βurgerβusiness

Burger and brew? You bet. Burger with wine? Many burger lovers and restaurateurs aren’t sure they go together. But Wine Enthusiast magazine has released its 2012 list of the 100 Best Wine Restaurants in America. The magazine says these operations “have established themselves as standouts for wine lovers, boasting visionary beverage programs and innovative menus, [...]

Last year was a turning point for the burger boom. The pivot is evidenced by the relative absence of burger-menu spots on “best new restaurants of 2011” lists. But contrary to what some industry observers/doubters choose to believe, I don’t think this represents a decline in burger popularity. The list below shows that quality new [...]

According to online restaurant site Metromix, these 22 burger joints are rated the highest by its readers. Check the Metromix slideshow or view the winners’ menus individually below. No, this doesn’t square with my list of faves either, but burgers are an art, not a science. Eat on. ►B Spot, Woodmere, Ohio  ►Barnacle Bill’s, Rumson, N.J. ►Bianco’s Big League [...]

Where are the best burgers in America served? Hey, if there were a single, final answer, there wouldn’t be any blogs, and what fun would that be? Delish.com has posted its list of the 25 best burgers and the restaurants that will cook them for you. And sure, I disagree with many of them, which [...]

[Update: Boston Burger Company's Ray Malvone is the winner and will participate in the Burger Bash.]  Rachael Ray gets more than her share of criticism, in part because of her ubiquity, but the woman knows and respects burgers. Her Burger Bash at the annual Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival has established itself as burgerdom’s main [...]

Despite scurrilous predictions the burger boom would run out of steam, it hasn’t. Five Guys, Elevation Burger, The Counter, Umami Burger, Smashburger, Shake Shack, Bobby’s Burger Palace and others weren’t on the map a few years ago but now they’re booming, opening outside their original markets and spreading.          There’s no reason to suspect this [...]

BurgerBusiness’s tradition—and our niche—has been to evaluate restaurant awards by how many of the winners serve a good burger. By that measure GQ magazine’s Alan Richman’s list of the 10 Best New Restaurants in America hits .200. That’s good enough if you want to play for the Cubs, but for the big time, that’s unfortunate. Richman’s list [...]

AOL announced the winners of its City’s Best program, where users vote for their favorite restaurants, bars, theaters, clubs, etc. We’ll skip the rest and home in on the Big Question: Who won Best Burger?             As a resident of the state that elected Rod Blagojevich its governor, twice, I can say with authority that [...]

There are those who would have us believe that burgers are yesterday’s news. To them, I say, please visit ABC Kitchen, the stylish restaurant-within-a-showroom in New York City that Esquire magazine this week named 2010’s Best New Restaurant. Plunk down $21 and enjoy ABC Kitchen’s Akaushi Cheeseburger with herbed mayo and pickled jalapeños. There’s nothing [...]

You (both of you) asked for it, so here are the BurgerBusiness.com 2010 Burger Brackets! The rules are the same as with last year’s wildly successful brackets: The grid has 64 great burger brands. Are they the 64 best? You tell me. I just seed them in four regionals named for the four legendary burger-chain entrepreneurs: Carl Karcher [...]

Brunch is back in vogue. NPD’s research finds brunch sales up 8% through August versus last year. Not much else in foodservice is up 8% this year. Why the increase? Perhaps because brunch is a relatively cost-effective way to get the family together for a meal away from home. Or maybe it’s because burgers have [...]

Many good 2010 menu/business forecasts have been compiled and released, so we’ll take a look back instead. It’s not just contrarianism; 2009 has been a remarkably robust year for burger news, providing sustenance for this and the many other burger blogs. Let’s review some of the year’s highs and lows. BurgerBusiness.com’s 2009 Burger of the [...]

So much attention has been given recently to chain marketing that we’ve strayed from our core idea of celebrating burgers and the restaurants and people that serve them. To remedy that, think of this post as a culinary “Mythbusters” episode: If you took two very hot trends—burgers and restaurants with numbers as names—and sent them hurtling at each other, what [...]

► Watch for Burger King to expand current marketing for its $1 Whopper Jr. discount into a bigger campaign for $3 Whopper Jr. Meal combos that include the Whopper Jr. plus small fries and a beverage. BK CEO John Chidsey said recently that the chain will be more heavily promoting its $1 items. ► Sonic [...]

McDonald’s Corp. spent $1.201 billion on U.S. advertising in 2008, ranking it No. 29 among the 100 largest advertisers, Advertising Age magazine reports in its June 22 issue. Big Mac is one of  five restaurant companies included by Ad Age in its 100 Leading Advertisers list. Yum! Brands–parent of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell–is the [...]