I have never eaten one of its “flat-top burgers”—rated by Time Out to be among the 16 “best burgers in NYC right now,” circa 2025, representative of “the fast-foodier end of the spectrum”—but I did follow Blue Collar Burger, the social media account on Twitter.
It bore the name of the small burger franchise, which started out in Williamsburg over a decade ago, a project to do that kind of In-N-Out Burger thing, from a pair of “North Brooklyn restaurateurs.” It was, at some later point, taken over by a different restaurateur named Eduardo Sandoval. They opened three other locations in Brooklyn, and ended up closing the one in Williamsburg. They went from slinging burgers for $4 to slinging them for $8.75. The “about” page on their website remains forthcoming.
But, sometime in the middle of doing all this, there were the Blue Collar Burger posts, which came out like vivid hyperlocal 3 a.m. telegraphs from the genderless bathrooms at Knockdown Center (52-19 Flushing Ave.). For the uninformed observer, stumbling onto one of these felt like catching chungus-era Wendy’s Twitter in the bathroom doing lines of ket, conveniently on the same block as Carmelo’s (1544 DeKalb Ave.).
“We were silenced,” one of the three people who used to run the account told us, via a DM on Twitter, requesting to stay anonymous, an affectation not uncommon for people who run social accounts based on some kind of bit. They would only talk via Twitter, but would say anything.
“I need to get the story out there,” they told us.
In exile, whoever this person was, they were holding on to something. They were posting now from a new Twitter account called “Blue Collar Burger Archive.” Bio: burger reloaded. They had about seven followers. They were mad, whoever they were, about posts from another Twitter account called “Ridgewood Crave,” operated by a group of socialists and failed artists, some of whom — I can confirm — actually live in Bushwick.
“I’m mostly just annoyed that Ridgewood Crave stole our shit,” wrote whoever this was, posting from Blue Collar Burger Archive. Blue Collar Burger was a cultural force. Blue Collar Burger posted memes about having sex. Blue Collar Burger broke news, they told us.
“Blue Collar Burger Twitter was one of the only sources online that noted that acclaimed designer JW Anderson killed his assistant’s dog,” they informed us, unprompted. A “writer from CNN inquir[ed] about said tweet.”
“One of the Blue Collar tweeters works in fashion and we all have many friends who also work in fashion and are well connected,” the account operator said.
If there was something more powerful than hearsay, it was something someone was hiding behind two layers of disguise in order to proudly tell the world. What a bit. This burger guy, or guys, could do it all. It was this very attitude, a kind of empty courage in the face of nothing, that had given the social media account its cringey charm.
“During a meeting he kicked it super hard because it was pissing him off and it died,” they said of Anderson’s dog.
Mr. Anderson’s firm did not return a request for comment on whether he killed that dog, super hard or not, for whatever reason. May his lawyers find us and provide us a discount on those $400 limited edition Ugg boots. The Blue Collar Burger people, the ones who run the real restaurant, with three locations, but no longer in Williamsburg, did not return a request for comment either.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Grime Square: So how did “Blue Collar Burger,” the Twitter account, happen?
Blue Collar Burger Archive: Me and two friends made it as a joke because when they opened in our neighborhood [1554 DeKalb Ave.] like 10 years ago. They didn’t have a Twitter account. We have no background in social media marketing, or any ties to the restaurant/ownership whatsoever.
GS: What was the point of any of it?
BCBA: We thought it would be funny if a local restaurant was extremely tapped into local affairs (i.e., various DJ beefs, venues that weren’t paying people, restaurants with shitty management). Or post about niche musical acts. And also thought it would be funny to hornypost.
And at the time, Twitter was still cool.
GS: Did Blue Collar Burger, the brand, ever get in touch with you?
BCBA: Blue Collar let it slide for the better part of 10 years because it was a symbiotic relationship. They learned of its existence within the first couple of years because people kept going into the restaurant and asking about the Twitter account. And also some people who actually worked there were fans too.
At one point they floated the idea of getting in touch with us to actually hire us to do their social.
GS: So, how did it all fall apart?
BCBA: We tweeted that hidden.ny — the IG moodboard account turned streetwear brand — was run by a Zionist 1 (the direct quote was “[hidden.ny] is a faggot Zionist”) which then got picked up by various Zionist advocacy groups, like @StopAntisemites, and there were people printing out signs to boycott Blue Collar Burger.
They also started doxxing the owner of Blue Collar Burger. So, the restaurant finally made a statement and reported us to Twitter for impersonation.
GS: Do you know who runs hidden.ny?
BCBA: No.
GS: How do you know he is a Zionist?
BCBA: I saw him in someone’s IG comments defending Israel. It was from a larger conversation where he was in the comments of a Palestinian rapper [the Lebanese rapper WAJA33] defending Zionism.
GS: Any final thoughts?
BCBA: Ridgewood Crave is not funny and could never in a million years go out with a bang like we did.
[And] clarifying follow up: the person who tweeted this specific tweet on the Blue Collar account is queer.
Photos by Andrew Karpan.
- Hidden NY is run by “a 24-year-old from England,” per an item in Complex, in 2019, a fact that Culted later called “the worst kept secret in the streetwear industry.” ↩︎
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