National Burger Festival opens in Akron
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 06:16 p.m. EDT, Jul 17, 2010
Akron might be best known as the Rubber City, but for two days this weekend, Lock 3 Park and downtown Akron were transformed into ''Burgeropolis'' as the fifth annual National Burger Festival got under way Saturday.
Thirty hamburger and other food vendors lined South Main Street to offer their wares to hungry festival goers.
With the temperature hovering around 90 degrees, a few hundred folks made their way up and down the street carefully selecting where to spend the food tickets they had purchased.
The festival brought burger lovers from all over the state, including Kristen and Jamie Shirley from Columbus.
They were looking for something to do, did a computer search of festivals and found the Web site. They hopped on their Harley to make the trip just to get good burgers and check out Evil Ways, the Carlos Santana tribute band that performed three sets of the Latin rocker's music.
''Ohio is great for festivals. People I know out of state say you guys have so many festivals for anything and everything. It's great,'' Kristen Shirley said.
They were standing in one of two long lines for the Windsor Pub, which was serving up its eponymously named burger featuring a big beefy pattie, mushrooms, provolone cheese, onions and mayonnaise.
''We saw all the people in line and thought, this must be the place,'' Jamie Shirley said.
Though surrounded by many good choices, they were pretty sure they had room for only one burger each.
''He might be able to eat one later, but I can't,'' Kristen said.
''It's a long ride home. She'll fall asleep on the bike and slide off'' if she had a second burger, Jamie said, laughing.
The burger choices included big chains such as Steak 'n Shake and White Castle as well as local favorites, including Metro Burger, Barley House and Menches Brothers.
There were also plenty of nonburger choices, including the Waffle Man and Stevereno's Peppers.
At Lock 3 Park, a few people were enjoying the Ms. Hamburger Festival competition, which included a trivia contest in which the 14 smiling, dolled-up contestants answered tough burger-related questions, such as ''What year did McDonald's introduce the Big Mac?'' Answer: 1968.
Most food vendors appeared to be doing brisk business selling burgers as fast they could make them.
At the Menches Brothers booth, Kim Hogg of Akron was making sure the grill masters were keeping up with the demand.
The restaurant, started by the family that claims to have invented the hamburger, has participated and competed in all five of the Akron festivals and has taken home awards. But the hardware isn't the only reason it is a festival regular.
''You get to bring the burgers to the people. People who haven't heard of or been by the restaurant to see us can try the burgers here,'' Hogg said.
She said that Menches will probably serve around 1,000 burgers during the festival with the notion that it will be memorable for first-timers and repeat eaters.
''We didn't just make them first. We make them best,'' she said.
The festival continues Sunday from noon to 7 p.m. with such activities as a miniature burger contest, live music from '50s and '60s cover band 45 RPM and the amateur-division best-burger competition.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
