When Reader Favorite Burgers Get In Bed Together

[Photo: Eva Frye]

After many long days and nights tasting a debilitating quantity of your favorite burgers, we went a little crazy over at Eater HQ. Blame it on the excess cholesterol flowing through our veins or huffing one too many burger fumes, but we came up with something totally inappropriate ingenious: Unholy Unions. We took the nuts and bolts of various Bay Area burgers and recombined their parts to see what creations we could come up with. We let them borrow each other's clothes, if you will. And we liked what we saw.

1)"Le Grand" French Kiss: Starting with the decadent brioche bun from Wayfare Tavern's "Le Grand" burger, we piled up Chez Maman's très French patty, seasoned with herbes de Provence and shallots and Jardiniere's California-style Angus and Wagyu patty with bacon, avocado and Fontina D'Aosta. What takes this French kiss from good to great? No onions.

2) Drunken Buffalo Cody Bleu: Grub's buffalo meat patty and bleu cheese are a natural compliment, but when coupled with B3's bourbon-soaked bacon and a fried Glaum Farm egg, it's electric. Why more restaurants around here don't have a buffalo bleu burger with bourbon bacon and a fried egg is beyond us. This concoction, trust us, is truly as decadent and delicious as it sounds.

3) The Hippie Q-T Patootie: Neighborhood hangout Q Restaurant has a burger on a Telera roll from Panorama that's an Inner Richmond favorite. If that laid-back concoction shacked up with its hippie neighbor Magnolia Pub & Brewery in the Haight, you'd get its half-pound Prather Ranch patty in addition to Q's house-ground Harris Ranch half. Just glancing at this coupling sends us into a food coma.

Hats off to the good burgers at Wayfare Tavern, Chez Maman, Jardiniere, Grub, B3, Q and Magnolia Pub & Brewery for fueling this bout of creativity.

- Eva Frye