Peanut butter and jelly burger (!) wins Burger Brawl again
Lucky's Last Chance, Northeast Sandwich Co., The Ripplewood, and El Vez come up with prizes.
Peanut butter and jelly on a burger?
Make all the funny faces you want there, Skippy, but the salty-and-sweet combo certainly is a crowd-pleaser.
Chris Barnes of the Lucky's Last Chance bars in Manayunk and Queen Village now understands this fully.
That burger, a menu staple, captured its third People's Choice prize on Sunday at the eighth annual Burger Brawl, which sent more than four dozen burger makers, taco makers, and cocktail makers onto the macadam outside Xfinity Live in South Philadelphia.
It is a fundraiser for the School District of Philadelphia. The total was still being tallied Monday morning.
Burger Brawl — more like the Burger Squall, considering the downpours — drew a couple thousand eaters. It had been rescheduled from June 3, a when high winds prevented tents from being erected.
The judges' winner was a patty melt from Northeast Sandwich Co. in the Rhawnhurst section. Chef Kris Serviss blended beef and pastrami-spiced pork belly, and topped the patty with thousand island dressing, Cooper American, and pickled red cabbage, serving it on grilled rye bread.
Meanwhile, The Ripplewood, which opened less than two months ago in downtown Ardmore, captured two prizes: the judges' choice for taco, which chef-partner Biff Gottehrer dubbed "Tongue in Cheek" because it included braised veal tongue and beef cheek marmalade on a corn tortilla, and the cocktail competition with its Buzzed Bunny, which mixes Maker's Mark with carrot juice, ginger juice, lemon juice, rosemary tincture and rosemary sprig garnish.
To say that "rain failed to dampen spirits" is usually an unforgivable cliche. Yesterday's weather made this a simple truth, if you used a lid.
El Vez won the people's choice in the taco division with its tacos al pastor.