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-thompson-397209137 2. MCS Staff. "Popular Maryland Burger Concept Fifty Fifty Evolves Into Backslash Burger." The MoCo Show, February 1, 2026. Updated February 5, 2026. Origin story, founder background, expansion markets, product development timeline. https://mocoshow.com/2026/02/01/popular-maryland-burger-concept-fifty-fifty-evolves-into-backslash-burger/ 3. Backslash Burger. Full menu with pricing — 8 named builds, sides, customization options. Reviewed May 22, 2026. https://www.backslashburger.com/menu 4. Backslash Burger. Brand website — hours, address, contact information. Reviewed May 22, 2026. https://www.backslashburger.com/ 5. Toast. Backslash Burger online ordering platform. https://order.toasttab.com/online/backslashburger 6. Backslash Burger. Official Instagram profile — @backslashburger. Brand voice, product photography, reel content. https://www.instagram.com/backslashburger/ 7. TripAdvisor. Olde Mother Brewing, Frederick, MD — listing d9766457. Reviews: NeoWasHere (November 2025, 5 stars); gram2trips (July 2025, 5 stars); leecyleecy (January 2024, 3 stars food). Aggregate rating 4.6 of 5, 28 reviews, ranked #51 of 334 Frederick restaurants. https://www.tripadvisor.com/RestaurantReview-g60903-d9766457-Reviews-OldeMotherBrewing-FrederickMaryland.html 8. DoorDash. Backslash Burger (Formerly Fifty Fifty), Frederick, MD — multi-reviewer customer feedback, 2024–2026. https://www.doordash.com/en-US/store/fifty-fifty-frederick-24194701/ 9. Wanderlog. Fifty Fifty, Frederick, MD — multi-reviewer aggregate including "elevated Five Guys" comparison and half-bacon patty observations. https://wanderlog.com/place/details/6519365/fifty-fifty 10. Yelp. "Top 10 Best Burgers in Frederick, MD — Updated April 2026." #1: Backslash Burger. https://www.yelp.com/search?finddesc=Burgers&findloc=Frederick%2C+MD 11. Yelp. "Top 10 Best Restaurants in Frederick, MD — Updated April 2026." #3: Backslash Burger. https://www.yelp.com/search?finddesc=Restaurants&findloc=Frederick%2C+MD 12. Visit Frederick. Backslash Burger listing. https://www.visitfrederick.org/listing/backslash-burger/6720/
