Burger Weekend and Upcoming Fests

Lexington Burger Week this year coincided with a boatload of mandatory over-time for this sorry dog while the Fulfilment Center I work at geared up for Amazon's third annual Prime Day. So....I decided to make up for my lack of burgeration over a recent weekend by visiting a couple of new Lexington burger joints and an old favorite.

I started the weekend with a visit to Bad Wolf Burgers brand new location at 350 Foreman. I've been wanting to wrap myself around a Spalding burger ever since I heard such a thing existed...but working nights the early closing of Bad Wolf's original location just didn't work. At all.

What's a Spalding Burger? If you've ever had a Spalding donut, you know it's going to be delicious! Slice a Spalding donut in half to use as a bun, add a delicious hamburger patty, bacon and fried egg. Oh my! (if you could add sausage gravy and hash browns, it would be absolutely perfect, imho) Very delicious, and comes with very tasty crinkle cut fries: I took my order to go as Beer Trappe had a couple of taps I thought might complement this burger well, and though it's only a 7 minute drive from Bad Wolf to Beer Trappe, ALL my fries were gone before I found a parking spot. Chunk of onion ring breading mixed in with my fries was delicious enough to ensure I'll order some next time I visit.

On Saturday, I dropped by Shake Shack in the Summit. I had a SmokeShack burger.

SmokeShack is a Shake Shack burger with applewood smoked bacon,  and a sweet cherry pepper relish. The burger was absolutely delicious, but ShakeShack's menu is ala carte, so fries are extra. Burger, some very mediocre crinkle cut fries and a 16 oz. beer put my tab over $16. The burger was great, but the lack of nearby parking and the price (especially with barely there fries) certainly won't convince me to go back. (ok, mebbe just for a burger take-out...it really was damn tasty!)

Sunday, I opted for a Baja Burger from my old favorite, Smashburger. The Baja includes fresh (not pickled) jalapeños, guacamole, pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, onion & chipotle mayo on a spicy chipotle bun. I'd already taken several bites before thinking "what a gorgeous burger, I should have taken a picture!" LOL The jalapeño slices were huge, super fresh and incredibly tasty. I always love Smashburger's regular skinny fries, though they are better when you get a chocolate malt to dip them in. (The Shocktop Belgian Witbier I had just didn't cut it for fry dipping!)

To continue the theme this week, I dropped by BurgerFi earlier this evening. I opted for the CEO Burger. In their own words, this is a "Double Wagyu + Brisket Blend Burger, Homemade Candied Bacon-Tomato Jam, Truffle Aioli, Aged Swiss Cheese." With fries and a locally brewed hefe, my tab came out to just under $20. Yikes! Decent burger, very good fries, but $20 for an "order at the counter" burger?

Of the four recent options I tried, Bad Wolf was far and away the best value and the best overall tasting option. You can count on me stopping by there again soon!

Tech note--I was certain I'd scheduled this to post a coupla days ago...guess my scheduling talents are much akin to my posting regularity. ;-)

Back to an entirely different topic: Upcoming Beer Fests! I am super excited about The Festival in Atlanta this weekend, and I will tell you entirely too much about it next week!!! While all ya'll are waiting with bated breath on those astounding revelations and absorbing details, get yourselves down to Beer Trappe, Pazzos, Village Idiot or Liquor Barn and snag your bad self a ticket to the  Lexington Fest of Ales that is coming up September 1st! Don't wait too long, these tickets usually sell out before the event.

Have a great weekend, drink some amazing beers, and come back soon to see what else I've gotten up to! (That bucket of sour and brett that's been sitting in the kitchen for the last few months is gonna have to come out the bucket sometime...sooner or later.)

quick catchup

One of my faithful readers recently pointed out how long its been since I posted an update. (There being slightly less than three of you, y'all know which of you that might have been!) And yes, it has been much too long since I've done much babbling on about the nothings I manage to accomplish.

There hasn't been anything going on in the kitchen at all since I pitched that Wyeast Roselare blend into that first sour brew bucket ever been in the kitchen. I have been awfully busy outside the Kitchen though! Here's a brief rundown:

Elizabeth Cook at the Burl! Woot! Always a great time seeing EC. Surprise treat from that show: Maggie Lander!!! Absolutely delicious singer/songwriter from right here in Lexington. Beautiful voice, thoughtful songs. Entirely entrancing!

Then we had Alltech's Lexington Beer Fest. Much fun, but they need to advertise the VIP tickets more effectively. You don't get early access to the fest itself, but you do get a catered meet&greet the night before. t-shirt and a badge that exempts you from the dmn tickets. I don't think I cked in any beers over the tickets amt, but just not having to keep track of those things was worth most of the ticket upgrade! LOL Surprise treat at this year's Fest: Somerset's Tap on Main Brewing. These personable young fellas brought a delightful Barrel Aged Porter that was just delightful.

Next weekend i was off to Dark Lord Day. Holy Cow, what a great time. I got French Vanilla Militia for my variant, which I've not tried yet. My buddy Steve got two vintage year bottles, but he was entirely ok with that...three year vertical tasting of one of the most sought after stouts in the world right there in a bag.

Dark Lord Day was entirely worth the ticket price. parking was kinda cluster-fucked but that was expected, and less snafu'd than I actually expected.

I'm only a few months behind now...I'll try to post a few pics & details soon. Shelton Bros. The Festival is coming up soon. Atlanta, here I come!

Lexington's Fest of Ales is also less than a month away--be sure to stop by Beer Trappe or one of the other spots with tickets available to pick yours up before they sell out!