Now that you've gotten to know Miami's hottest burgers right now, it's time we schooled you on the classics. These are the burgers that have kept sizzling through South Florida's toughest times (i.e. hurricanes, drug wars!) and have paved Miami's way to becoming a burger rich city.
Below, we present to you South Florida's 16 most iconic burgers. Arranged in alphabetical order, some of these burgers date as far back as the 70s and have barely been changed, if at all. Others, like Pincho Factory or db Bistro Moderne, are causing burger enthusiasts to shift their focus towards us, proving that South Florida is more than just media noches and a solid Elena Ruiz. We're just as meaty as any other landmass in America, with a little Sazón for flavor.
In 2006 GQ named Le Tub's 13oz sirloin burger the #1 burger in the nation. That was the year everything changed for the 41-year-old eatery, which had been unknown to the masses up until then, hidden behind a barrage of foliage and quirky objects like a painted toilet seat (which still sits there today) along Fort Lauderdale;s Intracoastal. Hell, even Gayle King contested it on Oprah and couldn't disagree. The burger needs no crazy gimmicks. Le Tub's secret is adding a bit of chuck for flavor, which they have delivered every morning, seasoning it a bit, tossing it on the barbecue for twenty minutes, and encasing it in a poppy-seed bun delivered from Cusano's Bakery in Pembroke Park. [Photo]
Danny Serfer's "Real Juicy Cheeseburger" is like putting the best of lunch and breakfast together. A perfectly grilled prime dry aged NY strip steak is garnished with lettuce, tomato, and onion, and then embraced by two Portugese Muffins. It sounds like a soap opera with all the passion, but none of the drama.
Pincho Man has been in business way before it became trendy to eat brie grilled cheese and wood oven pizza out of a four wheel truck. You'll find him parked amidst a bunch of Doral warehouses on Wednesday through Satruday nights starting at 10pm. But don't underestimate the location; people travel here all the way from Broward, and on certain nights the line will span a portion of the parking lot. His "Off the Chain" Burger is an icon. It's basically a frita, with plenty of papitas and special sauce sprinkled in. About the only flaw we see is that the bread is so soft it's hard to hold the burger after a while. But hey, late night can't always be perfect, right?
Right now, fritas are like brussels sprouts; every trendy restaurant wants a version on their menus. But try as other chefs might, this new crop of fritas will never be quite the same as the original from El Rey de Las Fritas. For over 40 years this Miami staple has been family operated and there are now four locations plus a food truck serving the Cuban delicacy (or non-delicacy, because there's nothing delicate about eating a frita), with all the seasoned beef, papitas, fried onions and ketchup you can fit between two crispy white buns plus an egg if you want it "al caballo." Careful, though; overconsumption of these fritas has been proven to cause irrational behavior.
If there's one contribution Miami has made to the burger industry, it is without a doubt the toston burger thanks to Coral Gables and soon-to-open Hialeah hotspot, Pincho Factory. The fried plantains hug together an all natural prime beef burger with jack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and homemade cilantro sauce. It has so much personality, you could practically date it.
Tongue and Cheek's beef cheek burger is unlike any other in town. It's one of Chef Jamie Derosa's signature items– a juicy beef cheek patty tucked between two brioche buns, with only caramelized onions and a pimiento cheese spread as toppings. There's a reason it won the burger brawl on Bravo's Best New Restaurant, and if you've ever tried it, you'd know why.
Madlove once referred to an individual, Eater-approved burger on Latin House's menu, however it now references the 1/2 pound size in which you can get this monstrous burger made of brisket, chuck, and sirloin served in a warm brioche bun. Since we're going for icons here, we'd stick to "The Original," or better put, "The One That Started It All."
Cheeseburger Baby is known for its Saturday night drag bingo, but it's also noted for making a mean cheeseburger. Dubbed "Baby's Fave", this guy is made of crispy bacon, melted cheddar cheese, a fried egg and hand-cut pickles, and it's available all day and night, from 11am to 5 or 6am. It's a simple burger, sure, but aren't the simple things in life the best?
Every burger at Burger & Beer joint is a mini icon in its own right, but none, even put together twice, could compete with "THE MOTHERBURGER." (We write this in all caps because that's how it should be pronounced. THE MO-THER-BUR-GER). At $125, this thing is the size of a manhole cover and could feed your table, your neighbor's table, and his neighbor's table. If you can manage finishing it within two hours it's on the house. Many have tried. Few have conquered...
109 Burger Joint opened this past January, so let us explain why it's on this list. FIU students and Sweetwater residents may remember A&G Burger Joint and its much craved Nica Burger– a half pound of angus beef, queso frito, jalapeño cream, fried sweet plantains, and coleslaw. Well, we searched and we searched and 109 Burger Joint (which happens to have taken over the former A&G space) has the only interpretation we could find. No, it's not the same as the original, but it's as close as you're going to get to this "only in Miami" burger.
Ok, so there is one gourmet frita that could rival El Rey's, and it can be found in Coconut Grove. The "Frita by Kush" is a beautiful, formerly grass-fed piece of beef that's topped with guava jelly, melted Gruyere, Potato Stix, crispy bacon, and a secret LoKal sauce that's on the top of our investigative list. You can also find the burger at LoKal's sister restaurant, Kush, but be warned: it is highly addicting.
Keg South has survived multiple hurricanes and we're sure its "Keg Burger" will survive Miami's shifting food scene. It's a simple burger– a half pound of beef topped with cheese, ketchup, mustard, mayo, lettuce, a slice of tomato, raw onion and a couple of pickle slices if you want them– but the people who grew up in Pinecrest and Kendall have fond memories of slinking through the backdoor and diving into the burger, accompanied with a basket of hand-cut fries.
At about $35, db Bistro Moderne's "db Burger" is one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, burgers in town. This sirloin burger is stuffed with short rib and a loin of foie gras, infused with black truffle, and then encased in a Parmesan bun (watch how it's made). It was recently named Zagat's #1 burger in Miami by scoring a 29 in flavor out of a 30 point scale. So, yeah, we'll splurge. And no, we won't feel guilty.
If our junior high lab looked anything like Jr's burger-inventing "lab," we'd have skipped a lot less. (We'd also be a lot rounder, but who's judging)? The Miami Springs burger joint has conjured many combinations of burgers, ingredients, and toppings, but none as complex as the "Outside Is In" burger, a patty stuffed with so much bacon and cheddar you won't need to add any toppings.
In a world of double digit burgers, it's nice to know you can still get a solid pattie for under $5. For over 40 years Jack's Old Fashion Hamburger House has been grilling simple and tasty burgers the same way, handpressing each freshly ground burger in its kitchen and tucking it in a classic bun. Whether you opt for a "Big Jack," original, or "Jack Jr.," you're biting into a little piece of South Florida history .
It's always a bummer when McDonald's stops serving breakfast past 10am because there is physically no way to get a hash brown, at least not in that crispy, to-go way that you're craving. If that does happen to you, count it as a blessing in disguise because it gives you a chance to stuff your face with Charm City Burger Company's "The Big Sloppy." It's double everything– double meat, double cheese, and double bacon– topped with a Micky D's style hash brown and a fried egg.
In 2006 GQ named Le Tub's 13oz sirloin burger the #1 burger in the nation. That was the year everything changed for the 41-year-old eatery, which had been unknown to the masses up until then, hidden behind a barrage of foliage and quirky objects like a painted toilet seat (which still sits there today) along Fort Lauderdale;s Intracoastal. Hell, even Gayle King contested it on Oprah and couldn't disagree. The burger needs no crazy gimmicks. Le Tub's secret is adding a bit of chuck for flavor, which they have delivered every morning, seasoning it a bit, tossing it on the barbecue for twenty minutes, and encasing it in a poppy-seed bun delivered from Cusano's Bakery in Pembroke Park. [Photo]
Danny Serfer's "Real Juicy Cheeseburger" is like putting the best of lunch and breakfast together. A perfectly grilled prime dry aged NY strip steak is garnished with lettuce, tomato, and onion, and then embraced by two Portugese Muffins. It sounds like a soap opera with all the passion, but none of the drama.
Pincho Man has been in business way before it became trendy to eat brie grilled cheese and wood oven pizza out of a four wheel truck. You'll find him parked amidst a bunch of Doral warehouses on Wednesday through Satruday nights starting at 10pm. But don't underestimate the location; people travel here all the way from Broward, and on certain nights the line will span a portion of the parking lot. His "Off the Chain" Burger is an icon. It's basically a frita, with plenty of papitas and special sauce sprinkled in. About the only flaw we see is that the bread is so soft it's hard to hold the burger after a while. But hey, late night can't always be perfect, right?
Right now, fritas are like brussels sprouts; every trendy restaurant wants a version on their menus. But try as other chefs might, this new crop of fritas will never be quite the same as the original from El Rey de Las Fritas. For over 40 years this Miami staple has been family operated and there are now four locations plus a food truck serving the Cuban delicacy (or non-delicacy, because there's nothing delicate about eating a frita), with all the seasoned beef, papitas, fried onions and ketchup you can fit between two crispy white buns plus an egg if you want it "al caballo." Careful, though; overconsumption of these fritas has been proven to cause irrational behavior.
If there's one contribution Miami has made to the burger industry, it is without a doubt the toston burger thanks to Coral Gables and soon-to-open Hialeah hotspot, Pincho Factory. The fried plantains hug together an all natural prime beef burger with jack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and homemade cilantro sauce. It has so much personality, you could practically date it.
Tongue and Cheek's beef cheek burger is unlike any other in town. It's one of Chef Jamie Derosa's signature items– a juicy beef cheek patty tucked between two brioche buns, with only caramelized onions and a pimiento cheese spread as toppings. There's a reason it won the burger brawl on Bravo's Best New Restaurant, and if you've ever tried it, you'd know why.
Madlove once referred to an individual, Eater-approved burger on Latin House's menu, however it now references the 1/2 pound size in which you can get this monstrous burger made of brisket, chuck, and sirloin served in a warm brioche bun. Since we're going for icons here, we'd stick to "The Original," or better put, "The One That Started It All."
Cheeseburger Baby is known for its Saturday night drag bingo, but it's also noted for making a mean cheeseburger. Dubbed "Baby's Fave", this guy is made of crispy bacon, melted cheddar cheese, a fried egg and hand-cut pickles, and it's available all day and night, from 11am to 5 or 6am. It's a simple burger, sure, but aren't the simple things in life the best?
Every burger at Burger & Beer joint is a mini icon in its own right, but none, even put together twice, could compete with "THE MOTHERBURGER." (We write this in all caps because that's how it should be pronounced. THE MO-THER-BUR-GER). At $125, this thing is the size of a manhole cover and could feed your table, your neighbor's table, and his neighbor's table. If you can manage finishing it within two hours it's on the house. Many have tried. Few have conquered...
109 Burger Joint opened this past January, so let us explain why it's on this list. FIU students and Sweetwater residents may remember A&G Burger Joint and its much craved Nica Burger– a half pound of angus beef, queso frito, jalapeño cream, fried sweet plantains, and coleslaw. Well, we searched and we searched and 109 Burger Joint (which happens to have taken over the former A&G space) has the only interpretation we could find. No, it's not the same as the original, but it's as close as you're going to get to this "only in Miami" burger.
Ok, so there is one gourmet frita that could rival El Rey's, and it can be found in Coconut Grove. The "Frita by Kush" is a beautiful, formerly grass-fed piece of beef that's topped with guava jelly, melted Gruyere, Potato Stix, crispy bacon, and a secret LoKal sauce that's on the top of our investigative list. You can also find the burger at LoKal's sister restaurant, Kush, but be warned: it is highly addicting.
Keg South has survived multiple hurricanes and we're sure its "Keg Burger" will survive Miami's shifting food scene. It's a simple burger– a half pound of beef topped with cheese, ketchup, mustard, mayo, lettuce, a slice of tomato, raw onion and a couple of pickle slices if you want them– but the people who grew up in Pinecrest and Kendall have fond memories of slinking through the backdoor and diving into the burger, accompanied with a basket of hand-cut fries.
At about $35, db Bistro Moderne's "db Burger" is one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, burgers in town. This sirloin burger is stuffed with short rib and a loin of foie gras, infused with black truffle, and then encased in a Parmesan bun (watch how it's made). It was recently named Zagat's #1 burger in Miami by scoring a 29 in flavor out of a 30 point scale. So, yeah, we'll splurge. And no, we won't feel guilty.
If our junior high lab looked anything like Jr's burger-inventing "lab," we'd have skipped a lot less. (We'd also be a lot rounder, but who's judging)? The Miami Springs burger joint has conjured many combinations of burgers, ingredients, and toppings, but none as complex as the "Outside Is In" burger, a patty stuffed with so much bacon and cheddar you won't need to add any toppings.
In a world of double digit burgers, it's nice to know you can still get a solid pattie for under $5. For over 40 years Jack's Old Fashion Hamburger House has been grilling simple and tasty burgers the same way, handpressing each freshly ground burger in its kitchen and tucking it in a classic bun. Whether you opt for a "Big Jack," original, or "Jack Jr.," you're biting into a little piece of South Florida history .
It's always a bummer when McDonald's stops serving breakfast past 10am because there is physically no way to get a hash brown, at least not in that crispy, to-go way that you're craving. If that does happen to you, count it as a blessing in disguise because it gives you a chance to stuff your face with Charm City Burger Company's "The Big Sloppy." It's double everything– double meat, double cheese, and double bacon– topped with a Micky D's style hash brown and a fried egg.
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