Burger Beast Burgie Awards on Nov. 19

2011 Burgie Awards poster
by Andrew Shirey.

A few weeks ago I wrote that tickets were available for the 2012 Amstel Light Burger Bash, a food gathering that brings some of the most renowned chefs in the country to compete for the best burger title.

The only problem for some of us is to have to dish out $250 per person for tickets. I just found the solution: don't go. Save the cash and head to Magic City Casino for the 2011 Burger Beast Burgie Awards on Nov. 19. It's free.

About 10 South Florida burger restaurants will be present at the event serving food and vying for the title of "Best Burger 2011," including Charm City Burger Company from Deerfield Beach, Gilbert’s 17th Street Grill from Ft. Lauderdale, Quickie’s Burger & Wings from Hollywood.

Over 40 food trucks from as far as Tampa and Orlando will also be at the event duking it out in their respective category.

The event will take place from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Magic City Casino is located at 450 N.W. 37th Ave. in Miami.

Sef “The Burger Beast” Gonzalez started blogging about burgers in 2008 much like me, because he loved to eat them and was trying to find the best one. Now, he also blogs about other types of comfort foods and has been putting together the event for the last three years.

There will also be a showing on a big screen of the documentary called Hamburger America.

Here's a list with the burger joints participating in the competition:

Burger & Beer Joint (South Beach)
Charm City Burger Company (Deerfield Beach)
Cheeseburger Baby (South Beach)
Georgie’s Alibi (Wilton Manors)
Gilbert’s 17th Street Grill (Ft. Lauderdale)
Jr’s Gourmet Burgers (Miami Springs)
The Local (Coral Gables)
Pincho Factory (Westchester)
Quickie’s Burgers & Wings (Hollywood)
Sakaya Kitchen (Wynwood)
Tobacco Road (Brickell)

For a list of participating food trucks, check out Burger Beast's post.

What: The Burgie Awards 2011
Where: 450 N.W. 37th Ave. in Miami
When: Saturday, Nov. 19 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Smashburger opens locations in South Florida

Another national chain of semi-fast food restaurants jumps on the gourmet burger wagon that’s sweeping through South Florida.

This time is Smashburger, a Colorado-based chain of burger joints with over 100 locations nationwide that’s set to open its first South Florida restaurant on Nov. 15 in Coral Springs, according to Broward New Times.

The name of the place comes from the way the burgers are prepared: by smashing the patties on a 400-degree flat grill using a metal plate to sear in all the juicy flavors.

Besides the Coral Springs location, two other Smashburgers are set to open in Kendal and North Miami Beach. I’ve actually seen the “coming soon” sign and Smashburger logo outside the soon-to-be NMB restaurant, which is going to be located near Florida International University's Biscayne Bay Campus.

All three locations are part of a plan by the company to open close to 200 restaurants nationwide by 2012, writes Inc.com.

A few weeks ago I went ahead and asked Smashburger through Twitter when their NMB location was going to open:

It seems like plans have delayed a bit.

Local food blogger Burger Beast says Smashburger's menu will have new items just for the South Florida market, including:

Spicy Baja Black Bean Burger: Pepper Jack cheese, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, onion, spicy chipotle mayo and jalapenos on a spicy chipotle bun.

Skinny Chicken: All-White Meat, grilled or crispy chicken sandwiches combined with toppings such as goat cheese, spinach, avocado, mango, pineapple or grilled onions.

The Coral Springs’ Smashburger will be located at 1840 N. University Drive.

Monstrous 350-pound Michigan burger vies for Guinness World Record

A burger in Michigan weighs the
same as a quarter of a Holstein cow.

When I’m at a restaurant and the burgers on the menu read “8 ounces,” a shy grin lights up my face. When the menu indicates “10 ounces,” the excitement continues, but accompanied by a slight feel of insecurity: will I be able to finish this?

Now, if a burger on the menu reads “350 pounds,” I would run out the door in desperation—that’s a quarter of a Holstein cow.

A Michigan restaurant hopes to break its own Guinness World Record by concocting a monstrous 350-pound burger, which they've appropriately named the "Absolutely ridiculous" burger.

“I got the idea to do this from the Guinness World Record book. I was actually thumbing through it and I see Thailand had the world record for a 78-pound burger. It just didn’t make sense having it in Thailand. So, I thought it would bring it home,” Steve Mallie, owner of Mallie’s Sports Grill and Bar in Southgate, told Channel 4 Detroit.

Mallie said they first got the world record with a 134-pound burger, then they stepped up the bar with a 319-pound one, and now they want to establish a new record.

According to him, it takes 20 hours to bake 270 pounds of hamburger and eight hours to cool it in a freezer (This cooks down to about a 180-pound patty. You actually lose about 100 pounds of grease). The bun weighs 100 pounds and takes four hours to bake.

Then there’s 20 pounds of American cheese, 15 pounds of tomatoes, 15 pounds of onions, 10 pounds of pickles, 10 pounds of bacon and 10 pounds of lettuce.

Best part about it is that the burger is not just to show off, customers can actually order it for a heavy $2,000 price tag and have give the restaurant a 72-hour notice.

To find out more, read the Channel 4 Detroit story.

Check out the video of this record-setting burger in the making:


Order Up! Michigan Restaurant Cooks 350-Pound... by NewsyVideos

Amstel Light Burger Bash tickets available Oct. 24

Food on television always seems to look better than in real life, but for once you might actually get the chance to sink your teeth into burgers prepared by some of the most notorious chefs in the country and make your own judgment.

Tickets for the 2012 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival (Feb. 23-26) will become available next Monday, Oct. 24, according to a press release.

The 11th annual edition of the Festival will feature lots of events for different types of foodies. We are concerned with the Amstel Light Burger Bash, a gathering that brings together chefs like Bobby Flay, Geoffrey Zakarian and Michael Schwartz to see who shows superior burger-building craftsmanship.

Iron Chef Michael Symon’s burger with fried salami, provolone, shasha hot sauce and pickled onion claimed the People’s Choice award in 2011.

Tickets for this event go for about $250 per person in total and can be purchased online or via telephone at 877-762-3933.

Rachel Ray and chef Michael Symon with his burger award at last year's
Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival. Photo courtesy of
sobefest.com

Guy Fieri to open burger joints on Carnival cruises

Fieri shows off his new burger.  Bill
Kostroun/Courtesy of Carnival
Cruise Lines.

You turn on the TV and there is Guy Fiery sampling food at some diner in the middle of nowhere. You go to T.G.I Friday’s and his face is printed all over the menu. Then you take a vacation, and the restaurant on the cruise bears his name.

This is no greasy nightmare.

The Food Network star has signed up a deal with Florida’s Carnival Cruise Lines to bring some of his burger ideas on board, according to Miami New Times.

The restaurant chain, called Guy’s Burger Joint, is inspired by roadside diners along California’s coast. They'll be located adjacent to deck-top pool areas and have surfboards and car items as decoration, including car bumpers, grilles and chrome pipes adorning the walls, according to USA Today.

"The burger that we're making is legit," Fieri told USA Today at a press conference. "It's a straightforward, real deal, quality burger. That's what it has to be."

The joint will open on the Carnival Liberty (October 2011), Carnival Breeze (June 2012), Carnival Conquest (October 2012), Carnival Glory (November 2012).

The best part of it? The burgers come free with the cruise ticket.

Comedian George Lopez and Carnival President Gerry Cahill sample Fieri's
new signature burger at the Carnival press conference. Ray
Stubblebine/Courtesy of Carnival Cruise Lines.

Wendy’s answers the question after 27 years: Where’s the beef?

Ad for Wendy's new campaign answering the question.

It became an instant catchphrase 27 years ago: “Where’s the beef?” barked a cranky old lady demanding more meat in her burger in one of Wendy’s most notorious commercials.

Now the fast food giant is answering that question.

As part of a campaign to revamp its single, double and triple burgers, Wendy’s is reviving the query and answering in the same fashion: “Here’s the beef!” in a commercial that starts running next Monday, according to the New York Times.

The new cheeseburgers, which Wendy’s claims are thicker and juicier than ever, are “part of an effort we’ve been undertaking the past couple of years to rebuild the core of our menu,” Bob Holtcamp, senior vice president for brand marketing at the Wendy’s Company, told the Times.

To find out more, read the New York Times’ story.

Check out the video of the original 1984 commercial asking, “Where’s the beef?”

South Florida Burger Food Trucks finder

Sakaya Kitchen food truck.

Food on wheels has become so popular that there's even a show on the Food Network called The Great Food Truck Race, where trucks compete against each other throughout different cities to see who makes the most cash.

I heard so much buzz about these food trucks in the last year that they were actually the reason why I got a Twitter account, not because I wanted to network and be up-to-date with what's going on in the journalism world

Most food trucks advertise where they are going to be at through Twitter.


Here are a couple of burger-oriented food trucks that you can follow on Twitter and perhaps try out, most of these roam around the tri-county area:

Latin Burger: @LatinBurger

Daddy's Grill: @DaddyGrill

Sakaya Kitchen: @SakayaKitchen

Grill Master Cafe: @grillmastercafe

gastroPod: @gastroPodMiami

Latin House Grill: @LatinHouseGrill

Miso Hungry: @misohungryFT

Monster Burgers: @MONSTERBURGERS

The Rolling Stove: @TheRollingStove

See if you can spot some of the food trucks named above in the video:

Allen Susser to open Burger Bar in Palm Beach, more locations to come

Celebrity chef Allen Susser is doing much more than opening up a second location—he seems to be creating a strategy to take over the whole burger industry.

The James Beard Award winner has teamed up with real estate giant Tom Prakas and developers George and Lee Heaton to open a Burger Bar in Palm Beach Gardens in October, and map out a strategy to open more locations throughout South Florida and nationwide, according to a press release.

Chef Allen Susser

“Combining Burger Bar’s quality gastropub fare and great ambiance with some of the area’s most covetable sites is going to take the burger concept, already an established American icon, to the next level,” Susser said.

“The stars aligned with this collaboration, and we’re fortunate to be able to combine our respective areas of expertise to bolster the South Florida dining scene.”

The first Burger Bar is located in Terminal Four of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and offers gourmet burgers ranging between 11.50 to $18 (see burger menu below).

The new location would be in Donald Ross Village and a third one is already set to open in the Vero Beach Resort and Spa in March of 2012.

The Sun Sentinel also reports that there are plans to open up to 15 Burger Bar locations in South Florida next year.

Here’s Burger Bar’s burger menu, via Miami Eater: