Locals won over my heart and belly at last night’s South Beach Food & Wine Amstel Light Burger Bash, where seventeen restaurants, including last year’s winner — New York’s Shake Shack — competed for the people’s choice best burger prize. Boston’s Radius took away the prize this year beating Shake Shack by five votes, but my vote went to Johnny Vinczencz’s Johnny V’s, whose mini-burger was served with a cheese dip and string potato chips.
Though D and I arrived a little late due to unforeseen circumstances, we still made room to taste fourteen of the seventeen burgers. No worries, they were slider size. But even so, after the first one and an Amstel Light, we figured if we wanted to do a good tasting, we might as well share one of each.
The party was packed but the crowd was bearable. There wasn’t much pushing going on; we were able to easily walk around the tables sampling the burgers. Not sure if that’s because we arrived a little later and a lot of people had already done most of their tasting and were now just drinking and dancing away to the band (which was pretty good).
My second favorite was from Bistro One LR at The Ritz-Carlton in South Beach. It was topped with a gruyere fondue which gave it loads of flavor and extra juice. The Radius burger — with Vermont Cheddar and crispy onions — came very close to my favorites, but the locals did better for me. The contest winner of Everyday with Rachael Ray burger contest had a pork burger that was strange and not that great, but her mac and cheese was spicy and pretty good.
Would I go back? I may have to, for D is convinced that his burgers are better than many there, so who knows, maybe next year he’ll be standing by a stack of Rachael Ray magazines serving burgers (but hopefully not).
Verdict: This was my first time at this event and I must say that despite having doubts (it was hosted by Rachael Ray after all) I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. You can eat and drink all you want (though I don’t know anyone who could effectively eat 17 burgers), talk to the chefs and dance for three hours, so if you’re okay with spending the money, it’s a good choice. Set some money aside for parking too! (Valet was $22 though there are many other options nearby that cost a little less).
I hate you guys. : )
But I will be at Grand Tasting Sunday morning. : )
I so wanted to go to that event, although I have the same aversion to RR and her Betty Rubble laugh.
I will be at the Sunday Grand Tasting too!