Comments (3) Best Hamburger - 2010

Bar Burgers at Bourbon Steak

The hamburger was named for the German city of Hamburg — although residents of Hamburg, New York, claim it was created in 1885 at the Erie County Fair when vendors Charles and Frank Menches ran out of pork for their sandwiches. It wasn't until 1912 when ground meat patties were actually called "hamburgers," and it didn't occur to folks to throw stuff like lettuce, onions, pickles, and tomatoes on top until the 1930s (1938 is believed to be the year when the first cheeseburgers came about). Nowadays, hamburgers make up about 60 percent of all sandwiches eaten in America — and that doesn't even include the dozens of tofu patties sold. Hamburger joints also seemingly compose 60 percent of the restaurants that have opened in Miami over the past year. This explosion of chopped-beef consciousness has yielded a Burger Bash, a Burger Beast, and all sorts of people proclaiming that the best hamburger is this or that. But we're here to dish the truth: Bourbon Steak's wood-grilled USDA Prime/American Kobe beef hamburger just can't be beat. The charred beauty gets plunked into a sturdy house-baked bun — with a homemade pickle and Tuscan pepper speared through it — along with either house topping of melted farmhouse Cheddar, shredded lettuce, and balsamic-glazed onions, or your choice among six really cool toppings (such as truffle aioli or poached organic egg). That's a lot of bang for $14, and complimentary truffled popcorn precedes the meal. Five bucks more will get you Michael Mina's famous duck-fat fries, and you can wash it all down with a Jim Beam milkshake. Residents of both Hamburgs can eat their hearts out.