Best Memphis Burger Fest

A week ago Sunday, we went to the Best Memphis Burger Fest at Minglewood Hall. The inaugural event was created by blogger Seth Agranov, who has been on a quest to find the best burger in Memphis for a year or so now. (Just guessing at the time frame.) There were four categories for teams to compete in: the Best Extreme Burger, the Best Veggie Burger, the Best Anything But Burger, and of course, the Best Memphis Burger. I was slated to judge two of the four, and enlisted our in-house burger expert, Jiro, to help me.





He took his job very seriously. Our first category was "Anything but..." We had four burgers to try and they were all quite tasty. After judging we were free to eat them in full of we so desired. That was the part Jiro was most looking forward to! Here are the competitors...

First there was an Asian inspired burger with kimchee and a steamed bun.



Second was a ground pork (?) patty with bacon and bbq sauce.



Third was a Mediterranean burger served with cucumber salad on a pita. Maybe it was lamb?



Finally, we had a quesadilla burger in a grilled tortilla. I would have sworn it was beef, but it wasn't.



Want to guess which one Jiro liked the best? Yep, the bacon burger.



Jiro really wanted to take one of the awesome trophies home for himself.



Our final judging duties were for the extreme burger contest. We were super full after our first round of judging and were thrilled to learn we were judging on appearance only.

It was pretty hard to beat the super Kookamonga.



But that didn't stop people from trying.





I just checked the results and the Kooky Canuck came in second, so someone did actually beat them!

It was a really fun way to spend the afternoon, and we all had a great time despite the rain. Best of all, the event raised $4000 for Mid-South Spay & Neuter.

I also really like that Seth found a way to take his passion for a good burger and turn it into a super fun money maker for charity. Nice job, Seth!