The parking lot of the Summit Grand Hotel in Summit, New Jersey, is maybe the world’s most unlikely place to find a high concentration of exceptional hamburgers. But the Burger Summit, the closing event of this weekend’s
Summit Wine & Food Festival, made this far-fetched scenario a reality. Among the heroic NYC chefs who came to NJ to sear up burgers:
Michael Psilakis (an
F&W Best New Chef 2008), who topped thick Kefi burgers with an alluring feta-pepper spread; my hero Joey Campanaro of
the Little Owl, who offered both sliced
and speared
Guss’s pickles with his awesome bacon–American cheese burgers; Alex Raij of
Txikito, whose indulgent
El Doble burger was layered with smoked sheep’s-milk cheese and creamy sauce; and the outstanding
Black Label Burger from
Minetta Tavern’s Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr. But none of them won awards from the judging panel, which included the famed
LaFrieda meat boys and all the members of the
Burger of the Month club. Who were the winners? Some non-household names, including NYC's
Stand for best classic and Belmar, NJ's
Boom for best slider.
The Feedbag’s Josh Ozersky, the event’s emcee, has all the details, as well as coverage of the straight-from-the-Weather-Channel hailstorm that hit, but didn’t stop, the Burger Summit.
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