Burger Cup Sweet 16: Five New Faces and One Shock Ousting
Our Burger Cup brackets just got that much sweeter.
Your second-round votes have cut the top 32 patties to a mere 16 contenders, trimming the field in half as we roll toward the gut-busting battle for Beijing’s Best Burger.
In the spirit of healthy competition, you burger fanatics favored one underdog this round: Fifth-seeded Caravan defeated Let’s Burger to pull off one the Burger Cup’s bigger upsets thus far. It was our closest contest yet, and the win for the Moroccan restaurant, sports bar, and music venue gives them a chance to rematch with Cannon’s Burgers in the Elite Eight round, should both advance this week. That'll make for a suitable exciting rematch given that Cannon’s ousted Caravan ahead of the Sweet 16 in last year's tournament.
All four of the cup’s top seeds in each bracket this year prevailed, with newcomer Side Street stacking up against 2017 Burger Cup king Q Mex, Great Leap, and Slow Boat Brewery as the Final Four slides closer to the ultimate grilling showdown.
Newbies are all the rage this year, with Side Street joining four others in the Sweet 16 round: Hulu; 3 Little Pigs by Andy’s Craft Sausages; Common Burger @ ARCADE by Hatchery; and The Great Outdoors.
In another closely heated race, 3 Little Pigs by Andy’s Craft Sausages barely edged out Plan B, one of last year’s top dozen burgers; other 2017 favorites who bit the dust this week were Fatboy’s (last year’s #7) and Katchup (#11). And here’s something to chew on this round: 3 Little Pigs by Andy’s Craft Sausages must prove its piggy power when it battles reigning burger champ Q Mex in Bracket B.
Turns out our gut had it right: Showing up at the Beijing Burger Festival appears to have given vendors quite the advantage, with 11 of our Sweet 16 contenders flipping burgers in-person for the estimated crowd of 14,000. This past weekend, one-third of you told us that a restaurant’s physical presence at the Burger Fest inspired you to cast a ballot.
As part of our annual battle of the condiments, we were not shocked to hear your preference for ketchup prevails, even if the red stuff barely beat out mustard this year, with mayonnaise bringing up the rear.
Last round, we also discovered that nearly 80 percent of respondents chow down on a burger at least once a week, and over the course of a typical month consume almost 10 burgers. How does that rank up there with your habits?
On that note, it's time to up your (already worryingly high!) averages, and don't fail us now as the competition gallops towards a tense finish. You have from now until midday this Thursday, Jun 28, to ensure your burger faves makes it through to the Elite Eight round!
Sweet 16 Matches
Bracket A
*Slow Boat (1) vs *Hulu (4)
*Home Plate BBQ (2) vs Cannon’s Burgers (3)
Bracket B
*Q Mex (1) vs *3 Little Pigs by Andy’s Craft Sausages (4)
Blue Frog (2) vs The Local (3)
Bracket C
*Great Leap (1) vs *Caravan (5)
Jing-A (2) vs *Common Burger @ ARCADE by Hatchery (3)
Bracket D
*Side Street (1) vs Arrow Factory (4)
*Fatburger (2) vs *The Great Outdoors (3)
Full results of the Round of 32
Bracket A
*Slow Boat (1) cruised past Biteapitta (8)
*Home Plate BBQ (2) thumped *Joe’s Bar and Kitchen (7)
Cannon’s Burgers (3) blasted *The Butchers Club (6)
*Hulu (4) squashed Katchup (5)
Bracket B
*Q Mex (1) qrushed *QS (8)
Blue Frog (2) sliced The Cheesecake Factory (7)
The Local (3) rolled Fatboy’s (6)
*3 Little Pigs by Andy’s Craft Sausages (4) oinked Plan B (5)
Bracket C
*Great Leap (1) bounded by Ramo (8)
Jing-A (2) clovered Paddy O'Shea's (7)
*Common Burger @ ARCADE by Hatchery (3) smacked *Bodensee Kitchen (6)
*Caravan (5) topples Let's Burger (4)
Bracket D
*Side Street (1) rang *The Bell (8)
*Fatburger (2) stuffed Stuff’d (7)
*The Great Outdoors (3) boxed 4corners (6)
Arrow Factory (4) hit a bullseye against Lily’s American Diner (5)
The voting schedule as it remains:
Burger Cup Sweet 16:
Jun 25-28
Burger Cup Elite Eight:
Jun 28-July 3
Burger Cup Final Four:
Jul 3-6
Championship Round:
Jul 6-9
Finally, as we do every year, we asked you to rank the remaining venues that did not make the Top 32. Your responses represent the venues’ final standings in the 2018 Burger Cup:
33. XL Bar
34. Laker's
35. East Hotel
36. Migas Mercado
37. Beersmith Gastropub
38. Punjabi
39. Waspark
40. de Refter
41. Lush
42. Grandma's Kitchen
43. Tim's Texas Bar-B-Q
44. Bistrot B
45. Veggie Table
46. Legend Beer
47. 1F
48. VSports Bar and Restaurant
49. Panda Brew
50. RootPop
51. Irish Volunteer
52. NBeer Pub
53. Morton's of Chicago
54. Eudora Station
55. Café Flatwhite
56. Fella's
57. The Rug Café
58. Beer Mania
59. Picture My Cup at Kimo Kids Cafe
60. Steamrhino Brewery Restaurant
61. Grinders
62. Burger Counter
63. Tiger Pancake House
64. Peiping Machine
65. The Roots
66. Windy City
67. iB Craft Beer
68. Yummy Box Pizza
69. Village Cafe, Opposite House
70. Luga's Villa
71. The Bookworm
72. Blue Marlin
73. Park Side Bar & Grill
74. Three Guys Burger House
75. Wolfgang’s Steakhouse
76. Cafe Flo
77. Pop Up Kitchen
78. Angel Burger
79. The Cut, Fairmont Beijing
80. Peking Garden
81. Frost Coffee, Cocktails and Dining
82. CHAR Bar & Grill
83. C'est la Vie
84. Aurora
85. Park Square
86. Four Ace
87. Burger Break
88. Molly Malone's
89. He Kitchen
90. O’Leary’s
91. The Kitchen Table, W Beijing Chang'an
92. Balmain Gourmet
93. Meat by Ernest
94. Steak Exchange, InterContinental Hotel
95. Flora Steak and Bar
96. Dongli Brewery
97. Rolling Rolling Craft Brewing
98. BLT American Restaurant Salad & Grill
99. Wiggly Jiggly’s
100. MustGuette
For every bite of burger-related content, remember to follow along with our 2018 Burger Cup tab here: thebeijinger.com/2018-beijing-burger-festival.
Images: the Beijinger
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