βurgerβusiness

Slater’s 50/50 has been upfront about being over-the-top since Scott Slater and Chef Brad Lyons opened the first in Anaheim Hills, Calif., in 2009. Known for its 50/50 burger patty made from equal parts ground beef and ground bacon and for its 100 beer taps, Slater’s 50/50 is nationally recognized for its creative Burgers of [...]

Wander around the burger world during National Burger Month and you encounter some fascinating things that need to be shared. Examples: → “Secret menus” are a boring, overdone topic but this one’s interesting: At Atlanta’s Diesel Filling Station, the “Just What the Doctor Ordered” burger is available but isn’t on the menu. It’s named for [...]

Winning the 2013 A.1. Burger Brackets competition may have been Burgatory’s proudest moment so far, but it was hardly its first recognition. Already this year it was voted “Best Burger in Pittsburgh” by NBC affiliate WPXI and included on Urbanspoon’s list of “Most Popular Restaurant Bars in the U.S.” Last year it was named “Best [...]

The total number of U.S. restaurants increased by 4,442 or 0.7% to 616,008 between the fall of 2011 and fall 2012, according to new data from The NPD Group. Additionally, the number of QSR (quick service and fast casual) burger-menu restaurants grew by 0.7% as well. But the most surprising news is that the number [...]

Surprisingly, none of the food/restaurant prognosticators this year is forecasting the collapse of the better-burger bubble. Instead we read that people will abandon colas, that neck meat will be all the rage and that fast-casual concepts will all add drive-thru windows. Given such guesses, what the heck, here are BurgerBusiness.com’s predictions for 2013. Not surprisingly, [...]

The roundup of burger joints’ monthly specials will continue to run in its box on the right sidebar, but I’m giving them full post attention occasionally, too, because there’s always so much culinary creativity that it would be a shame to miss this feature. If you overslept because of Daylight Savings and didn’t update your [...]

“It has been a huge hit for us. The brave don’t hesitate to give it a try but others are often urged by others who have tried it and loved it,” says Mike Meehan, co-owner (with Chris Dodge) of Fat Guy’s Burger Bar in Tulsa, Okla. “I would say that 90% of the people who [...]

The inaugural Burger Week Montreal ended at midnight, September 7, when the final votes were tallied. Appropriately, the winner was a burger-specialty restaurant, Burger Bar Crescent, which received 534 votes for its Hangover Burger, a 6-oz. beef patty topped with caramelized onions, bacon, American cheese, truffle oil, fried egg and a mini poutine (fries, cheese [...]

Guy Fieri is a “Say what you will” celebrity, as in “Say what you will about his personality, he’s been good for indie restaurants, especially burger joints.” His “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” program on Food Network is maddeningly formulaic (“It’s bananas! And bananas is good!”) but it has made it hip for people to scout [...]

Since Rich Melman opened R. J. Grunt’s in 1971, he has been Chicago’s undisputed restaurant king and and an industry visionary. Several of the many restaurant concepts created by his company, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE), have become national chains. Among them are Corner Bakery Café, Maggiano’s Little Italy and Big Bowl. More than three [...]

Here at BurgerBusiness.com, restaurant award nominees traditionally are greeted with “Congratulations. But do you make a good burger?” Myopic? Yes; great, isn’t it? So now we ask it of the 29 restaurants honored by the James Beard Foundation as semi-finalists for the 2012 Best New Restaurant award. This may seem an unfair question to put [...]

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 [...]

Tom Galis loves burgers but the burger business itself is starting to leave him a little cold. Galis (officially Gialamboukis, but no one calls him that) operates the six Goodburger locations in New York City, and he readily concedes that his restaurants’ are like reliable Toyota Corollas parked among amenity-laden BMWs. It may not be flashy, [...]