Held at the River Ranch Stockyards, we were proud to present the First Annual Cowtown Burger Showdown to find out who creates the BEST burger in North Texas. We had Old School Burgers, Smash Burgers, Craft Burgers, and more! At the Cowtown Burger Showdown it was all about the BURGER deliciousness and the creative chefs who were slinging them. Burger slingers from ALL OVER Texas came to throw down for the showdown and it was truly an unbelievable day of burgers, fun, and wild cards. It was a family-friendly event and we had over 3,500 burger-loving folks attend to enjoy the festivities. A portion of the proceeds from this event went to benefit the Brotherhood for the Fallen, a Texas-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to responding to the families of officers who have been killed in the line of duty.
We can’t wait to bring you the NEXT Cowtown Burger Showdown in the spring of 2023. Stay tuned and please enjoy some delicious TEXAS burgers!
THANKS to the WINNER and PITMASTERDayne Weaver of Dayne’s Craft BBQ in Fort Worth, Texas. Dayne and Ashley have some of the BEST BBQ in TEXAS and now they have the BEST BURGER, too!
I’m honored to present this year’s BEST burger winners. Any burger on my list is here because they are fresh and delicious. Please support local and try all of these burgers. Below at the end of the blog we created a full color poster of this years winners. You may screen shot from your phone or print it off and plan your BURGER adventures of 2021. By saving our list you will have instance reference for your barbecue cravings.
WOW! What a year 2020 was for the restaurant, food, and culinary world. In my five decades in the restaurant business, I’ve seen disasters of all types and nothing comes close to the devastating effect Covid-19 had on our economy. Restaurants, chefs, pitmasters, and restauranteurs had to make big changes if they wanted to survive the pandemic. Nationwide, we lost over 251,000 restaurants forever and 2.5 million restaurant jobs at the latest estimate. The good thing is that NOW we are on the mend and the Texas economy is in full giddy-up mode! This is why it’s so important to support local restaurants to keep us in giddy-up mode.
Even though things were crazy due to Covid-19 we still worked hard reporting on food and hunting down the best burgers we could locate in North Texas. The pandemic allowed us plenty of extra time to chow down on some tasty burgers; it also allowed burger creators time to come up with some new delicious and creative burgers for all of us to enjoy. If you follow me, you know how much I enjoy a great and tastyburger. This is our seventh year for the BEST BURGERcontest in Texas and I’m excited to tell everyone about my delicious burger discoveries.
Did you know that burgers are one of the most sought-after sandwiches in the world? The burger business is crazy in the U.S.A. I don’t have the newly updated numbers of burgers sold in 2020 during the pandemic (and it would be an oddly skewed amount), so we are using the last updated numbers. A national research company states that we sell 6.48 million burgers a day, and around 75 burgers a second! What? Yes, 75 burgers a second! This roughly breaks down as 4,500 burgers every minute, 270,000 every hour, 6.48 million a day, and 2.36 billion burgers a year. A worldwide research study states we sell 50 billion a year worldwide. 50 Billion a year that to me is shocking, but I know how many folks just love a succulent, savory, and delicious burger.
I discovered a NEW Korean/American fusion burger concept that is slinging insane burgers! K-POP Premium Burgers created by the passionate Chef Kevin Lee and his wife Jenice Lee located in The Colony, Texas.
As most of you know, my entire life revolves around food, chefs, restaurants, creative, and delicious dishes! The last decade I’ve been consumed with locating the best burgers, steaks, barbecue and seafood for Trey’s Chow Down and Trey’s Chow Down LIVE. I LIVE for locating the BEST, and telling the world about the deliciousness I discover through social media, my LIVE T.V. and Radio Podcast.
I received an email last week from a friend Chase Foxworth who was elated and extremely enthusiastic about a new burger joint in The Colony, Texas. He knew the results of our BEST BURGER CONTEST in 2019 reached over 1.5 million BURGER LOVING North Texans. He understood how excited I would be to see this new concept of burger deliciousness for the 2020 Burger Race. He couldn’t wait to show me! I receive numerous requests to visit new burger concepts, or to test a certain burger. I try to visit each and every request as time allows, but his email was so powerful and full of conviction that I made plans to meet him P.D.Q. and try some of these burgers he was raving and screaming about.
Trey’s Chow Down BEST Burgers 2019 Party on ABC in Dallas with Kara Swell from WFAA Victor Plaza.
Wow. I’m in disbelief that 2019 has already come and gone? Where did it go? It seems like it was just yesterday we completed and introduced our BEST Burgers in North Texas for 2018.
2019 was a BIG burger year in North Texas. We had some old restaurants close and a bunch of new ones open. Almost all of them sell some sort of burger.
The burger business is crazy in the U.S.A.
A national research company states that we sell 6.48 million burgers a day around 75 burgers a second! What? Yes, 75 burgers a second! The burger date roughly breaks down as 4,500 burgers every minute, 270,000 every hour, 6.48 million a day, and 2.36 billion burgers a year. Another research study states we sell 50 billion a year worldwide.
I truly don’t care what the accurate numbers are. I just know that almost everyone loves to bite into a succulent, savory and delicious burger.
Even though another year has come and gone, we spent twelve months locating and chowing down on some of the most amazingly creative burger combinations in North Texas.
In 2018, we visited a hundred and twenty restaurants to locate the best burgers. I’m thrilled to say we topped ourselves again for 2019. We didn’t plan it that way… It just happened!
We were running the roads and adding mileage to our vehicles. We visited over 135 locations and chowed down on 200 different burger combinations.
Every time I ate a burger I would say, “On to the next”!
I visited a NEW BurgerFi last summer and really, loved it!
Trey’s Chow Downmade a trip to Sarasota, Florida. We were out to investigate and review the amazing BurgerFi. My fellow foodies, trust me this was a fantastic place.
Trey’s Chow Down T.V. Best Burgers of 2018 Fox 4 Good Day with Lauren
This years list was crazy! We chowed down on 120 burgers and visited over a 100 different burger joints and restaurants to complete our list.
For the past five years at Trey’s Chow Down.Comwe’ve researched and compiled a list of the best burgers I’ve eaten that year. The first year it started at Fort Worth Magazine with what I thought was the best burger I ate. As time went on, more and more folks would ask me what I thought about this burger or that burger. In 2017, I increased my dedication to research and the number of burgers for the list. I had to increase the list to the TOP 15 BURGERS in DFW because there are many places promoting and selling delicious burgers. I needed to be fair, accurate, and credible. Our “Best Burger List” has become so popular (251,000 views in 2017) that I’ve decided to make some changes for 2018 and for the future of our Trey’s Chow Down Best Burger Contest. I’ve created TWO NEW burger categories and a BEST ALL AROUND WINNER for 2018 and beyond.
The NEW categories will be as follows:
– BEST OLD FASHION Burger
– BEST CRAFT Burger
– BEST ALL AROUND Winner
I truly love a delicious burger but the beef industry has changed so much in the last five decades. I felt I needed to make the decision to create the NEW categories for fair judging and a TRUE BEST BURGER LIST.
To me, a CRAFT burger is completely different in creation and flavor profile. They can be prepared with delicious creative toppings, a variety of expensive fresh meats, premium aged cheese, with a fancy bakery fresh bun. A craft burger can get expensive depending on how it is created. When it comes to craft burgers my flavor profile has a wide range. I will try anything to see what kind of burger deliciousness a chef has created to achieve the number one tasting burger in the burger wars. There are lots of crazy flavor profiles for craft burgers. Plenty of the craft burger creations have the ability to send your taste buds to the flavor rodeo and have you screaming giddy up with each bite.
Trey’s Chow Downmade a trip to Sarasota, Florida. We were out to investigate and review the amazing BurgerFi. My fellow foodies, trust me this was a fantastic place.
The delicious “CEO” burger, Moo!
BurgerFi states: “We really get cooking with our 100% natural ANGUS and WAYGU beef, free of hormones and antibiotics and chef-driven menu items, like our famous crispy fries and double-battered onion rings — served hot and crunchy with our chef-created sauces. Other favorites include our VegeFi (our own gourmet spin on a veggie burger), Vienna hot dogs with all the fixings, frozen custard, natural sugar cane sodas, and local craft beer and wine. You’ll find the highest level of pride and attention in everything we do.”
I chose to visit the Sarasota location because it was located in a new development area, and is also a new unit for BurgerFi.
came on the scene just a few years ago back in 2011. They’ve already been named in “Top 50 Movers and Shakers” by Fast Casual Magazine. BurgerFi has a BIG list of other awards already in the bag too. Their locations are colorful, clean, open and fresh with beautiful patios.
I received an email from a burger lover who requested I check out Liberty Burger. He thought I would enjoy it, I figured “Why not”?
There are plenty of new burger joints to visit, but it is nearly impossible to visit them all. After I did my due diligence, I thought it necessary to take a ride over to chow down at the DFW Liberty Burger.
Liberty Burger philosophy is, “We are family-owned and Texas-grown, and that’s how we operate. We not only strive to reinvent the all-American concept of the hamburger, but we pledge to be a restaurant with high-quality food, social contribution, and environmental responsibility. We believe in doing things right: sourcing the freshest and highest quality product, finding local bakeries that use only American-grown ingredients, and ensuring that our meats come from responsible sources.
No, it’s not the easiest way to run a restaurant, but it is the right way – and that’s what we are committed to doing. Call us crazy, but Liberty Burger has goals far above the “bottom line.” We hold our values close to our heart and pride ourselves on quality, community, and service. From the beef to the beer to the beverages, Liberty Burger strives to use only family-owned and Texas-grown products and services.
We believe in supporting the communities that support us, and we are thankful for all of your support.”
I just love hamburgers. My family has been involved with burgers ever since I can remember. We’ve sold them in basically every restaurant concept we’ve owned and operated for the past 100 years. We’ve created new burger profiles for our restaurant concepts, and helped with the creation and implementation for others too. My granddad started “Quality Meat and Provision Company” in 1930 in which we produced, boxed, sold and delivered our family hamburger patties to restaurants all over Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
As a boy, I not only worked in our restaurants, but I also worked at our meat company helping make and box hamburgers too. I’ve had so much experience with hamburgers that if there were Masters Degrees for hamburger knowledge, I would have to have had three of them by now at the very least.
Swiss Pastry Killer Bee
Having so much history with hamburgers, I’ve always wondered when and where the hamburger was created. According to Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, the hamburger- a ground meat patty between two slices of bread, was first created in America in the 1900’s by Louis Lassen, a Danish immigrant and owner of Louis’ Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut. Louis Lunch is still in operation today and is a wonderful place with a cozy-looking atmosphere. There are several different versions of stories of when the hamburger was invented- one version is that of German cook, Otto Kuasw- who created a very popular “sailors’ sandwich” made of a fillet of beef fried in butter, served with a fried egg, between two toasted buns in 1891, Hamburg, Germany!
Rapscallion Burger Dallas
Truth be told, it doesn’t really matter to me where it was created, I’m just glad it was! What does matter is bringing you, my Trey’s Chow Down loyal Fans, the best burgers I tasted in 2016.
I urge you try some of them, and share my list with the world for everyone to enjoy!
Burgers are in no certain order. They each are amazing and incredibly flavorful! Please enjoy my list of the best of the most delicious and juicy burgers that I’ve eaten in 2016.
There are plenty of new burger joints to visit, but it is nearly impossible to visit them all. After I did my due diligence, I thought it necessary to take a ride over to chow down at the DFW Liberty Burger.
