{"id":105981,"date":"2025-07-30T22:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T22:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/105981\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T22:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T22:48:15","slug":"fans-locals-recall-the-cranky-owner-behind-legendary-l-a-shack-bills-burgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/105981\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans, locals recall the ‘cranky’ owner behind legendary L.A. shack Bill’s Burgers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

William \u201cBill\u201d Elwell, the humorous and occasionally ornery owner of a legendary burger shack in the San Fernando Valley, has died at 98, prompting an outpouring of admiration and memories from burger aficionados and restaurateurs who were inspired by him.<\/p>\n

Elwell, who founded the Van Nuys burger stand Bill\u2019s Burgers in 1965 and worked there continuously for 60 years, died on July 21. Over the course of decades, he became as much of a draw as the burgers themselves.<\/p>\n

Elwell seasoned and seared beef patties on his stand\u2019s original griddle, which he believed dated back to the 1920s. Characterized as \u201cgruff<\/a>,\u201d \u201ccranky<\/a>\u201d and \u201cgrumpy<\/a>,\u201d he proudly ran the 10-by-20-foot stand with strict rules (cash only, no substitutions), and he could often be found ribbing his customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs McDonald\u2019s closed today?\u201d he\u2019d regularly yell. \u201cWhy is everyone here? Go down the street!\u201d<\/p>\n

Another signature phrase sits at both the top and bottom of the menu: \u201cYou can\u2019t have it your way, this is not Burger King.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen Yelent, owner of local burger chain Goldburger and a Bill\u2019s customer since childhood, said Elwell embodied the best entrepreneurial spirit of the Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cBill\u2019s, for me, represents what I love about small business and what makes small business really beautiful in L.A.: the same person cooking the burgers literally every single day,\u201d Yelent said. \u201cEveryone can say they got a burger from Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elwell <\/p>\n

Elwell working the grill at Bill\u2019s Burgers in 2014.<\/p>\n

(Barbara Davidson \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Sandwiched among tire shops, lighting stores and factories, Elwell\u2019s shack fed the Valley\u2019s industrial workers just as readily as food lovers who\u2019d make a visit to Bill\u2019s a burger pilgrimage. Yelent, a San Fernando Valley native and resident, said Elwell epitomized the \u201cabsolute worker mentality, worker ethic of the Valley that I grew up in.\u201d<\/p>\n

William Clement Elwell was born in Ventura on Nov. 23, 1926. He served in World War II and worked in a variety of trades, including as a cab driver and at a linen company. He purchased the Van Nuys stand for $2,500 in 1965, before the block\u2019s sidewalks were even paved and only a dirt path led to the building.<\/p>\n

Elwell and Bill\u2019s Burgers saw innumerable changes through the decades. At one point the stand was called Bill & Hiroko\u2019s, named for Elwell and his then-partner, Hiroko Wilcox, whom he\u2019d met while bowling. She worked the burger shack with him alongside one of his five ex-wives, Sharon Elwell. Bill Elwell told The Times in 2014<\/a> that one of his exes quipped: \u201cWe get along fine. It\u2019s him we can\u2019t stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to an obituary<\/a> written by his family, which was published in the Ventura County Star, the burger icon is survived by his son, James Elwell, and his daughter, Charlene Morris, along with eight grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, three great-great grandchildren and multiple nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, the first full day of business since the news of Elwell\u2019s passing spread widely over social media, Henry McComas was the first customer in line. The filmmaker moved nearby six years ago and visits the restaurant at least once a week, he said, often on his walks through the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A double cheeseburger at Bill\u2019s Burgers, pictured in 2019.<\/p>\n

(Mariah Tauger \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I met Bill, he was very busy over the grill, and such a professional and so focused that you didn\u2019t know if you could talk to him,\u201d McComas said. \u201cHe came up to me and started a conversation, telling me how great his burgers were, but he took a raw patty and some of the beef and ate it in front of me and said, \u2018This is how good the meat is.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I was hooked ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, when McComas heard of Elwell\u2019s death, he made a point of visiting Tuesday morning right as the restaurant opened, thanking the staff for their continuation of the business. He wants Bill\u2019s Burgers to continue for years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cBill\u2019s legacy means so much to the Valley,\u201d McCormas said. \u201cIt really is a staple. My hope is if the family wants to continue the business that they do, because we\u2019ll be here for their burgers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legendary burger man occasionally threatened retirement or selling the business, as he told The Times<\/a> he\u2019d considered in 2020 during the pandemic. But said he hoped that even if he did, Bill\u2019s Burgers would continue without him. One staff member told The Times that they would like to personally continue the restaurant in Elwell\u2019s honor.<\/p>\n

Yelent of Goldburger previously ran an Instagram account dedicated to posting burgers he\u2019d enjoyed. The very first picture was of Bill\u2019s. Dated Aug. 12, 2014, he captioned it, \u201cBill and Hiroko are inspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n

They remained an inspiration as Yelent grew his empire from a pop-up to multiple stands.<\/p>\n

\"Elwell, <\/p>\n

Elwell, then 93, takes an order from a customer at his hamburger stand in 2020.<\/p>\n

(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey worked super hard,\u201d he said of the duo. \u201cThey touched their product every single day. They were always completely and utterly devoted to what they were doing, and the city responded well. I want to have even a small fraction of the legacy that Bill\u2019s created in L.A. \u201d<\/p>\n

Yelent, who grew up in Chatsworth, found himself at Bill\u2019s Burgers multiple times during childhood, especially through the stretch of years his father operated a TV repair shop nearby. In adulthood, he rediscovered it and found Bill\u2019s to be even more inspiring than his earliest memories of it.<\/p>\n

More recently he\u2019d found one of Elwell\u2019s grandsons working at the burger stand, taking orders at the window while Elwell still manned the flat-top grill.<\/p>\n

Heavy Handed owners Max Miller and Danny Gordon also grew up in the San Fernando Valley and frequented Bill\u2019s Burgers. As they began their own burger business, they turned to some of the restaurants that shaped not only their own tastes but the region that raised them. Bill\u2019s, they said, represented \u201cfrozen-in-time Valley spots\u201d and \u201ca taste of what the San Fernando Valley was\u201d before they were born.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really one of the last to do food in his own unapologetic way and stick to his guns when it comes to how he serves, how he runs his business and how he operates personally within the space,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n

Miller, who attended high school in Van Nuys, would often vie for one of the coveted counter seats overlooking the grill.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A pair of customers leave with their order from Bill\u2019s Burgers in 2020.<\/p>\n

(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Both have tried to emulate Elwell\u2019s \u201cquiet showmanship,\u201d most often seen through him slapping American cheese onto the patties, as if casually but accurately flinging a playing card from a deck of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s sort of the West Coast version of Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn: the old man going at his own pace, not really giving you the time,\u201d said Gordon. \u201cHe was just doing his thing, and you\u2019re there for that experience. It\u2019s a kind of restaurant that you don\u2019t see many of anymore. It\u2019s definitely a bummer to lose [Elwell]; he was a legend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Yelent, Colin Fahrner also ran a burger Instagram account before launching his own restaurant, but he never posted a photo of Bill\u2019s \u2014 probably, he said, because his visit predated the social media account entirely.<\/p>\n

It was, Fahrner said, the kind of old-school L.A. burger operation that inspired him to launch his restaurant, Yellow Paper Burger, though Bill\u2019s perfectly griddled burgers come wrapped in white.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s other places that do it, but I feel like he really stuck to it for the long haul,\u201d he said of Elwell. \u201cI think it\u2019s also a reminder: All these legacy places are closing. Don\u2019t wait to go to these spots, because they can close any day or the owner can pass away, or whatever might happen \u2026 Now is the time. These places are not going to be here forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William \u201cBill\u201d Elwell, the humorous and occasionally ornery owner of a legendary burger shack in the San Fernando…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":105982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[68112,68111,68113,17925,1582,276,8468,68116,68114,2961,224,5337,46750,8463,39410,68117,9207,68115,16225,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-105981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-allen-yelent","9":"tag-bill-elwell","10":"tag-burger-aficionado","11":"tag-burgers","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-customer","15":"tag-henry-mccomas","16":"tag-hiroko","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-owner","21":"tag-restaurant","22":"tag-san-fernando-valley","23":"tag-single-day","24":"tag-small-business","25":"tag-stand","26":"tag-valley","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114944626233613638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}