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The A.1. Burger Brackets have never seen anything like the epic battle waged between defending champ Hwy 55 and newcomer Burgatory. When it was over, fans of the two burger brands had cast more than 6,500 votes! That’s more votes than were cast in all rounds in total in last year’s Brackets. In the end, [...]

This has been a really good year for burgers if by burgers you mean chicken. From Chicken McBites, Popcorn Chicken and Chicken Dippers to the Mozzarella Chicken Supreme, McBistro Chicken, 20-piece McNuggets and shareable Chicken Box, burgers often seemed consigned to a back seat. McDonald’s new Cheddar Bacon Onion was offered with choice of an [...]

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 [...]

December again, and it’s time once again for reflection. I’ll say that 2010 was an even better burger year than 2009 if only because last year’s mini-burger fad has floated downstream. Bye. This year, the economy and the burger business showed some improvement. As forecast last year, patty melts have popped up everywhere. Next year, [...]

Food & Wine magazine announced its 10 “Best New Chefs” for 2010. It’s a good list, and, of course, my response to each of them is, “Congrats! How are your burger skills?” As it happens, this year’s honor roll includes a couple of chefs who understand the thrill of the grill. Topping the list is [...]

Quick-service restaurants’ critics need to meet K&N Management, owner of the three-unit Mighty Fine Burgers, Fries & Shakes chain in Austin, Texas. This month it became the first foodservice company to receive the Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE) award from the nonprofit Quality Texas Foundation. It’s no small achievement, and one that began with [...]

No wonder he’s an Iron Chef. Michael Symon‘s Cleveland burger joint B Spot is barely four months old but he was judged winner of the People’s Choice Award Thursday at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival Burger Bash. Symon’s “Fat Doug” burger was topped with pastrami, Swiss cheese and slaw. Runner up was Bobby Flay [...]

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 [...]

If Girl Scout cookies are your idea of fundraiser food, take a look at the burger to the left. That is a fundraiser. Jeff Dichter and Lenny Lighter opened m:brgr brgr bar in Montreal in January 2008 as a way to help kids by feeding people of all ages. A percentage of sales is donated [...]

Quick-service restaurants spent a total of $4.1 billion on U.S. advertising in 2008, up 3.8% from 2007, according to The Nielsen Co. McDonald’s alone accounted for approximately of $1 billion of that. But even though Big Mac reportedly will spend $100 million on advertising and marketing just for its McCafe coffee program, having a staggering amount [...]

Burgers are decently represented on menus of this year’s James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Award winners. No, you won’t find them at Outstanding Chef Dan Barber’s Blue Hill or Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Jean Georges, winner of the Outstanding Restaurant medal. But bless Myriad Restaurant Group’s Drew Nieporent, winner of the Outstanding Restaurateur Award. He, at [...]

Food Network Magazine–the print incarnation of the cable TV colossus–is trying to make a little noise and get a little attention by picking a top burger restaurant in each state. The issue’s on newsstands next week but here’s the list. Geography majors will have more fun with this interactive map of the states and their [...]

The Burger Bash cook-off at the annual South Beach Wine & Food Festival is all about big names, starting with Food Network, which runs the event, and Rachael Ray, the Burger Bash host. A-list chefs from the Food Network stable (including Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto and Michael Psilakis of “Ultimate Recipe Showdown”) along with last year’s [...]

The James Beard Foundation today announced semifinalists for restaurateur, chef and restaurant of the year. Yes, In-N-Out Burger has been snubbed again. In fact, a quick check finds that only three of the 20 semifinalists for the 2009 Outstanding Restaurant award have a burger on their menus. That would make them the favorites, of course. They [...]