The obvious star for any burger is the patty, but Uptown Tavern’s food and beverage manager Rob Little says their offerings have a very important supporting cast.
“All the components are essential in a good burger, but if I had to pick one part that is totally overlooked all the time, it’s the bun,” said Little. “Obviously that’s not the only thing we focus on, but we put a lot of time and energy into finding the right bun. Our buns are custom made by a local baker. It’s a nice cheese bun that is done for us.”
Uptown Tavern’s Guinness Burger is among burgers from around the community competing to be named Nelson’s Best Burger.
“We hear from customers all the time that it’s the best burger in town,” said Little. “Everyone really likes it. The funny thing is no one ever talks about how good the bun is. I don’t hear that from guests, but I can tell you it’s an essential component and if we actually substituted it out we wouldn’t get the same feedback. It’s kind of like hanging a Van Gogh on the worst wallpapered wall ever. It needs to have a good backdrop.”
In addition to the great bun, Uptown’s Guinness Burger is topped with housemade Guinness beer battered onion rings along with all the usual suspects: lettuce and tomato.
While the bun plays an important role in the burger, Little said the standout is clearly the patty.
“The biggest thing we do with our patties is we take all of the butcher block reserved AAA prime beef from Louie’s Steakhouse that is left over from all our steaks and we grind that up,” he said. “Our burgers aren’t made from regular chuck, they’re made from the best beef you can buy in the country.”
But to Little, what makes Uptown’s burgers the best isn’t the beef, the bun or the sauce, it’s something that happens in the kitchen.
“Everything here is made with heart and love and that makes a big difference. That stands on its own to tell you the truth,” he said.
Vote for the best burger at nelsonstar.com/contests.