A Southern California burger darling that once drew long lines and celebrity praise now survives in a single, much-maligned airport outpost. In SFGate’s look back at Umami Burger, Ariana Bindman traces how the “fifth taste” phenomenon that helped turn founder Adam Fleischman into a star of the 2010s fast-casual boom. “We’re urban, avant-garde—that’s our niche,” Fleischman told the New Yorker in late 2011. Eventually, however, “the chain’s presence began to fade, spurred on by a mix of changing tastes, rapid expansion, a high-profile sale, and the occasionally dubious actions of its founder,” Bindman writes. The eatery soon devolved into a
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