Denver Burger Battle is an event where the ten best burger restaurants in the Denver, Colorado area compete to win the ultimate honor and be the restaurant with the best burger in Denver.
The founder of this event is Jeremy Kossler, a Denver foodie that hand picked the ten contenders for this battle.

Burger Battle Entrance

This was a sold-out event with 600 people attending including judges, sponsors etc.

There were two categories the restaurants could win in: Judge’s vote and Popular vote. There were three local professional chefs that were judging and everyone else had one vote they could give to the restaurant of their choice.

Judge's table

There were 10 restaurants competing and each of them had to make around 400 burgers each for a total of around 4,000 burgers to be made and consumed in little over two hours. That also meant that I had to go through 2.5-3 burgers in this amount of time, so I was happy I skipped lunch that day.

When a restaurant has to make that many burgers in so little time, I suspect that the quality would vary during the competition and over the evening I saw some examples of that. Sometimes they burned their burgers; sometimes they undercooked them a little. Some had unbelievable enthusiasm and some had no passion at all. It all showed in the burgers and I might have gotten some better and some worse than others. I also assumed that the three judges probably got the best burgers from each place, and they also ended up with slightly different votes than the popular vote.

Long Lines

I rated the burgers on a scale from 1 to 10. For the record, I don’t hand out a perfect 10, so anywhere near a 10 is fantastic in my rating system.

Here were the contenders in the order I tasted their burgers in.

1. Encore Restaurant
They made “The Encore Burger” made from a beef mix of chuck and sirloin, bacon, blue cheese and Gruyere. It was a beautiful burger and it was cooked perfectly. The cheese mix was really tasty and enhanced the burger. There was nothing else that made this burger special; it was just good in its simplicity. I rated it 8.5 out of 10.

Encore Burger

2. HBurger Co.
Their creation was “The H Burger”. It was made using hand-formed Angus beef, hatch chili pepper, smoked cheddar, sweet ‘n’ spicy bacon, Bibb lettuce, tomatoes, onions and red pepper-tomato jam. Wow this burger was pretty hot but oh my God it was delicious. The smoked cheddar with the bacon and the chili peppers was such a perfect combination. The burger was so juicy and super tasty that even though this was my second burger I had I was almost certain this was going to be a winner. I even went for seconds; it was just that good. I gave it a 9 out of 10.

HBurger

3. Colt & Gray
They made their “Colt & Gray Burger” from hand formed dry aged chuck, brioche bun and a Gruyere cheese mix. The cheese was very tasty and made a great impression. My burger was burnt on one side (it even shows on the picture). I thought there was a weird aftertaste that I didn’t care too much about. I rated this burger 7 out of 10.

Colt & Grey Burger

4. Deluxe Burger
Deluxe made a “Stilton Burger” from local fresh baked bun, 100% Angus beef, a Port reduction, balsamic onions, aged Stilton and roasted garlic aioli. That all sounded good to me! They also served fries. The burger was really good. The Stilton was not too dominating and the burger was cooked perfectly. The onions were sweet and the garlic was subtle but still there. It was a great burger and their fries were home made and top notch. I rated this burger 8.5 out of 10.

Deluxe Burger

5. Walk-In Burgers
Their burger was the “Walk-In Burger”. It was a traditional burger made from grass-fed beef, cheese, apple-smoked bacon and a Gorgonzola spread. I guess the Gorgonzola is not your typical addition to a burger but it was just so subtle it was almost non-existent. It is tough to compete with all the other burgers when it was so simple. If you make it simple that’s fine, just make it good (like Encore), but this was just a very regular burger. It was good but nothing special. I rated it 7.5 out of 10.

Walk-In Burger

6. Park Burger
They made “The Chilango” burger using a potato bun, 1/3 lbs Harris Ranch beef, cheddar cheese, fresh jalapenos, house-made guacamole, lettuce, tomato and onions. I thought this burger was way to salty for my taste. It really ruined the whole burger for me. It was very spicy from the jalapenos and again I think it was too much spice for my taste. This burger was definitely not for me. It gave it a 7 out of 10.

Park Burger

7. The Cherry Cricket
They made a “Black Out Burger” from smoked cheddar, blackened seasoning, bacon and Stranahan’s Whiskey. The whiskey was used in the secret sauce. The smoked cheddar was definitely what made this burger interesting, but it couldn’t save the overall picture. The burger was smoky but a little dull. There was really nothing else that made this burger pop. The burger was also a little burned probably from the flare-ups on their grill. It was a very good burger and I rated it 7.5 out 10.

Cherry Cricket

8. Argyll Pub
Their burger was called “The Argyll Burger”. It was made on a toasted potato bun, house ground beef and lamb sirloin, carrot ginger aioli, duck fat confit yellow onions, spicy tomato jam, ColoRouge cheese and mache salad. All their ingredients were made from scratch and it paid off. This burger was my favorite burger of the night. It was so tender it melted in my mouth. I never thought a mix of beef and lamb would make a burger this good. The onions cooked in duck fat were so soft and juicy and the carrot aioli added sweetness to this burger I never even thought it would need. I almost had tears in my eyes. It was a superb burger and I couldn’t imagine a burger much better than this one. I rated it 9.5 out of 10.

Argyll Pub Burger

9. Steuben’s
They made their “Green Chili Cheeseburger” with Udi’s Challah Bun, RiverRanch Beef, Don Rickle’s Secret Spice Rub and green chili. This was a pretty boring burger. And all the fancy names didn’t help it. They didn’t even tell what cheese they used in the burger. It tasted like a traditional regular burger. The chili was too subtle to taste; the cheese was also difficult to taste (maybe they really forgot it?). It was good but nothing special. I rated it 7.5 out of 10.

Steuben Burgers

10. Old School Burgers
They made the “Ultimate Cheese Bacon Burger” from Toasted bun, two 1/4 lbs beef patties, four cheeses (American, Cheddar, Pepper Jack and Swiss), hickory smoked bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and onions. On paper this burger sounded great but it was executed with a lack of passion. The grill was on fire most of the time and the burger was burned. I think that had it been treated with more love and affection it would have ended up being a great burger that could have competed with the best. I rated it 7.5 out of 10.

Old School

I personally think it is very tough to mix traditional burgers with gourmet burgers and expect the traditional burgers to stand a chance, but this battle was between all ten contestants regardless of their burger style.

Some restaurants were staffed with up to ten people and some only had two. It became evident in the burgers that using a few more people made their burgers consistently better and the overall experience more pleasurable.

End of Night

Ten Burgers. One Night. Your vote. And here were the winners:

My three winners were:
1. Argyll Pub
2. HBurger Co (a very close second)
3. Deluxe Burger

The Judge’s winners were:
1. Park Burger
2. Argyll Pub
3. HBurger Co

The Popular vote went to:
1. HBurger Co
2. Argyll
3. Park Burger

All in all this was a great arrangement executed very professionally and I was full when I left at the end of the night. I will be back next year for sure.