Friends, NCJ Burger Week, our annual 10-day, countywide frenzy with a side of fries, has ended. As W.B. Yeats wrote more than a century ago, “Everything that’s lovely is/ But a brief, dreamy kind of delight.” Granted, he was offering argument for his admonishing poem “Never Give All the Heart,” but it’s just as solid reasoning for diving in. And dive in we did.
Well, with 33 burger specials at 38 restaurants around Humboldt participating in the promotion, it may have been more of a cannonball than a graceful swan dive, but fans of the ground and grilled turned out and made their opinions known, commenting on this year’s offerings and voting for Best Use of Local Ingredients, Most Creative and Best Overall.
Though we can hardly ignore the marsupial in the room.
Lost Coast Brewery & Café’s Kangaroo Jack burger, “A 100 percent wild and 100 percent kangaroo burger” to be served medium with tomato chutney on a brioche bun, wasn’t legal in California, as reported by the Lost Coast Outpost. The outlet quotes a Sysco spokesperson explaining that the bush meat Lost Coast Brewery & Café purchased came through Sysco Marketplace from a third-party vendor. The restaurant took the kangaroo burger off the menu, hopping back into the fray with an elk, wagyu beef and boar meat patty.
Far less controversial and crowned with a very Gen-X pun was the Best Use of Local Ingredients winner, the Plu-otta Know! Burger from Papa Wheelies Pub. Last year’s overall champ, Papa Wheelies put a who’s-who of local produce on a potato bun with Eel River grass-fed beef, Neukom Family Farm’s pluot jam and heirloom tomatoes, Earthly Edibles lettuce, goat cheese and homemade balsamic reduction. The result was what Kyle M. called, “Locally sourced farmers market goodness.”
Fruit made an even bolder appearance in the winner of the Most Creative trophy. Ramone’s Bakery & Café took a risk with its end-of-summer Just Peachy Burger. No small patty, it was 7 ounces of beef zinged with spicy apricot jam and piled with grilled fresh peach slices. A little arugula for texture and bitter contrast on the bakery’s own sesame buns and it won over even skeptics. “I almost didn’t want to try it because I don’t like sweet burgers,” commented Heather T., “Peaches and jam!! But it was so delectable! The flavors all came together ….” Are burgers having a stone fruit moment?
Last year’s winner for creativity, Cap’s Food Shack didn’t exactly go conventional this time, but scored the Best Overall trophy with the Summer Sunset Burger. More fruit — who knew? Pineapple in this case, grilled and zig-zagged with gochujang mayo and “sweet sushi sauce.” The burger below, topped with pepper Jack and green onion, sat on ginger-sesame slaw, roasted jalapeños and a brioche bun. It was a lot. Too much? Not for Chris T., who commented, “The flavor medley, size of burger, cooked to perfection.”
Lovely, brief delights, until next year.
Share your tips about What’s Good with Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her), managing editor at the Journal. Reach her at (707) 442-1400 ext. 106, or jennifer@northcoastjournal.com. Follow her on Bluesky @jfumikocahill.bsky.social.
This article appears in Xine:wh-ding.
