Old-school East Bay burger joint robbed at gunpoint

A beloved burger joint in the East Bay was robbed at gunpoint on Thursday night, officials said. 

The robbery happened at the Smokehouse at 3115 Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley around 10:30 p.m., Jessica Perry, a spokesperson for the Berkeley Police Department, told SFGATE. 

Perry said no suspects have been located or arrested as of Friday afternoon.

The family-owned restaurant, which is about 10 minutes from University of California, Berkeley, has been open for more than 70 years and serves burgers and shakes, with outdoor benches for seating. 

Shakaib Shaghasi, the restaurant’s general manager, told SFGATE he wasn’t at the restaurant at the time of the robbery but his mother Sally Shaghasi, who is the owner, was there.

The robbery happened outside as Sally was unloading one of the cash registers, Shaghasi said. Two men were allegedly involved, with one taking a cash register that contained about $500, Shaghasi said. 

Shaghasi said that according to Sally herself, other witness accounts and surveillance footage, a man pointed a gun at her before taking the cash register and driving away. 

The restaurant was open during the robbery and no shots were fired, Shaghasi said. He said the robbery happened in just about 20 seconds. 

“The first concern that [Sally] had, essentially, was safety for employees and herself to make sure that [the robbers] just get what they want without any escalation,” Shaghasi said, recalling his mother’s experience.  

After the men drove away with the register, the store owner called the police, who responded to the armed robbery, Shaghasi said. The restaurant suffered a $3,000 loss, which includes the $500 in cash and the price of the cash register itself. 

Although the restaurant hadn’t had any robberies until Thursday, they experienced a burglary earlier this year, Shaghasi said; cash and a coin-counting machine were taken.

There have been 309 robberies in Berkeley this year so far, Perry said. 

After Thursday’s robbery, Shaghasi said the shop is considering adding more security measures including additional cameras that face the street, only keeping $50 worth of cash in a register and designing a vestibule for outdoor cash registers.