Yesterday, a scrappy underdog team from Virginia Commonwealth University upset the top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks to advance to the NCAA Final Four here in Houston, blowing many people's college basketball brackets entirely to hell.
Well, burger fans, prepare to have your 2011 Burger Bracket shot to hell, too.
In a stunning upset over the weekend, small neighborhood joint Jonathan's the Rub -- until this point, most known for kicking Chron restaurant critic Alison Cook out of its establishment -- won out over what many people predicted to be the No. 1 or No. 2 burger at Vic & Anthony's.
In their tasting notes, The Thomas Family team wrote simply but staunchly:
After careful consideration, we finally decided on Jonathan's the Rub. While both places offered an undeniably juicy burger, Jonathan's delicious flavor and wonderful bun left us all in a happy place. Their cozy neighborhood ambiance also helped make our burger experience great.
But what about the rest of the Final Four burgers?
Photo illustration by Monica Fuentes
And because we know you want to see the rest of those tasting notes, they're all laid out for you below, starting with The Burger Wolf Pack team and the Pub Burger bracket.
Pub Burger
Branch Water Tavern vs. Petrol Station
This was a tough bracket, and coming off our last bracket of steakhouse quality, straight from heaven goodness, we were very, very spoiled. Having noted that, we head to the Petrol Station first for what proved to be a good burger. The meat was cooked perfect and still juicy. It was definitely tasty, and the bun and fixins were perfect.
Next day, we were off to the BWT. We had very high hopes of this velvet-wallpapered hipster joint... but unfortunately, it did not live up. The bun was flaky and dry, the bib lettuce was a poor companion to a burger, and above all the meat was really disappointing. The burger loving child inside of us, was in tears. The kobe beef meat was dry and almost tasteless, and although we all ordered medium-rare, we all received nearly well-done burgers. The final slap in the face, was the two small postage stamp bits of bacon that were hidden on the top of the burger. I can't believe they charge $13 for that burger (which by the way is more than the Vic & Anthony's burger). So, we chose Petrol Station.
Side note to Katharine:
I know this is dangerous Katharine, but it's definitely how we felt. You don't have to post it... but we wanted you to know our thoughts. After we went to the BWT we read the tasting notes of the other judging team for the BWT, and we were all pretty shocked. Maybe we just hit them on a bad day?
