A new burger cooking competition is coming to downtown Baton Rouge, courtesy of Baton Rouge Brunches—and now Baton Rouge Burgers—founder Franz Borghardt.
Set to take place at Brickyard South Aug. 4, the competition is only open to downtown vendors. As of press time, contestants include Spanish Town Market, Restaurant IPO, Stroubes, Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar & Restaurant, Chef Celeste’s Bistro, GOyaya’s Crepes and Capital City Grill. Restaurants can enter to compete until the day of the event.
Also helping with event logistics and promotion is Dustin Sutton, the mind behind the Geaux Downtown BR social media accounts.
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Borghardt says he decided to make the event downtown-specific not just because he loves the area, but because of the overwhelming response when Baton Rouge Burgers published a post asking what downtown restaurant has the best burger. Within a day, someone requested a “burger-off,” and Brickyard South volunteered to host the event as neutral territory.
“Downtown is my favorite part of Baton Rouge, and people have very strong feelings about their favorite burger spots,” he says. “It’s a great opportunity to get people together, have some great drinks and some spirited competition.”
The burgers competition will work similarly to the annual Bull Burger Battle at Goodwood Hardware, minus the chance to compete at the World Food Championship. Each burger entry will be judged in two categories: taste and people’s choice.
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The taste winner will be determined by a blind taste-test with a panel of five judges. Judges at the competition are Lawrence Steele of Republic National Liquor, Christina Stephens of BR Foodies, Charles Pierce of Bite & Booze, city-parish councilman John Delgado and Borghardt himself.
For the people’s choice award, a live vote will be conducted at Brickyard South. Event attendees will cast their votes via a poll on the Baton Rouge Burgers Facebook page.
Competing restaurants will each bring light appetizers for attendees to munch on at the event, and Brickyard will operate with its usual bar menu. The event kicks off at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 4. RSVP on the event’s Facebook page.