Pile High Burgers Specializes in One-of-a-Kind Topping Combinations

“Getting $70,000 cash from the bank is an extremely difficult ordeal,” says James Genotte, owner of the Pile High Burgers food truck.

He knows, because in 2014, he flew to Miami with $70,000 cash in a backpack in order to purchase a food truck. “The guy said he wanted either a cashier’s check or cash. It was the weekend, so I couldn’t get a cashier’s check,” Genotte explains. When he arrived, “I called the Miami Police Department and I said, ‘I’ve just landed with $70,000 in a backpack, and I’m making a completely legal deal for a food truck. But if I go missing, this is the guy you want to look into.'”

The deal, it turns out, was legit – though Genotte admits that the guy he purchased the truck from “thought I was insane for handing him cash.”

Before embarking on that strange adventure, Genotte was an engineer. Born and raised in Houston, he went to college at the Colorado School of Mines. “When I got here, I loved it so much that I never left,” he says.

After getting his degree, he landed a job that he stayed with for thirteen years. “When that got a little too corporate for my tastes, with my wife’s sort-of blessing, I quit and cashed in my 401(k)” in May 2014, Genotte explains.

“I like making good food, and I like people telling me that I made good food,” he notes. “It really makes me happy somewhere deep inside. … I got my love of cooking from my dad. He wasn’t the primary cook in the house, but whenever something good was going to be made, my dad was going to make it.”

While he’d worked as a server and bartender here and there, Genotte didn’t have any professional cooking experience. At home, he started to perfect his burger recipe. “It got to the point where my friends started telling me, ‘This is really, really good, and you should try to sell them,'” he recalls.

One problem: He knew very little about how to start a business, so he enlisted the help of his brother-in-law, Ray, who had just graduated from business school in Nevada. “Next thing you know, [Ray] moved out to live with us while we worked up a business plan,” Genotte says.

Initially, the plan was to get a loan for a restaurant, but when that idea fizzled, Genotte found himself pretty depressed. “And then at some point, it occurred to me that you could start a food truck with a whole lot less capital than a restaurant,” he remembers. By then, Ray had moved to Montana, but Genotte reached out once again to pitch his new idea. “He moved back and we started Pile High, and he worked with me for the first five or six years and then moved on to other things.”

The two launched the truck in August 2014, and “the first six months to a year, I was thinking we were not going to make it,” Genotte admits. “I let my wife down. This is terrible. We’re working one hundred hours a week to make $20.” But after some time, he developed a good reputation as a stand-up person who would always show up on time, which helped the truck land gigs at busy breweries.

Now, Pile High is in its ninth year of business. It offers nearly twenty different burger options, along with a variety of dipping sauces. Genotte’s favorite is also the most unusual offering on the menu: The W.T.F. Burger. “We came up with this maybe in our third year of service,” he says. “I was bored one day, and I wanted to try something new. I decided to put all my favorite ingredients together that don’t necessarily sound like they should go together. It’s got mashed avocado, Caesar dressing, barbecue sauce, a jalapeño popper, aged white cheddar, pastrami, pickled onion and pepperoncini. I think it’s fucking amazing, and everyone who tries it agrees. It’s a weird combo, but it all works.”

Other options include the Morrocxican, with pepper Jack, harissa, Tajín and jalapeño; and the Fried to Death, with cream cheese, fried cheese sticks, jalapeño poppers, onion rings, fried onion straws and Thousand Island dressing. “We’ve got at least five to ten burgers on the menu you’ve never heard of and that you’ll never find anywhere else,” Genotte says. “Try one, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” The menu also includes sides like Greek fries loaded with gyro meat, feta and tzatziki, and cheesesteak-inspired tots topped with pastrami, Muenster, onions, jalapeños and chipotle mayo.

To find Pile High Burgers, check out its website for a full upcoming schedule, or follow it on Instagram @pilehighburgers.