The Lowdown: National Burger Day

Free burgers for anyone named Ronald?​
Not quite, although there are plenty of operators offering burger day deals: Bleecker Burger has already said that all mailing list subscribers will get 20% off its menu, and Byron is running a buy one get one free deal. But that’s small fry compared to what other operators have planned.

Tell me more…​
Well for starters there’s MEATliquor’s new flagship site in Marylebone, which right now is in the middle of a mammoth 39.5-hour shift having decided to celebrate its first National Burger Day by not closing its doors. Having opened at half 11 yesterday morning (21 August), it will now not close until three in the morning tomorrow (23 August).

Wow, now that sounds like a party…​
Well, if it’s a party you’re after then maybe head to Street Feast’s annual Bundance too, which takes place at Hawker House in Canary Wharf and will see brands including Red Farm, Mother Flipper, By CHLOE, Salt Shed and Brigadiers join forces in celebration of the beloved menu staple.

Will there be special Burger Day burgers to try out?​
yes, but they certainly won’t be the only ones doing something like that this year. Take Patty & Bun, for example, which will be selling the appropriately named Burger Day Banger – consisting of a double beef patty with aged beef fat mayonnaise and double smoked cheddar inside a sweet brioche bun – at its restaurants all day. Or steakhouse restaurant brand STK, which has put a special Supersize Sharer Burger on the menu at its London site for the day. It features a beef and chorizo patty weighing in at 1.5kg, which will be stacked with chilli-lime marinated tiger prawns and a chipotle and cheddar cheese sauce, sandwiched between a large smoked bacon and parmesan bun. So you can get a sense of the scale, here’s a picture of it next to one of STK’s regular burgers.

Looks tasty! So who actually came up with the idea of National Burger Day?​
The story goes that after it was discovered back in 2014 that the US had two National Burger Days, Britain’s National Burger Day was created by Shortlist’s now defunct newsletter Mr. Hyde, with the last Thursday before the August bank holiday weekend chosen to represent this special day in the culinary calendar; although the reasons for this are not clear.

Fair enough. Anything else?​
Fancy getting a job where you’re paid to eat burgers?

Of course…​
Well then it would be worth getting in touch with frozen food supermarket chain Iceland, which is marking National Burger Day by recruiting a chief burger tester to advise on the development of its summer 2020 range. Applicants will need to submit a photo demonstrating their ‘burger commitment’, and answer a series of questions including what is the best cooking method for a burger, and why; and what are your top three favourite Iceland burgers…