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Burger Madness is a seeded tournament pitting 64 Portland patties against each other. Our critics ate through the best Bistro Burgers, Bar Burgers, and Brewery Burgers and Burger Burgers in Portland—and will reveal their picks round by round until the best burger in Portland is crowned.
This week, we're revealing the winners in the round of 32. Here are the brewery burgers, whittled down to the top four brewery burgers in town on this mighty day.
And here are all the results from the previous round.
MATCHUP #1: Fat Head's (1) vs. McMenamins (9)
Fat Head's (1)
131 NW 13th Ave., 503-820-7721, fatheadsportland.com. 11:30 am-11 pm Monday-Thursday, 11:30 am-midnight Friday-Saturday, 11:30 am-10 pm Sunday.
Everything at Fat Head's is supersized—hugely hoppy IPAs, wings smoked before they're fried, and a basic burger ($13.50 with house potato chips) that comes with cheese and bacon on top of 7 ounces of beef. That burger is one of the more restrained offerings, at least compared to one topped with kimchi and a sunny-side-up egg and another topped with pulled-pork chili.
The burger has a very classic feel, with a half-melted slice of American cheese, a big flop of romaine lettuce and a splash of mayo. Unfortunately, on our most recent visit the "medium medium" was way overdone, without a speck of pink.
Kennedy School (McMenamins) (9)
5736 NE 33rd Ave., 503-249-3983, mcmenamins.com. 7 am-midnight Sunday-Thursday, 7 am-1 am Friday-Saturday.
The burger at Kennedy School's Courtyard Restaurant ($11.75 with fries or tots) uses Country Natural beef, the brand I tend to prefer, and comes with beautiful grill marks that leave little lines of tangy smoke. It goes onto a really nice brioche bun, with shredded lettuce, pickles and sauce. My only complaint was that it was a tad overcooked.
WINNER: McMenamins! In an unexpected smackdown of epic proportions, the number-one-seeded Ohio brewpub—from the state where the burger was invented—is knocked out by the simple Country Natural grillburger from McMenamins Kennedy school.
MATCHUP #2: Ecliptic (5) and Migration (13)
Ecliptic (5)
825 N Cook St., 503-265-8002, eclipticbrewing.com. 11 am-10 pm Monday-Thursday, 11 am-11 pm Friday-Saturday, 11 am-9 pm Sunday.
The monster house burger ($14 with fries) is served on a plump potato roll that crushes pleasantly in the fist. It's topped with a lot of aggressive ingredients—pancetta, red onions, melted Gruyere, and Russian dressing—which are applied gently, bringing it into perfect alignment.
My server didn't ask how you want the burger done, and mine came out medium-well, a little overcooked for my taste. It's also arguably a little salty thanks to the pancetta and Gruyere. But it's a damned good burger.
Migration (13)
2828 NE Glisan St., 503-206-5221, migrationbrewing.com. 11 am-midnight Monday-Saturday, 11 am-10 pm Sunday.
Migration is about as sportsy as Portland brewpubs get. The next time you're going out to watch a Blazer game, it's highly recommended. The classic burger ($10 with fries) is on super-squishy sesame seed bun that just barely survived intact to the end of the patty. The patty itself is very thin, but still maintained a little pink. There's no cheese, but it was lathered up in a house sauce that juxtaposed nicely with the zucchini pickles.
WINNER: Ecliptic. The meatiness of patty and pancetta—combined with the richness of Gruyere and Russian-dressing tang—proved too much for that thin-patty Migration burger, which also proves almost too much for its bun.
MATCH-UP #3: Great Notion (11) and Burnside (3)
Great Notion (11)
2204 NE Alberta St., No. 101, 503-548-4491, greatnotionpdx.com. Noon-10 pm Sunday-Thursday, noon-11 pm Friday-Saturday.
Great Notion's burger, topped with fried onions and served with a side of waffle fries.
Great Notion's notions tend to be a little crazy. The year-old Alberta Street brewpub is known for wild-fruit sours and the hazy, citrus-drenched IPAs that took the city by storm. One of these, Juice Jr., is named the state's Beer of the Year in our annual Beer Guide, which is on newsstands now.
That spirit extends to the food, especially the Great American Cheeseburger ($12 with waffle fries or salad), which comes standard with pepper bacon, organic American cheese, house ketchup and crispy fried onions.
The Cascade Natural beef was nice and pink, and the bacon was a nice treat on a $12 burger. The big problem was the fried onions, which were way overdone and too chunky, overwhelming everything else inside the bun.
Burnside (3)
701 E Burnside St., 503-946-8151, burnsidebrewco.com. 11 am-10 pm Sunday-Tuesday, 11 am-11 pm Wednesday-Thursday, 11 am-midnight Friday-Saturday.
The burger ($13 with fries, soup or salad) has lots of salty-sweet char, almost as if trail mix had been pulverized into micro-fine dust and caramelized onto the outside. The patty sits like a king atop a throne of shaved lettuce. It also has a great pop of milky fry sauce that contrasts with a pop of pickle. If there's any Achilles heel, it's the bun, which is a little too stiff and dry.
WINNER: Burnside. At least one beer writer declared this his favorite burger in the city of Portland—and, well, its streak continues. Fry sauce and salty-sweet char prevail; fried onions fail.
MATCHUP #4: Lompoc (10) and Breakside (2)
Lompoc (10)
1620 NW 23rd Ave., 503-894-9374, lompocbrewing.com. 11 am-1 am Monday-Thursday, 11 am-2 am Friday-Saturday, 11 am-midnight Sunday.
Portland is not a mustard town, at least when it comes to burgers. Lompoc Tavern is the exception, serving up a burger with a nice splatter of yellow and even giving you a squeeze bottle on the side in case you want more.
My burger came upside down, with the toppings on the bottom, and with the huge patty showing the type of smooth edges that suggests some sort of mechanized process. It was way overdone, but I loved the flavor anyway.
Breakside (2)
820 NE Dekum St., 503-719-6475, breakside.com. 11:30 am-10 pm Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 am-11 pm Friday-Saturday.
Breakside just opened their second brewpub, next to the New Seasons in Slabtown. Breakside's beer is in high demand, yes, but so is their food—and the burger is performing like an MVP.
It's $16 with waffle fries, but it's a hulking half-pound of Kobe-style beef from Boise's Snake River Farms that has a beautiful char on the outside. The server didn't ask how we wanted it, and instead brought it out with a perfect pink center. The patty is lathered up with Rogue Smokey Blue cheese.
WINNER: Breakside. The Dekum Breakside burger, and definitely not the Slabtown Breakside burger, which is still getting dialed—wins the day again with its half-pound beefy Kobe-burger. Remember when the other Kobe B was unstoppable? Could it be just like that?