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Nominated Your Fave Burger Yet? You've Got One More Week Before Voting Begins In LAist's Tournament Of Cheeseburgers
A double smash burger at Love Hour in Koreatown.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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I'm counting down the minutes and days until we unveil your Top 32 cheeseburgers in all of SoCal next week.
Oh, you haven’t heard? You, our valued readers, are the judges in our intense battle royale, LAist's Tournament of Cheeseburgers.
That's when the best cheeseburger in the land will be decided by your votes.
The response we’ve received so far has been incredible! We've already collected more than 2,500 nominations. But there’s still time to nominate your favorite burger before voting officially begins on Friday, May 24.
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Explore the differences between traditions, from Sichuan’s spicy mala to Japan’s delicate shabu-shabu and Korea’s hearty jeongol. -
These LA-area restaurants could also receive a Bib Gourmand affordable dining award or even a star at the awards event in August. -
Feeling beachy, even if you're not near the ocean? Maybe a quality fish taco could hit the spot.
How it will work
We’ll announce the Top 32 burgers with the most nods on May 24.
Then, your votes will narrow them down to the Savory 16, followed by the Tasty 8, and then finally the Flavorful Four.
It all comes to a head on July 7, when we’ll invite our top contenders to Smorgasburg LA for the event of the summer, and crown the final winner. The event is free.
“We are incredibly excited,” Zach Brooks, the general manager of Smorgasburg LA, told me. “We at Smorgasburg have a long history of cheeseburger love and support."
If you’ve never been to Smorgasburg, this is your time to go. It happens every Sunday just outside DTLA and features a fantastic array of food vendors that serves some of the best fare in Los Angeles, all hand-curated by Brooks. In addition, I Love Micheladas has a beer garden with DJs, along with an artisan craft fair every week.
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From that vantage point, Brooks has a front-row seat to the ever-evolving burger universe.
“I feel like burgers are cyclical,” he said. For a while, "an expensive, thick bistro burger” was all the rage. Then, he said, tastes “swung in the opposite direction with the Smash Burger; you had just the thinnest possible patty with aggressive charring. And now things might swing back in the other direction.”
Brooks said several of Smorgasburg’s regular vendors plan to switch up their traditional menus to offer cheeseburger-themed specials for the tournament. (In the past, Quarantine Pizza Company and Cali Dumpling have made cheeseburger-themed offerings. If we’re lucky, they’ll do it again for this event. Fingers crossed!)
If the possibility of cheeseburger-inspired dumplings, pizza, and a cadre of top-tier SoCal cheeseburgers aren’t enough to get you to Smorgasburg on July 7, what will?
We look forward to seeing you there!
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But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.
We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.
Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
