MOOSOMIN — A total of 4,239 burgers were sold during the Moosomin area’s Burger Week from Feb. 17-28, making it the biggest burger week ever, with more than 1,400 burgers sold than last year.
During Burger Week, participating restaurants in and around Moosomin create their burger masterpieces for people to try and vote on.
This is the fifth year that Burger Week has been held in the area and the first year it has been hosted by the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce. Another big change was extending the week to 12 days from a week.
Jarrod Slugoski is the Owner at Cork & Bone Bistro, home this year to the BuddiMac — a simple burger with big flavour.
“I make my own burger patties and burger sauce,” he explained. “I wanted to come up with a reasonable and affordable price for my burger this time around. It had flavours of burgers that we’ve eaten before, so we just called BuddiMac.”
Over the 10 days Cork & Bone Bistro was open during the promotion, 600 BuddiMacs were enjoyed by patrons, and it’s easy to see why. The homemade burger was topped with real cheddar cheese, bread and butter pickles, house burger sauce and lettuce for a delicious combination.
“The Moosomin area just likes a really good burger, and it’s a fun promotion,” Slugoski said. “We’ve been doing it for a few years now, so people actually look forward to it.”
He also feels having Burger Week coincide with the Family Week break was helpful, noticing a decent amount of take-out orders.
When asked if he’d consider participating in Burger Week next year, the answer was easy for Slugoski.
“Oh, 100 per cent. I love this promotion,” he said. “It’s great, it gets people out. I had a lot of new people come in and check my place out because of it.”
In Maryfield, Brendan Paliuk at the Arlington Hotel agrees. They sold 200 of their signature Arlington burgers, described as “a hearty homemade burger smothered in sautéed onions and mushrooms topped with smoked bacon with cheddar and mozzarella cheese.”
“I think the response to them were pretty good,” Paliuk said. “We had a lot of compliments, I was pretty happy with it.”
By chance, the promotion also happened while Saskatchewan comedy sensation Quick Dick McDick was in town for two sold-out shows. McDick even stayed at the Arlington, not only dining on the special burger but also giving a shout-out on social media through a special Eye on Tuffnell edition featuring Maryfield.
“Brendan and his crew at the Arlington Hotel were some of the best hosts I’ve ever had. Combined with the hospitality of the volunteers at the Maryfield Auditorium, that made this an amazing trip,” said McDick.
The visiting comedian was also quite excited to discover the hotel had a steak pit as well.
“We barbecued a steak together,” Paliuk said. “It was good, he’s a good character!”
He’s already looking forward to next year, looking to attract more folks from out Virden and Redvers way to visit the Arlington.
The Red Barn is probably the busiest place during burger week, and the restaurant’s General Manager Melinda Griffin estimates they sold 821 burgers during the 12-day promotion. Famous for their generous portions, this year’s offering did not disappoint.
“We called it the Nine Yards because it literally had the whole nine yards,” she explained. An in-house beef patty with smoked pork then topped with bacon accounts for the meats, then there’s the toppings: crispy jalapeños, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, chipotle mayo and pickles.
“Hence the whole nine yards burger, obviously,” Griffin said. “We got amazing feedback from it.”
Another interesting aspect of Burger Week is that it serves as a gauge for how popular a creation might actually be.
Witch’s Brew featured a citrus-flavoured burger, which proved popular with guests. “The burger was essentially just a regular burger, but we did do a nice lemon compound butter on it to add a little bit extra flavour,” said Owner Sandra Garrett. “We picked it to be something that was maintainable for us. Since we’re not actually a burger place, we were not really set up to sell burgers, so we wanted something that was easy, that people would maybe want to eat more than once, and that wasn’t too much.”
With the Lemon Butter Swiss burger, Garrett sought to establish a triad of simple, delicious, and affordable. “I would rather spend $10 on a burger and eat it a couple of times than spend $20 on a burger and eat at one time,” she said.
The strategy worked as 300 of the special burgers found their way onto customers’ plates.
“The first year, we launched the Dano Burger and got amazing feedback from that as well,” Griffin explained. “So that burger eventually made it onto the menu. This one might possibly as well, just because the comments were very positive on our burger.”
It also seemed to span generations, popular with all ages who entered the Red Barn. In addition, Griffin noticed an uptick during Burger Week—a time when sales would otherwise be traditionally slower.
“I wouldn’t say it’s the busiest week because, into the summers, we get a lot more travel,” she said. “It definitely helps the sales, obviously, because it’s a slower time of the year.”
The Nutrien Sportsplex offered “something completely different” with their Sportsplex Pizza Burger. The Pizza Burger was described as “a flavour explosion that’ll have your tastebuds doing the happy dance.”
Angela Thorn, with Moosomin Parks and Rec, said sales were decent for the pizza burger, with 137 sold over Burger Week. In comparison, the two weeks previous noted 22 burgers sold—illustrating the draw of the special promotion.
“We have our regular golf nights and whatnot at the Sportsplex, but I think people went out specifically to try the burger,” she said.
This year’s offering was inspired by the new kitchen staff at the Sportsplex.
“She went with using pizza sauce, mozzarella and some pepperoni, like a pizza-style burger,” explained Thorn.
In Rocanville, Burger Week was bittersweet for one business. The Blueberry Kitchen sold 451 Dill Pickle burgers, which was up from last year. What made this burger stand out was the homemade potato dill bun, two smash patties covered in mozzarella cheese, and topped with homemade dill pickle chips, a handful of sliced pickles, lettuce, tomato, and some homemade dill pickle ranch sauce. Oh, and a pickle juice-brined chicken wing on top!
“I spent my nights making homemade dill pickle buns every night to start for the next day,” explained Owner Racquel Cozens. “Fresh, soft buns make a difference.”
Sales of the Dill Pickle burger were excellent, but as the week ended, tragedy struck the business.
“Our timing was perfect because Sunday morning, we lost our business,” Cozens said.
On the morning of Sunday, March 2, a water line break flooded the basement of the Blueberry Kitchen.
“It wasn’t even the water line coming to our building; it was the town’s main line going right down Main Street,” she explained. “A chunk broke out, like a six-inch circle broke out. So the force of the water just pushed right through into the front corner of our building, through the foundation.”
Town crews were able to isolate the leak and repair the damaged pipe, but water to the 100 block of Ellice Street was shut off, and a precautionary drinking water advisory for the immediate area was put in place.
“At least we made it through Burger Week,” Cozens said. “Thank goodness Burger Week was amazing. It was a nice little boost before it all came to an end.”
In Fleming, patrons of the Fleming Windsor Bar & Grill enjoyed the Windsor Classic burger.
“We sold right close to 500 of our Burger Week special,” said Owner Myrna Dingman. “We were definitely busier because of Burger Week and had a nice increase in sales. Not everyone had the special so we also sold a lot of other burgers, steak, etc.”
She felt that the extra days this year allowed people to visit more places than usual.
“The extra days are what made it a success for us, I think,” Dingman explained. “Last year, there simply wasn’t enough time for everyone to try all the burgers, so the out-of-town ones got left behind. It was great this year.”
So what makes the Windsor Classic so, well, classic?
“The Windsor Classic is our take on the Big Mac,” said Dingman. “What sets it apart is that our buns are made fresh in-house every night, and our burger was ground and made into burgers every morning. The patties were always fresh and never frozen. Our in-house sauce was made to taste like the ‘Mac’ sauce, and everyone said we did a fantastic job of it.”
Overall, Dingman says the colder days did slow things down a bit, “but all in all, I think that the support we received was fabulous.”
In Rocanville, the Rocanville Town and Country Golf Club served up 380 maple barbecue chicken and waffle burgers, a creation Clubhouse Manager Kari Bell says took some time to develop.
“We had a lot of positive feedback on it,” she said. “We spent quite a bit of time on different recipes, different sauces, until we just kind of figured out what we thought would taste the best.”
This mouth-watering morsel included maple barbecue sauce and garlic aioli, provolone cheese, bacon, pickles, lettuce and tomato, all on a crispy chicken burger between in-house made waffles.
When asked if the special sandwich might find a home on the regular menu, Bell was on the fence.
“A lot of people are requesting that,” she said. “So because we made our own waffles, it was very, very time-consuming. I’m not saying we won’t offer it, but we’re still thinking about it. We’ve thought of doing it for specials rather than having it on the menu all the time, but we’re still considering it.”
Bell agrees that the extended days of Burger Week were beneficial.
“Absolutely, I think it definitely helped,” she said. “Everyone isn’t available all the time, so having that longer time frame, we saw more people from Moosomin and surrounding areas.”
The Moosomin Dairy Queen was another business that had an excellent year for sales, topping the 600-burger mark with their Bacon Two Cheese Deluxe. This offering is a cheeseburger topped with applewood smoked bacon, tomato, onion, lettuce, pickles, ketchup and mayo. What really made this year’s burger unique was a size for every appetite, available in single, double and triple patty.
A new face to the Burger Week adventure is Skout Brewing Co., which offered a trio of sliders made with “a savory blend of beef, pork and our Lights Out Porter beer.” The sliders were served on a handmade pretzel bun with lettuce, applewood smoked cheddar, crispy onions and a side of creamy beer cheese sauce for dipping.
“We don’t have a full kitchen set up over at the brewery; we just have a partial one, so we weren’t able to produce full burgers, but we figured out a way to make the sliders happen,” explained Aaron Grandguillot, owner of Skout Brewing. “My wife made the buns, I made the burgers using a recipe we make at home, we put it together and it turned out pretty well, I think.”
Patrons agreed, as 250 orders of sliders were made through the week and nearly doubled typical weekly sales numbers.
“It was definitely something we’re not ready to add to our menu full time because of the extra effort we had to put in to make it work,” Grandguillot admitted. “But maybe down the road, we’ll be able to figure an expansion to our menu, knowing that people like the burgers. It was a lot of fun, but also I was happy when the week was over because it was a lot of work!”
The long days would not dissuade Grandguillot from participating next year.
“Assuming nothing else comes up, we would definitely participate again because I expected February to be kind of a quiet month, especially with the bitter cold,” Grandguillot explained. “But like I said, for that two weeks, we actually did above average during the week and pretty good on the weekends too, so it definitely helped carry us through with what traditionally would be a tough month.”
The promotion also brought some new faces out to Skout Brewing, hopefully translating into more regular customers.
“We don’t typically offer a burger, but now we have a bit of data to show if we ever did renovate our kitchen and we’re able to do it on a more permanent basis, it seems like we’ve got enough customers who’d be interested in what we make that it could work,” Grandguillot said. “It’s an interesting test case, at the very least.”
Ultimately, the bragging rights for this year’s tastiest burger was decided by the people through a vote, with the top restaurant winning a prize as well. Receiving the most votes this year was the Fleming Windsor Bar & Grill, followed by the Cork & Bone Bistro, and the Red Barn rounding out the top three.
