How do you like your burger?
This summer nine friends will covertly have lunch at large and small gourmet restaurants and greasy spoons from Pensacola to Milton on their quest for the best beef, bun, veggie (or not), and condiment hamburger. The Pensacola Burger Tour is back (once known as the Northwest Florida Burger Tour) with a single mission: to find the best burger in the greater Pensacola area. Wednesday, the group hit its third spot on its third tour, Five Guys at Cordova Commons on Airport Blvd.
To keep the tour as pure as possible, the nine-member panel go by nicknames. “The Yankee” is the leader and the person who updates the website. The PBT members also sometimes sit separately, Yankee said, so as not to attract attention. Though remaining anonymous, the group will leave behind a Pensacola Burger Tour business card.
The Yankee said the group focuses on one thing: taste. They don’t grade by costs, restaurant cleanliness, or staff friendliness. However, the members do have their own tastes and new this year, The Yankee said, results will include not only a total average score but each individual member’s tally with his burger preference. The Accountant, for example, likes his burger without tomato while The Coach orders his without onion or ketchup.
To level the playing field a bit, The Yankee said the panel limits the toppings on a burger to standard vegetables like lettuce, onion, and pickles, and condiments: ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. He said the panel found bacon can add a whole point to the score so it’s not allowed. This means Red Robin’s Banzai Burger and the Tin Cow’s Greek Burger are out.
The tour began in 2008 when The Yankee said nine friends walked into The Oval Office in Milton for lunch. While eating their burgers, one member declared The Oval Office had the best in town. Another said he preferred Blue Dot in Pensacola. After some discussion, one of the members had each cast a secret vote on a napkin to rate the burger they just consumed. The following week they met for Blue Dot burgers and cast more votes, but another pointed out they needed to visit Jerry’s Diner, a Pensacola institution.
“This sparked a wildfire of conversation amongst the group about other great burgers: Fish House, The Times Grill and McGuire’s were each mentioned,” from the PBT’s website “The Story” section, “And so the Tour was born.”
The Yankee said the first tour received numerous suggestions and the group visited 25 purveyors of grilled ground beef. He said they went again in 2012 after noticing the original website, despite years old information, received 85 visitors a month. “They were people from Ohio and Chicago,” he said, visitors looking for good food in the area.
While the panel takes its work seriously, The Yankee stressed the comradery of the group of friends. He said one member has had career and relationship troubles. While on the tour, he told The Yankee, “I can’t tell you what this means to me.”
Another aspect of the group The Yankee mentioned was its diversity. “We’re nine guys from different walks of life, a banker, a carpenter, an engineer.”
The Yankee said he required the members to submit a description of the perfect hamburger, “so they would know when they found it.” He said, “Mine goes something like this: It begins with a soft, buttery bun. Grilled preferably, making it soft on top while crispy and buttery on the side that faces the burger- this keeps it from becoming soggy. The bun should be minimal in size- existing primarily to keep my fingers from sinking into delicious beef.
The beef? I like my burgers cooked medium with a strip of pink in the middle. I enjoy beef that has not been previously frozen or over handled- a juicy beef that almost crumbles as you eat it. Well seasoned with salt and pepper and not much else- no fillers or mix-ins such as breadcrumbs, eggs or steak sauce.
American cheese is my favorite on burgers- melted so perfectly on top that it can't be peeled off the burger.
Veggies; a thin slice of one perfectly ripe tomato, crispy cold iceberg lettuce and a slice of raw onion will do. I also appreciate a crispy dill pickle slice. I especially love when these fresh veggies are served as cold as possible; it provides such a great contrast against a hot burger.
The challenging part is incorporating these ingredients in the right amount. Maybe the perfect ratios would be 30/50/20?”
So far between the two stops covered Jerry’s Drive In and Tops, Jerry’s scored higher with a 5.64 over Tops with 5.17. The Yankee scored both of the burgers the same score without mayo with 6.25 but the Engineer scored Jerry’s a whole point higher than Tops. He eats his burgers without pickles.
Members of the tour are named Yankee, Computer Whiz, Accountant, Construction Worker, Engineer, Banker, Coach, Preacher and Carpenter. Their bios are listed on the website without a name and a celebrity lookalike profile photo.
Hungry yet? Keep up with the 2015 Pensacola Burger Tour at their website and #PBT2015 on Twitter and Instagram. Want to recommend a tour spot? Go to their website atwww.pensacolaburgertour.com.
2009’s Top Ten
The Top 10
8.94 – Fish House
8.89 – Bonefish Grill
8.61 – Blue Dot
8.50 – Oval Office
7.79 – McGuire's
7.61 – CJ's
7.50 – Tops
7.50 – Mesquite Charlie's
7.50 – Crazy Horse
7.36 – Times Grill
7.33 – Kooter Brown's
7.07 – Madison's Diner
2012 Results
1. The Blue Dot 8.80
2. Porchetta’s8.30
3. The Oval Office 8.20
4. Bonefish Grill 8.03
5.The Fish House 8.01
6. The Tin Cow 7.60
7. McGuire's Irish Pub 7.57
8. The Grand Marlin 7.38
9. Five Sisters 7.28
10. Tippy’s Tavern 6.86
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Burger Tour is back