Mike Hardin, the popular local burger legend and co-owner of Mike Hardin has passed away

Do you remember Mike from San diago  the local burger legend and co-owner of Mike Hardin (KC Alfred) he has died.

The sad news of Mike’s death was revealed on February 6 2015 after he was found dead on Thursday afternoon by staff at a Holiday Inn off state Route 99 in Chowchilla, although there where no evidence of foul play, but the coroner’s office has ordered an autopsy because it was an unexpected death, a Madera County sheriff’s detective said.

Before his death Mike Hardin was a local burger legend on Thursday night stung like salt in a wound for a city that has lost so many favorite sons in short order.

It was exactly a year ago that Jerry Coleman abruptly exited San Diego’s broadcast booth as we struggled with the loss of Loren Nancarrow. It was just last month that Bob Bennett, co-founder of The Casbah, the city’s favorite music venue, died of natural causes.

Mike had lived around the ocean Beach in San Diego since 1969 when his parents opened Hodad’s. The burger shop has now expanded to a second venue downtown and a third in Petco Park, thanks to Hardin’s cooking and charm and Guy Fieri’s national bandwidth.

According to reports gathered so far, The Hodad’s family has been completely devastated by the news of Mike Hardin’s untimely death. “We will remain closed until Sunday” they said. This is for both the location in Ocean Beach and our location in downtown San Diego. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our customers. We will be open at 11am on Sunday Feb 8th.”

That Hodad’s apologized at this time makes us all the sadder. And all the more appreciative for what the burger joint does so well: Cooking — and caring — for its customers. It treated us like family, which is why we kept and keep coming back, as we grow with ours, first with our friends and then with our girlfriends and then as those girlfriends became wives who became mothers until finally we got to watch our children sit in the bus for their very first time, their eyes as big as the burgers they couldn’t wait to eat.

About their store, Hodad’s is a small chain of hamburger restaurants in San Diego, United States,it was established in 1973 by husband and wife Byron and Virginia Hardin, who operated from a single burger stand until 1979.

After their death their son Mike Hardin took over the operation and responsibilities of handling the management following his mother’s death in 1989