In less than three weeks, there's going to be a war in the Mile High City, but instead of weapons, this brawl is all about the beef, the bun, condiments, grease, blood and char. Twelve superpower burger houses and restaurants -- Larkburger, Citygrille, Crave Real Burgers, Mateo, TAG, Highland Tap & Burger, Park Burger, Row 14 Bistro & Wine Bar, The Sink, Madison Street, ChoLon and H Burger Co -- will converge on the turf of Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Wednesday, August 22 for the Denver Burger Battle, now in its third year.
"We're super-passionate about burgers, and Denver does burgers really, really well, so we're going to continue to celebrate that," says Jeremy Kossler, the founder and organizer of the event, which will see 100 percent of its net proceeds donated to hunger-relief charity organizations.
The competition, which kicks off at 7 p.m. for general admission attendees and 6 p.m. for VIPs, includes burger samples from all twelve restaurants, beers from Great Divide, Left Hand, Avery and ODell Brewing Company, plus desserts from Cave Dessert Bar, Little Man Ice Cream and Happy Cakes. In addition, says Kossler, this year's Battle will feature comedian Chuck Row, who will emcee the event, as well as field activities: a photo booth, caricature artist and a football throwing target contest. "We realized last year that after an hour or so of eating, everyone was Thanksgiving Day-full, so we wanted to add some fun activities for people to participate in when they were done filling their bellies," he notes.
The Burger Battle, which will be judged by both attendees and a crew of chefs, including Max MacKissock (Squeaky Bean), Jenna Johansen, Daniel Asher (Linger and Root Down), and Hosea Rosenberg (Blackbelly Catering), will also give one of the competitors the opportunity to advance to the Word Food Championships in Las Vegas, a four-day contest in November that pits regional winners of other food face-offs against one another in various categories -- including burgers -- for the opportunity to win $25,000, and, potentially another $75,000 if they're crowned the World Food Champion. "One of the restaurants that's participating in the Denver Burger Battle will get an automatic entry into the World Food Championships in Vegas to compete for the opportunity to win a lot of money," says Kessler, adding that the restaurant that gets an airline ticket to Sin City will be chosen by attendees.
If you want to head to the World Food Championships, that's on your own dime, but we're giving away two VIP tickets to the Denver Burger Battle for free to one Cafe Society reader, who can answer this question: How many Croque burgers did the Park Burger on South Pearl Street sell during the month of July?
VIP access gets you early admission (no lines!), a specialty cocktail from bartenders Randy and Ryan Layman and first access to the VIP lounges and field activities, and tickets are still on sale for both VIP and general admission at www.denverburgerbattle.com/.
We'll announce the winner of our contest this afternoon, giving you enough time before the actual event to get your waistline in check, and we'll award the prize to the person who comes the closest to the actual number without going over.
Ready, set, go!
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