Five years ago, a mild-mannered fan of comfort food started a blog.
The first post? A review of East Side Pizza on September 12, 2008, where the fledgling blogger ate a Swiss Alp burger and wrote the following:
I give them points for attempting fresh ground beef at a pizza joint. Burger was good, nothing out of this world but I found the toppings to taste better than the patty itself. I don't get my hopes too high up at pizzerias but this was somewhat of a pleasant surprise. Do try the pizza, it's pretty amazing. Oh yeah, and to prove what a knucklehead I am, I walked right in front of a giant fan when I went to throw away my garbage and it flew into the face of one of the employees, needless to say I didn't turn around, but I did apologize. And I don't want to hear about my photo being blurry, I'm not a photographer. Till next bun, wow yeah that was horrible. alright later"
And thus, a beast was born. Burger Beast -- champion of ground beef and hater of lettuce and tomato. Quickly, Miami tuned in on a regular basis to see what else the Beast would eat and blog about.
Events grew organically from the blog, with owner/writer Sef Gonzalez creating food truck events (and having his own food truck for a while), a video chat called the Grinder, and the Burgie awards, which celebrates local food in much the same way as the Tonys celebrates acting and singing achievement.
Now, five years later, it's time to celebrate. The Burger Beast Blogiversary celebration is tonight, September 23, at Sakaya Kitchen Downtown. From 5 to 10 p.m., you can not only eat Sakaya Kitchen specialties, but you'll be able to try items from Richard Hales' new Blackbrick before it opens. Eating House, Mojo Donuts, and M.E.A.T. Eatery and Tap Room will also offer dishes like a chorizo burger with truffle yuca fries, and freshly baked Key lime pie. All items will be sold a la carte, so you can pick and choose what you like. Beer specials and a raffle of Burger Beast merchandise will also be offered.
Here's a video on how it all went down:
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