This past Sunday was the first Burger Day in Toronto, as well as the first culinary event for DITW. What better way to launch a blog than by reviewing multiple specialty burgers! With the help of my friends we pick one winner out of the 10 sliders sampled.

Burger day was the culmination of Burger Week, a seven day event sponsored by The Grid, Muskoka Brewery, and The Stop Community Food Center. Throughout the week 20 Torontonian burger joints served up a special $5 burger, with some serving special “black tie” burgers for which a portion of the proceeds were donated to charity. For Burger Day all the joints came together at Artscape Wychwood Barns to show off their pattied creations.

Food Events and Burger Day

I’m no stranger to food festivals, but over the years I’ve questioned if they are worth the cost and if the food served is representative of the establishment serving it. The events usually charge a cover and then extra for the food. For example, the Phantom Gourmet BBQ Beach Party I attended in Boston charged a $10 cover and $7 for a portion of 3 ribs at each vendor. That means for $31 you are getting a half rack of ribs. No value there. I would never go back to that event. But even if I did, can I learn anything about the restaurant by the three ribs it served me? These events serve hundreds of people, from propane grills, under tents. The different environment means a totally different experience from a restaurant. It’s an open question if you can learn anything about a food establishment from what their kart serves up.

I’m happy to say that Burger day was financially affordable. The cover was $5, and the food was reasonable: sliders $3, fries $1, and beer $5. I spent 25 dollars in total, and burned it all on sliders. The sliders were big enough to split between two people while still feeling like you got to experience the flavor of the burger.  Were the burgers indicative of the restaurants serving them? I can’t know for sure. Each joint slung about 400 sliders onto the grill. The event was supposed to run until 4:30 PM, but stalls started running out of sliders around 2:30, and by 3 all but four places had shut.

Burger Review

Overall, the entire group of sliders was impressive. The quality of meat across the board was high, as was the level of juiciness. Since we couldn’t afford to eat every burger being offered, we tried to stay within the core of the burger genre by foregoing sliders that were not strictly speaking “burgers” – like those based on pulled pork or braised short rib (with one notable exception below).  Present with me at the event (and helping to judge the best burger) were Ari, Candice, Gwyndaf (yes that’s his name, and he’s not a wizard), Jake and April. Ratings are out of a possible 100. Not everyone was there to sample every burger, so we took simple averages of those that did get a taste. It is not a science…yet. Now for the review.

Utopia: Ultimate Bacon Burger (Black Tie)
http://utopiacafe.ca/home 

Ground beef, pork, and pork belly, topped with smoked provolone.

Pros: Porky, smokey, great bun
Cons: Slightly elastic texture, have to like pork

Utopia isn’t that far from my home and the only thing that’s consistent about the place is the long wait and slow service. Their food is hit or miss. Sometimes they serve up a delectable juicy burger, at other times a dry patty. They don’t cook their beef to order (it’s always well done). Their burger here set the standard by which others were judged (by virtue of us trying it first). It was smokey and flavorful, and not overcooked. The bun was the best of the event. It was however a bacon burger that lacked…bacon? There was a lot of pork but mine didn’t have bacon. Furthermore, the texture of the meat was slightly elastic. While this was a solid slider, it just didn’t stand out as anything special.

Rating: 80.66 (Candice – 80 pts; Greg – 80 pts; Ari – 82 pts)

Grindhouse Burger Bar
http://www.grindhouse.ca/

Las Vacas Locas – Beef patty, sour cream, chili, kidney-bean salsa, hot peppers and avocado on a cornbread bun.

Pros: Tastes like a taco
Cons: Tastes like a taco

We tried this burger thinking that it was within the genre we had defined. It wasn’t. This was a taco on a bun. The patty didn’t stay together in the slider and the meat was way over spiced. The corn bread was the highlight. If you like tacos you will like this offering, but why not just go get a really good taco?

Rating: 60 (Greg- 60 pts; Ari – 70 pts; Candice – 65 pts)

Holy Chuck
http://www.holychuckburgers.com/ 

The Depressed Cow: Two beef patties with smashed Spanish onion, mustard, and pickles.

Pros: Seat cooked delicately, fried onion
Cons: Salty

This slider was like getting a whole burger for $3. The two patties were cooked to perfection and extremely juicy. The burger had fried onion on it rather than whatever “smashed” onions were. Immediately after the first bite it was obvious that this burger was better than the other two we had before it. The excitement for this burger lasted awhile, but there was a serious salty aftertaste which detracted from the overall experience.  Although delicious, we questioned if this burger was better suited to the slider format than a full burger.

Rating: 92.75 (Greg – 91 pts; Candice- 90 pts; Ari – 95 pts; April – 95 pts)

The Stockyards
http://thestockyards.ca/ 

Beef burger with smoked American-style cheese, pickled sweet onion, and brown butter cornichon aioli.

Pros: Aioli was very nice, burger not over cooked.
Cons: Bun was flowery/cakey

Why would anyone make an American style cheese? American cheese really isn’t cheese and it doesn’t taste good. I can’t imagine why someone would aim to imitate that plastic like substance. Moving past my ideological stance on cheese, the burger didn’t impress. The bun was flowery and it ruined the texture of the slider. The beef was cooked nicely, but it couldn’t make up for the cheese or bun.

Rating: 81.5 (Greg – 78 pts; Candice – 85 pts;  Ari – 84 pts; Gwydaf – 79 pts)

Keriwa Café
http://www.keriwacafe.ca/ 

Bison burger with Saskatoon berry chutney, wild leeks, aioli, and Thunder Oak Gouda on a red fife bannock bun.

Pros: Bison was perfectly cooked, Saskatoon berry chutney was delicious
Cons: Slightly gamey, the lower portion of the bun was tough and chewy.

I’ve never been to Keriwa Café before, but I’ve heard great things about it. Their bison burger did not disappoint. If you’ve eaten bison before, you know that it is a lean meat and that the lack of fat can easily lead to overcooking. Not in this case! The bison was done to perfection and still fairly juicy. The ratio of Saskatoon berry chutney to beef and aioli meant that the berry didn’t dominate the burger. There were some weaknesses however. The first was the bun, whose underside was very chewy. I removed the lowest layer of the bun (which crumbled off easily) for an upgraded experience. After eating the burger, the five of us were in a circle and I asked “Did anyone taste any Gouda?” It was a good thing that no one answered “yes”, because the cook quickly told me there was no Gouda on the burger! I was disappointed, but this was a solid slider anyhow.

Rating: 85 (Ari – 78 pts; Candice – 85 pts; Gwyndaf – 90 pts; April – 90 pts; Jake – 81 pts; Greg – 86 pts)

Hrvati Bar
http://www.hrvatibar.com/ 

Ontario Beef with smoked mozzarella and caramelized onions, surrounded by a Croatian steamed bun.

Pros: Bun, flavor Balance, scalable (to full burger)
Cons: Bun (too chewy), simple, greasy

It was the long wait for Hrvati Bar’s slider that made us wonder if burger greatness could be socially determined. Hrvati Bar’s line was by far the longest at the event. The closest competitor was the line for Holy Chuck, which among the group had been the favorite offering so far. Expectations were high for Hrvati Bar, but at this point our stomachs were getting full of beef and the wait was welcome. Once at the front of the line, a pretty burger was placed in our hands. Biting in, we were rewarded with well balanced flavors, juiciness, and a fair bit of grease. The bun on this slider was like a biscuit. On its own it was delicious, but the bottom portion of the bun was just too chewy; it was still in my mouth long after all the other ingredients began their journey to my stomach. I was also unimpressed with the greasy nature of the burger. Hrvati Bar was the first place I noticed that had foregone open flame cooking for a cast iron griddle. Cooking 20ish sliders at a time meant that each one was sitting in a substantial amount of grease. Open flame cooking is a beautiful thing; I’m not sure why anyone would pass it up willingly.

Rating: 86.2  (Ari – 91pts; Candice – 82 pts; Greg – 84 pts; Jake – 89 pts; April – 85 pts) 

Hadley’s
http://hadleys.ca/

Ground chuck with smoked blue cheese, house-cured and smoked bacon, and apple rosemary marmalade.

Pros: Blue cheese and marmalade were delicious
Cons: The beef on this burger was a vehicle for the toppings. Greasy.

Hadley’s was also using a griddle instead of the open flame. I asked them about it, and they said for burgers this size it was helping the meat to retain the juices. While they were nice to talk to, I found this answer less than satisfying, as the “juice” retained seemed to be grease. In terms of toppings, this burger might have had the best at the event. The blue cheese was delicious (and done in house), as was the bacon and apple rosemary marmalade. The problem however, was that the strength of the blue cheese overwhelmed everything except a hint of the marmalade. I couldn’t taste the beef or the bacon. Maybe this is less of a problem in the full burger version but it really hurt the experience here.

Rating: 81.5  (Ari – 85 pts; Greg – 78 pts) 

Caplansky’s Delicatessen
http://caplanskys.com/ 

Kishke Burger: Fresh ground chuck with kishke, garnished with smoked meat on a challah bun.

Pros: Ari said it was “OK”.
Cons: Salty, lacking flavor.

I don’t know Zane Caplansky, but I wish I did. I’ve seen him before at his restaurant and around town. If I could have a meal with him and Rod from Hey Meatball!, I think we would find a lot in common. I hate to say it though, I’m always disappointed with Caplansky’s, and Burger Day was no exception. Kishke, to the best of my knowledge, is eastern Europe’s answer to haggis and black pudding. It’s a blood or organ meat sausage made with several grain fillers. For some reason, the Kishke was combined with beef. One might expect it would compare to The Caledonian’s haggis and lamb burger. But whereas the Caledonian realized that they could counteract the oatmealy nature of haggis and the tendency of lamb to dry as it is cooked with a nice chutney (and well controlling the cooking temperature), Caplansky’s just put a piece of smoked meat on top.  The burger that resulted was the driest of the group and it finished with a salty aftertaste. No condiments here either, unless you include Heinz mustard and ketchup put out on the table. It is likely that Caplansky’s didn’t see Burger Day as a competition, but if you look at what all the other places are serving up, you have to ask “Why is Caplansky’s even here?”

Rating: 69 (Greg – 68 pts; Ari – 70 pts)

*NOTE: I ate the Caledonian’s haggis burger during burger week, so it isn’t reviewed here.

Brassaii
http://www.brassaii.com/ 

Lamb burger with wild leek aioli, heirloom tomatoes, housemade pickles, and feta cheese on an Ace Bakery bun.

Pro: Lamb not overcooked, cheese was tasty.
Cons:Cheese strong compared to lamb.

This was the last burger we ate. In fact it was one of the last places to still have meat, and it was raining. Still Brassaii’s burger was a solid offering. The lamb was cooked perfectly, the bun texture complemented the lamb, and the cheese was delicious. However, on our slider there was so much feta that it overpowered the lamb. Ari didn’t even notice it was lamb. I brushed some feta off and tasted the meat directly, which was the only way to ascertain that it was indeed delicious. It would have been better if the meat had been free to show off its natural flavors.

Rating: 87 (Greg – 86 pts; Ari – 88 pts)

Yogalicious
http://www.yogalicious.ca/ 

Chocolate frozen yogurt(?) with kefir grains coated in shaved chocolate, frozen mango dessert “cheese” square, kewi and strawberries on a profiterole bun.

Pros: Nicely worked into the burger genre, the berries, bun.
Cons: Mango cheese(?) square.
April’s Comment – “Too Cold”

So we had to stray outside of the genre for a dessert burger. I’ve never even heard of a dessert burger before (I’ve always called them ice cream sandwiches!). This was an experience. I give Yogalicious lots of credit for working within the burger genre for a dessert. The kefir frozen yogurt (or whatever it was) was good and it was complimented nicely by the berries. The profiterole bun (you know the puff in cream puff) was the right choice to carry these ingredients to your mouth. The mango dessert “cheese” square was the one disappointment; a nice slice of mango would have been much more pleasing.

Rating: 85 (Ari – 85 pts; Candice – 90 pts; April – 85 pts; Jake – 75 pts; Greg – 90 pts)

WINNER: HOLY CHUCK – The Depressed Cow: Two beef patties with smashed Spanish onion, mustard, and pickles.

This really was the most flavorful burger we ate and it was the one we had the most fun eating. We are still doubtful about this slider’s ability to grow up into a full burger. DITW will have to head out to Holy Chuck one night and try this with some of their other offerings.

Overall

We had a great time at this event, it was affordable and delicious. The location was great. But there are some suggestions for next year.  In general, there was a lack of burger culture at the event. There was one fry place and it closed early. There were no handmade local micro-brews or sodas to be found. The invited speakers and bands were playing inside the building, but the burgers (and people) were outside, at least until it started raining and then everyone ran inside. Some of these things are logistical and can’t be changed (the beer and wine was served inside the building because you can’t take booze into the open air according to Ontario law). For a first time event though, it was impressive. I hope The Grid does it again next year. I’ll be there!