Martin Kelly of the Drawing Room scooped first prize in the inaugural Best Burger competition which was held in the Merchant City branch of Ad Lib yesterday.
Bar Soba‘s Thai-inspired burger took second while Allan Mawn’s Velvet Elvis bar took third place.
The Drawing Room’s winning burger consisted of a meat patty made with 60% sirloin mince and 40% steak mince. The £7.95 burger came on a freshly baked sourdough roll and was topped with a white onion, mustard and ale relish.
The competition was organised by the Baby Grand Group and it attracted many of Glasgow’s best known bars and gastro-pubs including 5pm members The Grill On The Corner, The Gate, Maggie May’s and Metropolitan.
There was a slight tongue in cheek feel to the event with Burgerfest 2009 and Burger Off both being suggested as possible alternative names.
Along with Ron MacKenna of The Herald, Romeo from Radio Clyde and model/writer Josie smith, I was one of the four judges faced with sampling fifteen different burgers. While I reckon it might be a good month or so before I’ll tackle another burger, it was a fun, if not a slimming, experience.
You might imagine that there’s not a huge amount of possible variation when it comes to burgers but you would be surprised. A venison and apple combo was one of the more startling ideas while The Grill On The Corner produced a Kobe beef burger made from super high end Wagyu cattle.