★ ★ ★ ★ If the Breakfast Burger at Roosevelt’s Tamale Parlor was a designer, it would be Alex Trochut.

If you’re not familiar with Alex’s work, allow me to correct that oversight. Alex Trochut is 33-year old Spanish-born illustrator and designer. His work is highly expressive, complex and fluid, but with a deliberateness that imbues it with arresting focus. While other maximalist designers achieve complexity through layers of embellishment and intricate decoration, Trochut’s work seems to explode outward from a singular idea—twisting and bending into new expressive forms. In this way he manages to amplify the idea rather than obfuscate it with excessive ornamentation.

The objects and letterforms with which he works are familiar, but have been warped, extruded and otherwise refashioned into bold re-imaginings of themselves—often to the point that they challenge our taste or understanding. The intensity of Truchot’s work comes not only from the fearlessness of its form, but from its unwavering commitment to an underlying concept.

Like Trochut’s work, Roosevelt’s Breakfast Burger may be an acquired taste for some. The initial presentation is stunning and provocative. Piled high with a thick slice of tomato, melted American cheese, grilled onions, shredded lettuce, cabbage and carrots and a deliciously gooey fried egg, it resembles a burger but clearly has much more going on. The soft grilled bun appears dwarfed by its contents, which spill out even before the first bite (be forewarned: the first bite often results in an explosion of hot yolk). The patty is unusually dense. At first I was put off by its texture, but soon came to accept and even enjoy it as contrast to its mushy compatriots. Every bite is incredibly—almost impossibly—hot, making the whole experience one that cannot be entertained passively.

The first time I ate at Roosevelt’s I paired my burger with a pinot noir recommended to me by a woman at a nearby table. It was an excellent glass, but the wrong choice for such an exuberant sandwich. On a subsequent visit I opted for a Trochut-worthy “Bloody Tecate”. The effervescent flavor of a spicy, beer-based bloody mary was the ideal complement—fiery, expressive and a little disorienting.

All things considered, Roosevelt’s makes a first-rate burger—different enough to stand apart from the crowd but not so removed from its context as to be unrecognizable.

The Creative Lesson

Embrace a point of view. Neither Alex Trochut nor Roosevelt’s Breakfast Burger appeal to everyone. That’s not a weakness, it’s a strength. Trochut’s work can be wild and weird and challenging but it’s always clear. Clarity doesn’t come from minimalism or modernism or focus groups or catering to the lowest common denominator. It doesn’t come from trying to anticipate what your audience wants. Clarity comes from understanding what you want to say and how you want to say it (and why). Greatness, in other words, finds its own audience.

Illustrations and objects by the inimitable Alex Trochut. Please check out his work .