Crowds flocked to the Tobacco Warehouse in Dumbo on Friday night for the New York City Wine & Food Festival’s Burger Bash. Twenty-two burgers (and their makers) competed for the title, with Shake Shack taking top honors from the judges, and Bobby Flay getting the People’s Choice award for his nacho burger. With burgers on the brain, we asked around about whether the hamburger’s seemingly unstoppable cultural juggernaut has any obvious culinary successors. “I think that tacos and pizza are just as exciting as burgers,” said Jonathon Sawyer, a sentiment echoed by Katie Lee, while Bobby Flay observed that “fried chicken seems like it’s getting its run.”
Spike Mendelsohn, whose Good Stuff Eatery was serving a bánh mì burger, thinks the Vietnamese sandwich is going to take over the world “very soon.” But it was Rachael Ray who had the most absolute vision. “The hot dog is already sexy,” she told us. “I think the next thing is to shrink them down to slider-size dogs and corn dogs — I myself make a deviled corn dog where the batter is super-spicy … it’s pretty yummy.” Andrew Carmellini — who tells us that he “may or may not” do a burger at his new spot the Dutch — evaded the issue. “I don’t know. I don’t trend,” he told us. “I hate trends. I never follow trends.” Time will tell — and until then, spend your time checking out what you may have missed at the event in our slideshow.
