The Grid’s Burger Week is back for a second year of beefy – and lobstery, and slawy, and chicken-fried steaky – bodaciousness. From May 29th to June 1st, 53 of Toronto’s top restaurants (64 locations in total) will be grinding, chucking, and smoking meats to offer up $5 fantasmically gourmet burgers, culminating in a tour-de-force of meat sweats on June 2nd at Artscape Wychwood Barns. While we pre-applaud anyone brave enough to attempt buying up every burger on the list – that would be 53 burgers in four days and $285 – we’ve read through the consortium of carnivorous creations and decided on 10 we’d forgo our daily calorie counts for…
Mildred’s Temple Kitchen
An herb and garlic burger with mushroom ragout, pecorino, arugula, and charred scallion aioli on ciabatta? Done. Mildred’s is known far and wide for their MTK Burger with tobacco onions, so this one’s an easy best bet.
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Triple A Bar
Triple A Bar is trying to smoke out the competition with their oak-smoked AAA beef chopped and topped with bourbon-maple BBQ sauce. A down n’ dirty Southern option.
Hogtown Pub and Oysters
Ground chuck patty with truffle aioli, Moliterno cheese, lettuce and tomato in a corn tortilla. Gotta give mad props to Chef Josh and the Big D for this cool twist.
The Samuel J. Moore
While I’ve only had the pleasure of noshing on Chef Alexandra Feswick’s cuisine a couple times, both instances left me speechless. (Perhaps because I was chewing.) She’s prepping a chopped sirloin burger with beef bacon, aged cheddar, pickles, and homemade ketchup on brioche, while I’m prepping some antacids.
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Habits Gastropub
Habits is stuffin’ it up again this year (check out their deep-fried, crab stuffed, mushroom cap wonder from the first Grid Burger Week) with beer-braised short ribs and smoked cheddar stuffed in the patty, topped with roasted citrus-beet relish on a brioche bun.
The Good Fork
Good news for lovers of The Good Fork: They’re doing a grilled-cheese burger on Fred’s ancient grain bread, topped with smoked gouda, shallot-tarragon jam, and remoulade.
Utopia Cafe and Grill
A utopian take on a burger if ever there was one, College Street’s Utopia is pounding down an Italian sausage and beef patty with mozzarella, pesto aioli, and spicy roasted red pepper ketchup.
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Indie Alehouse
A quattro meat patty – brisket, sirloin, short-rib, chuck – with pulled pork, adobo BBQ sauce, avocado crema, and fresh mozzarella is available at Indie Alehouse for anyone who prefers the meat sweats to a sauna.
Holy Chuck
The Godfather of Burgerland, Holy Chuck’s got one beef patty and one bacon patty (you read that right, it’s just bacon), double cheese, more bacon, and… no surprises here… even more bacon in the homemade dressing. Those with circulatory or respiratory issues please indulge cautiously.
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This End Up
Another stupidly good sounding burger, This End Up is doing it the right way (get it? Neither do I…) with grilled ground chuck, seared hickory-smoked pork belly, tomato and apple chutney, white cheddar, umami mayo, and arugula.
All participating restaurants will be gathering at Artscape Wychwood Barns on Sunday, June 2nd for Burger Day, where they’ll be busting out slider versions of their Burger Week creations in an all-you-can-eat melee for only $30.
