I was so surprised to hear our name get called as one of the winners in the Corporate Division of last weekend's Burger Wars charity event here in Opelika! My son Jeremy and I were tired, sweaty, and greasy but happy after a solid 4 hours of cooking and serving over 180 burger quarters to the seemingly never ending line of hungry people. It all started the week before back in Nashville where we put our heads together to come up with our entry in the contest, "The Glampburger". Jeremy had a great idea to do a twist on a classic bacon mushroom swiss burger by putting the bacon and mushrooms right inside the patty. We experimented with different bacons and mushrooms and made 9 test burgers, but ended up being disappointed with all of them. The wrong blend of meat and a couple of prep errors left us puzzled and a little worried about what we would end up serving in just a week!
After some online research to find the perfect burger we gave it another try the day before the competition and were both excited with the result. We subbed out the bacon for a favorite local smoked sausage and got the right blend chuck freshly ground, topped it with a crispy beer battered onion ring made with beer from the local Red Clay Brewery and ended up with a delicious juicy burger! Garnished with a Wickles pickle and celery stuffed with local pimento cheese and we had a winner!
The next morning we were up early to get our booth setup in what appeared to be a looming rainstorm. It did rain for about 20 minutes then cleared out just in time! We were really psyched to introduce "The Destination" to the public with a big banner, pictures of our Bushtech Safari tents, and a free weekend giveaway drawing. We had over 100 entries and want to say thanks again to everyone who participated. Congrats to Janet Moore, our winner, who will get a free two night stay for two some time next year after we get opened.
Here's a couple more pics of our booth! Can't wait for next year!
