{"id":10861,"date":"2015-07-19T14:22:42","date_gmt":"2015-07-19T14:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/?p=10861"},"modified":"2015-07-20T14:37:37","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T14:37:37","slug":"the-hat-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/the-hat-trick\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hat Trick"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Slide02-072015\"
\n(Team Willow. Clockwise from lower right, owner and executive chef Tracey O’Grady and assistant, Official Logo of the 2015 BRGR Bash; Legendary chef Robert, now of Tonic downtown; Brian Wolken and assistant; Heather Small and lower center, award winning Burger Bash champions with house made Tater Tots. Photos Socotra).<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t normally have a burger for breakfast, much less a gourmet model, but we are in historic country this morning. Tracey O\u2019Grady\u2019s Willow restaurant team has accomplished the unbelievable: they beat fifteen other outstanding restaurants in the Burger Brawl, and pulled off the three-pete, accomplished the hat trick of burgerdom, and won the \u201cbest burger in DC\u201d trophy for the third consecutive year.<\/p>\n

\"ris-072015\"
\n(Team Ris. Very personable ladies. Photo Socotra).<\/p>\n

Unreal. The burger I am eating right now is from DC\u2019s Ris, a high end bistro down on L St NW . Their burgers were quite good- they specialize in ” seasonal New American cuisine in a modern, sophisticated space. ” Jon-without and I had two tickets left after eating our first three from Willow, Big Buns, and the remarkable offering from Medium Rare, whose valiant attempt featured sliders topped with a sunny-side up quail egg. They cracked a thousand of them, according to their managing chef:<\/p>\n

\"quail2-072015\"
\nOur complaint about Big Buns was that there was too much bun- but what else would you expect? The offering was topped by a tasty morsel of sausage.<\/p>\n

\"big
\nAlright, so I am getting ahead of myself. I picked up Jon-without at noon sharp in the Police Cruiser, the only vehicle really appropriate to drive to Rosslyn along the vibrant Wilson Boulevard Corridor.<\/p>\n

\"jon.2-072015\"
\nWe were a little concerned about what was going to happen. The sixteen vendors were obviously going to be gunning for Willow this year and were likely to pull out all the stops to do it. We were concerned about parking, as well, but found a space for five bucks in the office complex across from Gateway Park, which was fenced off to keep the riff-raff out and the beer drinkers in.<\/p>\n

Heather had comped us a pair of \u201cFlight A\u201d tickets, so it was just going to be the beer we had to pay for- and the t-shirt, of course. They sold the beer tokens for $5 at the front gate, and threw us a five-for-the-price-four deal.<\/p>\n

The selection of beers was outstanding, with offerings from DC Brau, Atlas Brew Works, Old Bust Head and Old Ox Brewery. I don\u2019t drink beer very often any more, but what the hell. This promised to be a friendly ground-round smack-down among sixteen of the best chefs and restaurants in the DELMARVA region.<\/p>\n

\"beer-2-072015\"<\/p>\n

As non-VIP a ticket holders, we were assigned to \u201cFlight A,\u201d the four grill tents immediately facing the stage where a fantastic band called \u201cJeff From Accounting\u201d was playing their hearts out.<\/p>\n

\"Screen-Shot-2015-07-19-at-7.44\"<\/p>\n

Due to leg problems, I walk unsteadily these days, but the rendition of classic arena rock hits and modern tunes had me attempting to dance. They rock. We were entitled to four sliders, one each from Willow, Big Buns, Ris and Medium Rare. A VIP ticket got you free beer and all sixteen sliders, though I have no idea how you could get through more than a couple. We paced ourselves and drank several excellent English Pale Ales from the Old Bust Head folks out in Fauquier county.<\/p>\n

There was a lot at stake in the competition. Willow was gunning for the three-pete, of course, and was placing their undefeated record on the table. The winning team takes home the prestigious trophy, a four-day, three-night \u2018Eatcation\u2019 in Austin, Texas, and burger bragging rights for a year. The runner-up snags four Diamond Club tickets to a Nats home game and the Silver BRGR trophy.<\/p>\n

MEATING THE COMPETITION<\/p>\n

Sixteen of the DMV\u2019s best chefs and restaurants grilling up custom 2.5 oz. beef blended burgers.
\nWillow Restaurant of Ballston: Two time defending champ, led by Chef Tracy O\u2019Grady. Last year\u2019s trick was to smoke the beef and pan-sear it in duck fat. This year, I can now reveal, it was to toast the house-made Kate Jansen rolls in a butter mixed with bacon drippings. Unreal.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Boundary Stone of Bloomingdale: Last year’s runner-up was going to reprise their tasty beet and Blue cheese burger with a house-made bacon jam.
\nThe other fourteen were hungry for a win:<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Cafe Saint-Ex | Representing 14th Street
\n1905 | Representing Shaw
\nBurger Tap & Shake | Representing Foggy Bottom
\nFainting Goat | Representing U Street
\nThe Liberty Tavern and Lyon Hall | Representing Clarendon
\nPlan B Burger Bar | Representing Penn Quarter
\nBrickside Food & Drink | Representing Bethesda
\nChef Geoff\u2019s | Representing Tysons
\nBig Buns | Representing Ballston
\nCitizen Burger Bar | Representing Clarendon
\nMedium Rare | Representing Cleveland Park
\nMad Fox Brewing Co. | Representing Falls Church
\nThe Georgetown Grilling Society | Representing Georgetown
\nRIS | Representing DC’s West End Neighborhood<\/p>\n

\"tower-of-burgers-072015\"<\/p>\n

Jon and I toured all sixteen tents, though we only managed to eat three sliders. The skies cleared and the temperatures soared. We decided to have one last brew and cast our votes, for Willow, of course,I forget what happened after that- something to do with the pool, I think, and an impromptu party on my patio back at Big Pink. It was a marvelous afternoon, and since the festivities back at Gateway Park went on until six P.M. I did not know who had carried the day in the burger shoot-out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"vote-2-072015\"
\nIn the morning I made the coffee and hit the computer to check the national news and no one had picked it up yet. Ditto for Traffic and Weather on the 8\u2019s on the radio. Then suddenly I realized that social media was the way to find out what had happened, and wen I hit Heather\u2019s Facebook page I shouted loud enough to wake Joe, my neighbor:<\/p>\n

\"Screen-Shot-2015-07-19-at-10.19\"<\/p>\n

Victory for Team Willow!<\/p>\n

Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com
\nTwitter: @jayare303<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Team Willow. Clockwise from lower right, owner and executive chef Tracey O’Grady and assistant, Official Logo of the 2015 BRGR Bash; Legendary chef Robert, now of Tonic downtown; Brian Wolken and assistant; Heather Small and lower center, award winning Burger Bash champions with house made Tater Tots. Photos Socotra). I don\u2019t normally have a burger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10861"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10879,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10861\/revisions\/10879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}