Weekend burger fest ditches competition in favor of samples
If you love all things burgers, put BurgerFest Memphis on your calendar.
Saturday will mark a new chapter for this popular event.
Fans and attendees of this beloved event were rightly sad when founder Seth Agranov, founder of the Best Memphis Burger Festival, announced that 2017 would be the final year for this popular Midtown Memphis event. I had been a frequent attendee over the years — and often had the fun of serving as a judge.
Fast forward a year later, and a new team has stepped in to produce this event.
Brian Ellsworth, founder and owner of Southwood Entertainment Group, and Billy Hicks of Event Rentals by Hicks purchased rights to the festival from Agranov.
“BurgerFest Memphis is an event for everyone to enjoy,” Ellsworth said. “It was important for Billy and I to bring the event back this year, as it serves as an opportunity to celebrate the soulfulness that makes up our great city, bringing together those of different ages and with different backgrounds to experience craft burgers, local beer, live music and more.”
There are a number of changes this year.
First and foremost — the name. The new name has been shortened to BurgerFest Memphis, which is how most referred to the former Best Memphis Burger Festival.
Secondly, and probably most importantly, this year’s BurgerFest will not be a competition.
Instead, it is being touted as a “family-friendly event for everyone to enjoy, kids included. This year’s festival will be more of a burger and beer sampling, rather than a team competition.” New to the festival will be a kids zone with large inflatables and a corn hole tournament.
Organizers teamed up with Tamra Eddy of Chef Tam’s Underground Café in Cooper-Young to develop burgers for the event’s signature “Burger Bar.” Eddy recently gained national attention as the winner of Guy’s Grocery Games on Food Network.
“It’s important to change things up and have some fun when crafting your burger of choice,” Eddy said. “I bring soul and Southern flair into crafting my burgers, by adding in items of flavor like a whiskey cheddar sauce, spicy avocado spread or chipotle aioli.”
Eddy developed six burgers for the event — each unique and pretty tasty sounding.
Her Tennessee Whiskey Burger is topped with a whiskey cheddar sauce, caramelized onion jam, smoked bacon and a whiskey-infused BBQ drizzle, all on a butter-toasted bun with pickle, lettuce and tomato.
The Great Smokey Mountain Burger is a mesquite-smoked beef patty topped with smoked bacon mac and cheese and a giant onion ring.
As at the original event, there will be an option for vegetarians. (Even though I am not a vegetarian, I always enjoyed judging the vegetarian burger competition at Best Memphis Burger Festival because of the creativity in this category.)
Eddy’s Fiesta Black Bean Burger is concocted from black beans, quinoa and corn and then topped with what she calls “a generous slather of our spicy avocado spread.”
BurgerFest has partnered with local breweries to sample their craft beers at the event. Crosstown Brewery, Ghost River, High Cotton and Wiseacre are a few of the breweries that will be at the event.
Live music starts at 12:30 p.m. and will run throughout the day. Featured acts include Steve Selvidge and Amy LaVere.
General Admission tickets ($10) are available, but organizers are hoping that most attendees purchase either a General Admission plus Sampling Card Ticket ($20), which includes three burger and five beer samples, or VIP tickets ($50), which include unlimited food samples. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Mid-South Food Bank.
Organizers said a competition component may be added next year, but for this year, it’s all about the food, beer and music.
The event is from 2-10 p.m. Saturday at Tiger Lane at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
For more information, visit burgerfestmemphis.com.
Book signing for Memphis author of ‘Chris Beat Cancer’
Memphian Chris Wark is an author, speaker and health coach. He will be signing copies of his first book, “Chris Beat Cancer: A Comprehensive Plan for Healing Naturally,” at Novel bookstore at 6 p.m. Thursday.
At age 26, Wark was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. He had surgery, but instead of chemotherapy, he used nutrition and natural therapies to heal himself.
Wark says his book is more than just a story of survival. He explains it as “a story of courage, faith, massive action, radical personal transformation and
Looking ahead: Thanksgiving
I am already dreaming about our Thanksgiving supper — turkey, dressing, gravy, all the fixings and, of course, the pies. If you are a chef or restaurateur who will be open Thanksgiving Day, please email me your menu and hours for the holiday. I will be compiling a list of what is open that day to share with our readers who want to let someone else do the cooking that day.
Contact Jennifer Chandler at jennifer.chandler@commercialappeal. com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.