First Person Arts/Foobooz Burger Cruise

November 4, 2009

First Person Arts/Foobooz Burger Cruise

Tuesday was the first night of the 2009 First Person Arts Festival, and they kicked things off with a bang (and a traffic-stoppingly large crowd wandering across Broad Street.)  Art Etchells, editor of Foobooz, organized a Center City burger tour, hitting the old, new, celebrated and unusual burgers on offer these days.

First stop was Good Dog, which did a slider version of their famous Roquefort cheese-stuffed burger, topped with caramelized onions (as a slider, the cheese was on top, not inside.)  Art noted we began the tour here as it was one of the first noted gastropub burgers in the city, kicking off the burger renaissance that seemed to come to a head this summer.

Served with Philly Brewing Company Pale Ale or a Troegs Rugged Trail Nut Brown Ale, our group of 35 was chatting and sharing stories before we moved on to stop two.

Barclay Prime was the celebrated option of the evening.  They grind their dry-aged New York Strip steaks, with a little blend of other cuts, to make their pub menu burgers (no, they weren’t the Kobe sliders from the dinner menu.)  It was served with a Stoudts Scarlet Lady Ale in their lovely, comfy bar.

Noble Cookery provided the most unusual burger topper of the evening — a slice of roasted beet, alongside a Troegs HopBack Amber Ale.  I also got to meet that most unusual of creatures…. a Philly Foodie reader in the wild (who I hope will someday become a commenter!)

Last stop was the new entrant, and my personal favorite, Pub & Kitchen.  We were greeted by a tray of oysters and cans of Sly Fox Pils and Lagers to enjoy while we waited for our burgers and heaping bowls of fries.  Their Windsor burger is served with house-made bacon, lettuce and tomato, but it’s the slice of pickled onion that makes the whole experience for me.  After 4 earlier sliders, I still managed to make room for an extra “half Windsor” slider.

It turns out, the secret of a truly tasty burger is the secret of all truly tasty things: fat.  All of the burgers we tried this evening (except for Barclay Prime, which went unrevealed) were an 80/20 blend.  Yeah, that’s 80% meat, 20% fat.  But I’m sure we managed to walk it all off in our 3+ hour roam of the burger world of Philadelphia.

[Pub & Kitchen chef Jonny Mac, Foobooz Editor Art Etchells, and the tastiest burger of the evening, the half Windsor.]

First Person Arts Festival continues its celebration of the narrative tradition through Thursday, November 8th.  Check out their schedule for events that strike your fancy.  (I also hear a rumor that E from Foodaphilia is stocking the festival speakeasy with her famous whoopie pies. So don’t miss those, either!)

Barclay Prime
237 S 18th St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 732-7560

Good Dog Bar
224 S 15th St
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 985-9600

Noble Cookery
2025 Sansom St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 568-7000

Pub & Kitchen
1946 Lombard St
Philadelphia, PA 19146
(215) 545-0350

 

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