POULSBO, Wash. — Juse Barros and Dayna Hansen, the owners of Juicy J's Smoked Burgers in Poulsbo, are on a mission with their first small business.
"Alternative meat doesn't have to just be celery and carrots and you don't have to sacrifice flavor," Dayna explained.
Plant-based burgers have been around awhile, but Juse, who mainly goes by Juice, is putting a fresh spin on it.
A main differentiator is that the patties at Juicy J's go in a smoker for several hours.
"We start with the Impossible patty, add our secret seasoning, smoke it for a few hours, and then charbroil it," Juse said.
"We smoke the patties, bacon, chili, pineapple," Dayna added. "The smokiness brings out the flavor."
And Juse has years of experience under his belt. Only with meat.
"He was known as the Traeger master. He was the smoke guy at all the family events. He was the rib guy and he smoked crab," Dayna shared.
But a debilitating medical condition led him to try a plant based diet and he says his symptoms subsided. The people who used to enjoy all of his smoked meat took some time to get on board.
"It was an adjustment. His family and friends were like, 'What?'" Dayna said.
But after some creative experimenting, those same family and friends encouraged them to do something more.
"We've had multiple meat eaters. They cannot tell a difference. They say it's the best burger they ever had!" Dayna exclaimed.
For Dana and Juse, it's the ultimate compliment, showing what's possible with the impossible, especially when that's exactly what they set out to do.
"Juicy J's burgers is just an amazing burger that just happens to be plant-based," Juse said.
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