Founded in Oceanside in 2020 as a humble coastal food truck, Copper Kings quickly built a cult following for its house-ground beef patties, Japanese milk buns, scratch-made sauces, and wildly creative specials. The brand’s runaway success led to the debut of its first restaurant in San Marcos last year - and now, the Copper Kings crew is taking things full circle with a major new hub in North County.
The upcoming Oceanside location won’t just be a restaurant - it will serve as a central production kitchen for the entire operation. Copper Kings plans to bake all of its buns in-house, make its own cheese and bacon, and grind its meat on-site, further deepening the brand’s reputation for doing everything from scratch. The new venue will also feature a full bar, a private dining room, and a spacious patio with a fire pit, bringing a more elevated dining experience to downtown Oceanside. And in a very San Diego twist, the restaurant sits right next to Tesla charging stations, letting guests “charge up their car while they fuel up their body,” as the team joked on Instagram.
“Copper Kings was born in Oceanside - just a food truck by the coast, serving up our dream one burger at a time,” the owners wrote in their announcement. “It was the love and support from the people of Oceanside that made it possible for us to open in San Marcos -and now, because of YOU, that same dream is expanding full circle.”
Copper Kings’ scratch-made approach has earned them widespread acclaim, especially for standout items like The Western - a double-patty smashburger stacked with house-made cheese, bacon, onion rings, pickles, and tangy Carolina-style barbecue sauce on their signature milk bun - which we praised as one of the top burgers in the entire region. The menu goes far beyond the classics, with fan favorites like the G.O.A.T., topped with fried herbed goat cheese and house-cured bacon; the Pastrami Mami, piled high with Swiss and tangy mustard aioli; the Shiitakes All That, loaded with Swiss and mushroom-chili aioli; and their nostalgic Chill-E Burger smothered in house-made chili.
Non-burger standouts like the crispy Fowl Play chicken sandwich, the Chesapeake-style shrimp cake sandwich Shrimply the Best, fully loaded fries, Reuben and pastrami tots, and their rotating seasonal specials have helped solidify Copper Kings as one of San Diego’s most creative and consistently excellent burger operations. With a return to Oceanside on the horizon and a larger production footprint, Copper Kings looks poised to grow even further - all while staying true to the from-scratch ethos that made them one of San Diego’s most exciting burger brands.
Copper Kings Burgers aims to open in by March 2026 at 326 N. Horne Street in San Diego's North County city of Oceanside. For more information, visit copperkingsburgers.com.
Originally published on November 15, 2025.
