The Midnight Burger Master

T-R PHOTO BY MICHAEL D. DAVIS
Jaime Sanchez, 25, cooking up a storm late into the night in downtown Tama, as Moony’s.

Are you hungry? What time is it? Nothing is open this late. Oh, dude, It’s Saturday night, you know where we should go? Moony’s, It’s not your typical eatery.

The burgers are juicy, the buns are toasted, and that’s just the beginning. This little pop-up burger joint is the brainchild of young Tama man Jaime Sanchez. At its root, necessity is what drove Jaime to start grilling in the dark.

Someone close to Sanchez came on hard times and needed some help, although he wanted nothing more than to help his friend, Jaime simply had no money to do so. Then it came to him like a light bulb overhead, he’d sell some food.

Cooking has been a passion of Jaime’s for years.

“When I started my weight loss journey in 2022 I wanted to stay away from eating processed or fast foods, so I got really into it,” he said. “Also, in cartoons, there’s always the stigma that the dad’s cooking sucks, so I just don’t want my future kids to think that about me.”

Alright, so he loved cooking, and he had the plan to start selling burgers, but why the middle of the night? Aren’t most people asleep around midnight? Well, Sanchez had a few reasons, the first of which is that his competition is zip, nil, nada. Tama-Toledo, not being New York, does go to sleep, which just leaves the gas station grub as the only alternative to Moony’s, when he’s open.

Secondly, you got the bars and stumble out of the local Tama pub with a growl in your belly, you have two options: A) get in your car, when you know you probably shouldn’t be driving, and head over to the gas station for a wax paper-wrapped burger sitting under a heat lamp. or. B) Walk on over to Moony’s and get a fresh, steaming, cooked in front of you Moon Burger.

Sanchez had these well-thought-out reasons for working late, but also, as he put it, “I’m just a night owl, baby.”

Jaime decided to call his eatery Moony’s because, well, order a hotdog from him at one in the morning and look up, that should answer all your questions. Although filling citizens’ bellies in the afternoon isn’t a crazy thought, it may be on the horizon for the nighttime weenie cooker.

“I do plan to do daytime sales, I just want to make a name for myself first so I would have an audience to actually sell to. I don’t want to buy the supplies and fall flat if I’m not reaching my quotas, I can’t afford that,” he said.

In a constant state of growth, as the name Moony gets whispered from person to person, creating a word-of-mouth buzz around town, things are changing. From his general setup to the items on the menu, things keep improving. In May, when he opened up for the first time this year, he added fries to the menu, with other items to come.

“Bacon is finally coming to my menu. I want to start slow and listen to what customers want so I can build a menu that doesn’t disappoint. My menu will get bigger as my business does,” he said.

Currently, Moony’s is just open one or two nights a week, but that is subject to change. To Jaime, having Moony’s become a full-time gig would be a dream. Whether one day you see a Moony’s food truck rolling down the street or see a little corner shop restaurant, there’s no place to go but up.

On the average night, approximately 25 burgers are sold at Moony’s. Until a few days ago, his record high was 41 burgers sold in one weekend — now, as of this Sunday, that number is 56. Jaime Sanchez is a man with a dream who is starting small, but ever growing bigger, and moving on a path that will take him far.

“The best part about Moony’s to me, is using knowledge I’ve gained through different life/job experiences. I’ve used knowledge from street vendors in Mexico, to photography classes in college; from making sandwiches at Subway, to learning knife skills at Fareway. I try to use my past to my advantage, I hate to think I learned something for nothing,” he said.

So, are you hungry? I know I am. What time is it? Check Facebook, is he gonna be out on 3rd Street tonight? Because man oh man, I need a Moon Burger.