

But then a tell-tale smell from the kitchen revved our salivary glands.
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No fast-food chain burgers, no outré toppings, no sliders (sorry Canard, you super delicious ode to White Castle).ĬABAL CONSENSUS We arrived at Expatriate one evening last spring, full of burger exhaustion and eater's remorse, slumped in a corner booth. The rules: Classic cheeseburgers only, topped with classic condimentia. Then we set out to eat with one goal: to give you our Top 20 recommendations, ranked. To be considered, a contender had to be nominated by one of us, based on personal experience, reputation, or word-of-mouth buzz. A year ago, Portland Monthly food critic Karen Brooks invited four burger nuts to join the quest: famed fast-food poet-reviewer Bill Oakley, the former Simpsons writer behind the much-memed “Steamed Hams” sketch legendary Portland diner Gary Okazaki (aka Gary the Foodie), and hard-core food couple Drew and Pauline Lewis. Where are they? Which ones would Josh eat?Įnter The Burger Cabal. But when done right, few things in life are more satisfying. To fine-tune each element to perfection, to create a chorus of flavors, to find and release our inner burger endorphins, is no easy task. Any teenage employee or backyard barbecuer can serve up a patty on a bun. Perfecting a classic burger is nowhere near as easy as it seems.

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Across the city, cooks are paying homage to the cheeseburger icons, among them: McDonald's Big Mac (double decker with special sauce), Shake Shack’s ShackBurger (thin, fast-griddled smash burger with lettuce, tomato, and special sauce on a potato roll), and In-N-Out's cheeseburger (frilly lettuce, tomato, onion, and “secret sauce”). To wit: three of the city's best classic cheeseburgers were born in this godforsaken upside-down world. The movement is still steaming, incomprehensibly, during the pandemic. Food carts kicked it off a few years back, followed by Super Deluxe's drive-through rebirth and miles-long line of cars. We're in the midst of a Burger Reformation. Now, in Portland dining's darkest hour, as the very places that won his heart and stomach hang by their fingernails, Ozerky's burger heaven has arrived. But good luck finding a transcendent exaltation of the humble American icon, with its molten American cheese and squishy bun. Weird-ass chef burgers were everywhere, stacked with barbecued pork or perhaps, dear God, donuts.

“Where are the burgers?” he bellowed incessantly. But his hunger was not truly sated before he died in 2015. He found it here, calling Portland “America's New Food Eden” in Time magazine. He prowled the city for honest Americana food, fuel for his legendary anti-modern food screens. Ten years ago, New York food writer Josh Ozersky barreled into Portland for a 36-hour food binge.
