Two Down, 48 To Go

This weekend was the Vermont Brewers Festival, which was like the Brattleboro Brewers Festival on steroids. More tents, more beers, more people, more sessions, more everything! You can read about it here.

The most important thing about the Brewers Festival is that it is held in Burlington, which just happens to be the home of Vermont's best cheeseburger! It's called the Scibek Sizzler, but it may also be called the Scibec Sizzler. More on that later.

Vermont's best burger can be found at a place called The Shopping Bag. Much like its name would suggest, this place is a convenience store. As soon as we walked inside, I thought we had made a mistake. This place does not look like a burger place at all. I also thought that I was about to get beaten severely by the people I was with, because I had just made them walk a mile (half of it uphill) to get to this place. Seriously, take a look.

This does not look like the place that you're going to find the best cheeseburger in the state. Or really even find a cheeseburger period. Luckily, we saw this sign. It made me think we might be in the right place. You can also see the name difficulties that I'm having. Food Network uses the "k" and the sign uses the "c." What the hell!?

Either way, we ordered some up. James and I got the real deal minus the mayo because mayo is gross and no matter what Kathryn says, it still counts as the best burger without mayo. If Kathryn keeps up her mayo attitude, she's going to find herself sleeping in a dumpster. Kathryn got the mini-Sizzler, which is actually the size of a normal cheeseburger. Dianna and other Jon split a normal Sizzler, meaning that James and I are the burger champs. Check these things out! And yes, I asked Big Al if I could document the burger process before I started randomly taking pictures in the store.

We've got freshly ground beef, some Montreal steak seasoning, 2 kinds of cheeses (looked like American and Provolone from my perspective), bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles, ketchup and mustard. As I just said, mayo was also an option, but if you're going to be putting mayo on your burgers, we're not going to be talking. Seriously, go away. The final product was enormous. I don't think the next picture does justice to the sheer size of this burger.

What you really need is a picture of me trying to eat it. Then you can see just how large it is. I look like a boa constrictor.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I dislocated my jaw eating this burger. And it was fantastic. I don't have a lot of burger experience in Vermont, but this seems like a reasonable choice for the state's best. And it costs $5.39. You can't beat that. Next time you're in Burlington, head over to North St. (not North Ave, as apparently the people who named the streets in Ludlow also had a hand in street naming up in Vermont) and get yourself one of these beasts.

-Jon

Brewers Festivals are Awesome

This was the first brewers festival of any type that I have attended, and it was great. The closest thing to it that I have been to was the Taste of Springfield, which sucked. Everything was overpriced, and it was in Springfield. The First Annual Brattleboro Brewers Festival, on the other hand, was not overpriced (because Kathryn bought my ticket for me. Thanks!) and was not in Springfield. Also, it was focused mainly on beer, which is obviously an improvement for me. I mean, how much food can you possibly eat compared to how many beers you can try? Exactly. Since I knew I was going to be having all new beers, I drank a Summer Ale right before we left, just out of respect for Sam. 86 and counting.

There were a whole lot of beers I tried, so I wrote that part of the story over there. (Dear Jon, could you please make the last 2 words there into a link to the other blog at some point? Thanks, Jon)

After the festival ended, Diana & other Jon, Laura, Kathryn and I went to get dinner at this place called The Marina up the road from where the festival had been taking place. It was nice if you like places that overlook ponds that are covered in tons of pollen. I got the Bacon Burger, which was disappointing. I ordered medium rare as usual, and got whatever you call it when there is just barely a hint of pink, as if the guy cooking it had forgotten what he was doing until the last possible second before it turns well done. If I had wanted to eat a charcoal briquet, we would have stopped at Hannaford's instead. Also, the fries were garbage. I ate like 6 of them, hoping that things would improve. Sadly, I had no such luck. Luckily, I ate a couple delicious things at the festival, and I know that we will be going to the Mohawk Diner in the morning (I hope the blueberry pancakes are available!), so the weekend was not a total food loss. Plus, there were all the beers. Go read about those.

-Jon