30 May Burgers Galore at the Twin Cities Burger Battle

We didn’t think it would be quite so hard to taste every one of the burgers. Starting out, we foolishly ate almost all of the first three sliders we picked up. It was the First Annual Twin Cities Burger Battle, and I can officially say, we failed miserably at trying all the options on offer.

It all started off innocently enough, we entered the gates and lined up to try our first slider. It was big, but not too big and it was delicious. Moving from stand to stand, we soon began to realize that we were in trouble–we had only made it to three stands and were already starting to hit a wall. Eventually, it became hard to even try a bite of each additional burger. However, because they were all so unique, I wanted to try at least a bite from each one, so we agreed to get one slider to share between the three of us (Micah, myself and our friend, Rob). As we pressed on, the lines grew longer, and we were grateful for the break time it allowed; although, soon enough, we stared to run short on time and had to call it a day. We ended up trying at least a small bite from 12 of the 14 sliders.

The Burger Battle was held in downtown St. Paul and burger joints across the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area) competed for the title of best burger by showing their culinary skills. Sliders, local beer and music were all included in the price of admission, as well as a token to place your vote for the People’s Choice Winner. In addition to the People’s Choice Winner, a panel of judges also crowned the official winner as Burger Battle Champion. Also, all proceeds went to charity, which is always nice to see.

The restaurants that participated in the competition were Casper’s & Runyon’s Nook, LuLu’s Market and Deli, Gold Nugget, Victory 44, The Bulldog, The St. Paul Grill, Town Hall Tap, MyBurger, Red Cow, Groveland Tap, 5-8, and B-52. The two we missed trying were The Bulldog and Victory 44 because of super long lines. All three of us voted for different burgers with our tokens. My favorite was the burger from Red Cow with the french onion dip and chip on top, Micah’s was kebab burger with side of cheese curds from The Nook and Rob’s was the deep fried, tempura battered, red onion topped burger from m Tap. Unfortunately, none of our favorites won the competition. The official People’s Choice winner was the Golden Nugget and the judges winner was B-52. The crowd didn’t seem too happy with the judges vote, but I actually liked that burger quite a bit. If I wasn’t so full by the time I tried it, I might have liked it even more. I was happy find out The Red Cow and The Nook took second and third in both categories, they were some of my favorites, and definitely deserving of those rankings!

B-52: AKA, the judges pick.

Golden Nugget: The peoples choice.

Red Cow: My Favorite

The Nook: Micah’s favorite — the cheese curds were amazing!

Groveland Tap: Rob’s Favorite

5-8 Club’s Juicy Lucy

LuLu’s Fair Burger

MyBurger

Town Hall Tavern

St. Paul Grill

My only complaints about the day were the lack of tables and seating and the long lines. It’s obvious that a sold out event with 1,500 people would be crowded, but next year, it might be good to have more staff and larger grills at each booth–some of the vendors were struggling with the volume and it made some pretty long waits. Other than that, the evening was quite delicious and enjoyable. I will tell you one thing though, next year, we will be going in with a strategic plan and will not be eating any burger in its entirety!