Long Beach Burger Week is celebrating its sixth year with well over a dozen participating restaurants, a lineup of burgers ranging from classic cheeseburgers to pupusa burgers and burger hand pies, and price points designed to fit almost any budget. The weeklong celebration runs from September 13 through September 20, 2026, giving diners a full week to sample creative menu items at spots across the city.
The event, first reported by NBC Los Angeles, is organized by Axiom Productions, the Long Beach-based company that also produces the Long Beach BBQ Festival, Long Beach Black Restaurant Week, and Smoke & Oak, an upscale barbecue and whiskey festival the company hosted in downtown Long Beach earlier this month, according to Axiom Productions. Prices for Burger Week start at $5 and climb through $10, $15, and $20 tiers, with some participating restaurants offering combo meals priced at $25, per NBC Los Angeles.
Participating eateries this year include Jimmy E's Bar and Grill, Parkers' Lighthouse, Altar Society Brewing, and The Kroft, among the well over a dozen spots taking part. Diners can choose to eat in at participating restaurants or order takeout, and the week's menu spans both meaty and non-meaty burger options, including plant-based creations alongside more inventive builds.
Burgers for Dogs Return to the Menu
Past editions of Burger Week have involved dogs in the dining event, and this year may again include burgers made specifically for dogs, according to NBC Los Angeles' reporting. The dog-friendly angle is possible in part because of California Health and Safety Code Section 114259.5, passed via Assembly Bill 1965, which allows food facilities to permit pet dogs in outdoor dining areas as long as the venue has a direct outdoor entrance and serves any pet food in single-use disposable containers, according to the Kern County Department of Public Health. That state law gives individual Long Beach restaurants the option to welcome canine companions onto their patios during the week's festivities.
Beyond the four-legged guests, the food itself leans experimental. Official menu listings for the week highlight items ranging from traditional cheeseburgers to creations topped with mac and cheese, Cheetos, truffles, or peanut butter, according to Long Beach Burger Week's own site. Burger hand pies and pupusa burgers round out some of the week's more unusual offerings, giving participating chefs a chance to test limited-time ideas on an eager audience.
A Nonprofit Partner and a Bigger Economic Picture
Burger Week's nonprofit partner is Noah's Arc Foundation, which was co-founded by former NBA star Joakim Noah and his mother, Cecilia Rodhe, to support youth and families in underserved communities through art and sports programming, according to a Chicago Bulls yearbook publication. The foundation runs community outreach and violence-reduction programs in multiple cities, adding a charitable dimension to the week's dining deals.
The promotion arrives as Long Beach restaurants navigate real cost pressures. Implementation of California's AB 1228, which raised fast-food minimum wages to $20 per hour in April 2024, contributed to an estimated 3% to 4% overall increase in restaurant menu prices across Southern California metro areas, including the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim region, by late 2024, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research analysis. Escalating wholesale costs for beef and butter throughout late 2025 further pushed many Southern California mid-range and casual restaurants to lean into value-driven promotional events to draw price-sensitive diners, the Los Angeles Times has reported.
Structured, fixed-price weeks like this one give local restaurants a tool to compete for foot traffic without eating further into thin margins. That matters for the city's bottom line too: overnight and day visitors to Long Beach generated $1.97 billion in total economic impact in 2023, supporting 14,600 local jobs and generating $171 million in state and local tax revenue, according to a Visit Long Beach study conducted by California State University, Long Beach economists. Revenue from Measure A, the city's local transactions tax, remains a critical funding source for Long Beach's Fiscal Year 2026 budget and depends heavily on sustained retail and restaurant sales, per the City of Long Beach.
The city has also moved to shore up independent restaurants directly. Long Beach's Economic Development Department expanded business retention efforts in 2025 by introducing a Legacy Business Program and dedicated support hubs to help independent local restaurants manage rising overhead, according to the City of Long Beach. For a sixth straight year, Burger Week gives those same restaurants a citywide stage to draw in new customers, one $5 burger at a time.
