Get your fanciest sweat pants ready, because September is looking like an indulgent month for eating here in Winnipeg.
Starting on the first, Le Burger Week (September 1-7) kicks off a multi-city event which will see 40 Winnipeg restaurants competing with their best effort in a bun.
Then, for one night only on Thursday, September 10th, The Poutine Cup will take place at Fort Gibraltar which will see 10 Winnipeg restaurants competing with their updates on the Quebec classic. Two cups will be up for grabs, with judges choice (with yours truly being one) and people's choice. Tickets are on sale as of this morning, so get them here before they sell out (which they will).
You can tip your hat and blame the impending waistline expansion on the folks from Charcoal Collaborative, who have once again brought these tasty events to town (I for one will be submitting my yoga membership payment to them for September).
All the Instagram kids are excited about Deer+Almond's "big trouble in little China" burger this year (Brett Howe/Charcoal Collaborative)
Let's start with burgers, as I'll be covering The Poutine Cup after the event.
This is the third year Le Burger Week has taken hold of Winnipeg. With 40 competing restaurants, you'd be a mad fool to try and eat every one -- but if you do, please let me know so I can shake your hand and take your pulse. #meatsweats.
Over 200 restaurants will be competing this year in host cities Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Last year saw some ridiculous entries in Winnipeg with Nuburger receiving the most votes. Nuburger (when it was still called Unburger) also took top honours in the inaugural year with their Shang-awesome burger -- so it is up to the 39 other participants this year to knock them off their two-time defending patty pedestal.
Last year Bernstein's Deli made the top three which their "Don't have a cow man.. Turkey Burger" hopes to better (Brett Howe/Charcoal Collaborative)
In 2013 there were some ground rules (pun intended) whereby the burgers had to all be $10 and have cheese. Last year they scrapped these rules and opened it right up to entries that could blow away both your tastebuds and do some damage to your credit card statement -- a format which continues this year.
This year voting will take place via an app only (and a fancy app at that -- it even tells you how close you are to competing burger joints), which you can download here.
In anticipation, Charcoal's Brett Howe has been busy photographing a lot of this year's entries which you can find here if this post doesn't have enough burger porn for you.
The Mitchell Block's 2015 entry looks to involve squid ink aioli which already makes it awesome (Brett Howe/Charcoal Collaborative)
So go hit that treadmill, because starting Tuesday you are in for a marathon of meat (and hopefully some veggie options too... )
Note: the top image is of Marion Street Eatery's entry for 2015.
