The team behind one of the nation's most celebrated barbecue joints is trading offset smokers for a flat-top grill. Anthony Garcia, owner of Eric's Family Barbecue, is developing a new burger concept called Army Ant's Cheeseburgers, and he's eyeing a spot on Western Avenue in Old Town Avondale to open it.
A Mom-and-Pop Gap in the Market
Garcia told Phoenix New Times that the area lacks a locally owned mom-and-pop burger joint, and that gap is what's driving the new venture. He and business partner Victoria Kays are developing the menu and design together, though the New Times reports that the restaurant's menu is still under development and not yet finalized. Garcia said he plans to expand from slow-smoking beef into grinding and grilling it, a natural next step for a chef who has spent years perfecting mesquite-smoked brisket.
The name pays tribute to Garcia and Kays' service in the 82nd Airborne Division, according to the same report. Garcia's military background runs deep — he cooked for fellow soldiers at Fort Liberty in North Carolina before studying culinary arts at the Art Institute of Phoenix through the GI Bill, according to the Phoenix Independent. That service connection already shows up at Eric's Family Barbecue, which extends a year-round 15% discount to veterans and active-duty service members, according to Phoenix New Times.
What's on the Menu
Army Ant's Cheeseburgers will serve cheeseburgers, fries and shakes, plus a grilled chicken breast sandwich, per the New Times report. The signature cheeseburger centers on a third-pound beef patty griddled on a flat-top, topped with American cheese, tomato, red onion, aioli, pickles and shredded lettuce tossed in oil and vinegar, all served on a toasted bun. Garcia said the acidity from that dressed lettuce is meant to enhance the cheese, and the whole thing gets wrapped in paper and foil so the burger steams together.
Customers will be able to customize their burgers with extra patties or other toppings, and the menu may also include bacon cold-smoked on an offset smoker at Eric's Family Barbecue. Fries will be double-fried, a technique aimed at extra crunch. “I'm going to do a unique, yet honest cheeseburger, with shakes and all,” Garcia said, describing his approach to the new concept.
Retro Drive-In Inspired by Old-School Funk
Kays said the restaurant should evoke 1950s and 1960s drive-in culture, and Garcia described the inspiration as old school funk. He promised Army Ant's will have a distinctive atmosphere, envisioning it as a drive-in destination inspired by classic movies rather than a standard fast-food stop. Garcia said each restaurant in his growing portfolio should maintain its own special and unique character — he doesn't want multiple locations of the same restaurant, and instead plans to operate several different concepts, with hopes of opening more restaurants in Avondale down the line.
Eric's Family Barbecue itself has operated in Avondale since 2020, when it opened at 12345 W. Indian School Road in a space that once housed Manny's Mexican Restaurant, according to Karmalize.org. The restaurant has built its reputation on Central Texas-style smoked meats and Southwest- and Southern-influenced side dishes, smoking prime brisket for more than 16 hours in mesquite-fired offset smokers, including custom Fat Stack smokers imported from California, according to A Taste of AZ. That craft helped propel Eric's to third place nationally on Yelp's Top 100 BBQ list in May 2024, second place in early 2025, and a top-40 spot in 2026 — a run of recognition Hoodline covered in Eric's rise up national BBQ rankings.
Burger Testing Years in the Making
The new venture isn't coming out of nowhere. Garcia has been testing burger concepts at Eric's for years, including 8-ounce prime Angus patties topped with house mesquite-smoked bacon and prime brisket burgers, drops that routinely drew lines and sold out early, per Eric's Family Barbecue's own Facebook page and A Taste of AZ.
Why Avondale, Why Now
The Western Avenue site under consideration sits within the Old Town Avondale Business District, where zoning rules require ground-floor commercial or retail uses and mandate pedestrian-oriented design meant to encourage multi-hour shopping and dining without a car, according to the City of Avondale's zoning ordinance. The city has backed that vision with real money: the Avondale City Council approved a $486.6 million fiscal year 2026 budget in June 2025 that included $23.7 million in continued and new funding for street and water infrastructure improvements in Old Town Avondale, according to Signals AZ.
That investment is part of a broader push to remake Avondale's commercial core, including The BLVD, a 356-acre mixed-use downtown district near Interstate 10 that draws more than 2 million visitors annually and is being built out with multi-family housing, entertainment and retail, according to 12News. The timing lines up with regional growth trends, too: the West Valley is home to more than 1.7 million residents and is projected to absorb nearly half of Maricopa County's population growth through 2050, with almost half its residents under age 35, according to data cited by KJZZ.
No firm opening date has been set, but Army Ant's Cheeseburgers is expected to open by January 2028. For now, Avondale diners will have to settle for imagining the smell of a mesquite-smoked patty hitting a flat-top grill.
