A new burger stop has opened along Historic Route 66 in Luther, Oklahoma, and it comes with a built-in pedigree: the owner is the same pitmaster behind one of the region's top-rated barbecue joints. Flipside Burgers launched this summer at 204 N. Ash Street, serving smash-style patties, crinkle fries, and a short menu of house-made extras just eight miles from where owner Levi Bouska grew up.
Bouska opened the restaurant with partners Joe Chesser and Preston Goombi, both of whom worked alongside him at Wellston's Butcher BBQ Stand, according to The Luther Register. The storefront on N. Ash Street, just off Route 66 in downtown Luther, previously housed local roadside eateries including the Sugar Shaker, the paper reports. The three co-owners bring experience from their work at Butcher BBQ Stand to the new venture.
For Bouska, Flipside represents the fulfillment of a longtime dream. He told News 9 that he had long wanted to operate a burger restaurant, having grown up eating cheeseburgers and chicken baskets at his grandparents' barbecue restaurant. That early exposure to roadside hospitality runs deep in his family: Bouska built Butcher BBQ Stand in 2015 on a Wellston property that once housed Pioneer Camp, a 1920s Route 66 tourist stop his grandparents ran in the mid-1990s before it burned down in 2007, per the station's report.
A Burger Menu Built on Barbecue Credibility
Flipside's menu stays tight: three burgers, crinkle fries served with or without toppings, and a grilled cheese sandwich, rounded out with Shasta sodas and oatmeal cream pie for dessert. The kitchen makes its own pickles and sauces in-house and caramelizes onions for two hours every day, the station notes. Bouska spent six or seven months perfecting the patty blend alone, insisting on fresh, never-frozen beef, and tested 20 different sauces before settling on the final lineup — a process that reportedly required the group to eat eight cheeseburgers along the way.
The buns are a deliberate departure from typical burger-joint fare: slightly sweet Japanese milk bread sourced from a bakery in New York City. Among the menu's standouts is the Slammer, a quarter-pound budget burger priced at $4.60, aimed at giving travelers and locals an affordable option alongside the more elaborate builds. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner and has rolled out online ordering with pickup ready in as little as 15 minutes, operating six days a week, according to Flipside Burgers.
A Pitmaster Legacy Behind the Grill
Bouska's barbecue reputation precedes the burger venture. He gained national exposure as co-pitmaster on the Destination America competition series BBQ Pitmasters All Stars, which featured elite barbecue competitors from across the country, according to Butcher BBQ. David Bouska earned World Champion BBQ Pitmaster titles in 2012 and 2018, entered the Oklahoma BBQ Hall of Fame in 2015, and was named to the Kansas City BBQ Society Hall of Fame in 2025, per the same source. The elder Bouska also created commercial barbecue rubs and injections distributed nationally.
That pedigree translated into critical acclaim for Butcher BBQ Stand well before Flipside's debut. Butcher BBQ Stand ranked No. 3 on a 2023 top-five list of barbecue joints in the 405, as noted by The Food Dood & Friends. The stand has continued to draw long lines of travelers and locals alike, per Route 66 News.
Timing a Launch for Route 66's Centennial Year
Flipside's opening lands amid a broader push to revive small towns along Oklahoma's stretch of Route 66. The state is hosting celebrations throughout 2026 marking the 100th anniversary of the historic highway, backed by state grant programs and promotional campaigns aimed at corridor towns, according to Visit OKC. Tourism ranks as Oklahoma's third-largest industry, bolstered by the state having more driveable miles of historic Route 66 than any other in the country, the organization notes.
Luther itself is a small town built around that highway heritage, sitting in northeastern Oklahoma County roughly 28 miles east of downtown Oklahoma City, with an estimated population of 1,647 in 2025, according to TheRoute-66.com. Luther's Route 66 connection places it within the historic highway corridor during the centennial year.
Bouska has his sights set beyond Luther. He has said he plans to bring the Flipside model to other small Oklahoma towns, using the Luther location as an early proof of concept. Whether or not that expansion materializes, Bouska told News 9 his goal is simple: building something that becomes a genuine Oklahoma staple.
