Across from South, the High Pointe Burger Jointe is open and ready for business, in the former “Extreme Pizza” location. While they are currently only open after school hours, they hope to have the restaurant open for South’s lunch within January. They specialize in smash burgers, or as they call them, “smashers”.

“We right now are only open Wednesday to Saturday, from 4 to 10 p.m, we will be adding lunch hours hopefully really soon,” Owner Jennifer Birkle said. “Within the New Year, we are just training and building our staff.”

They also have a large assortment of gluten-free options for those with an intolerance to gluten, along with a separate fryer and a separate section of the grill restricted to gluten-free food to be able to accommodate more customers.

“I think that a lot of students have gluten allergies,” English Teacher Taryn Loughlin said. “That’s going to capture another part of the market that doesn’t really have a ton of options on the strip.”

Along with dessert smash burgers, another one of their specialties is their slurpees, with three different flavors, one of which they will continue to switch out whenever they run out of a flavor.

“It sounds like a very good idea,” Issa Smith ’26 said. “If you throw anything on a grill and you cook it, especially with bread, any sandwich tastes delicious.”

With only 38 minutes for lunch, the goal is to get everyone on take-out apps. Everyone will order beforehand, grabbing their food like carry-out, but then they will also have the option to sit in the restaurant and eat.

“Our main goal is to be open for lunch and then stay open for the remainder of the day,” Birkle said. “So students can come by after school and get smashers, slurpees, things like that.”