Few foods are as beloved by Americans as the burger—and with ground meat, black beans or even shrimp, chefs keep finding creative new ways to hold burgers’ prominent and popular positions on club and resort menus.
Nine billion burgers were ordered at foodservice outlets in the year ending July 2014, according to the NPD Group research firm. And if anyone knows first-hand about the power of the patty, it is Raymond Carpenter, Executive Chef of Laurel Creek Country Club in Mount Laurel, N.J.
SUMMING IT UP
- Burgers easily lend themselves to plain or fancy preparations.
- Ethnic flavors can make for interesting burger variations.
- Many diners enjoy building their own burgers.
- Sliders have become a wedding snack favorite.
At The Grille, the club’s casual restaurant, Carpenter offers nine different burger options, including a Reuben Burger made with Angus beef topped with Swiss cheese, Russian dressing and sauerkraut on griddled rye; a house-made, vegetarian black bean burger crowned with avocado mayonnaise on a brioche bun; and a pan-seared shrimp burger with New Orleans-style spicy remoulade on a ciabatta roll. Ethnic flavor profiles are also represented by the Mexican Burger with pepperjack cheese, pico de gallo and guacamole, and the Italiano, with mozzarella cheese, basil pesto and balsamic tomato.
The best-seller is the signature LCCC Burger, an Angus patty with Swiss cheese, bacon, mushrooms and frizzled onions. “We realized when we looked at the data that burgers are our number-one best sellers,” Carpenter says. “Even the shrimp burger [which has been on the menu for about six months] is more popular than we thought it would be.”
For helping to build and sustain menu excitement, burgers are perfect, because the buns, basic beef patties and virtually unlimited topping ingredients—“the basic nuts and bolts,” as Carpenter describes them—are almost always already on hand in-house. That makes it possible to keep up with the latest flavor profiles, or to create new ones with ease and little to no extra expense.
Members are also invited to come up with their own creations at the club’s pool cabana snack bar, where the build-your-own burger reigns supreme. Topping options include five kinds of cheeses; regular, frizzled and red onions; regular and hot peppers; mushrooms; bacon; guacamole and salsa; as well as the traditional tomato and lettuce.
Constructive Approach
Over five years ago, Terry Boston, Executive Chef of Des Moines Golf & Country Club in West Des Moines, Iowa, tried featuring different burger combinations on his menu at the club’s casual Iowa Grille. But members seemed to prefer to do their own thing, adding this topping and omitting that one. So Boston decided that making the build-your-own the only burger offering on the menu made the most sense.
Now, to start the process, Des Moines G&CC members can choose from an eight- or twelve-ounce, house-ground, 80/20 chuck patty. For an additional $1.50, they can select from “any and as many toppings” as they would like, from a list that includes nine different cheeses, three meats or a fried egg, five different vegetables and eight different sauces. How popular has the build-your-own burger become? On an average week, Boston now goes through at least 50 lbs. of ground chuck.
But just because the build-your-own is the only burger offering on the menu doesn’t mean that Boston doesn’t get to exercise his creative chops with chuck and other ground meats. For one special promotional event at the club, he developed three out-of-the-box burgers: The South of the Border, made from seared ground pork with poblano peppers, tomatillo sauce, sliced avocados and cheddar and American cheeses; The New Yorker, one-half pound of ground chuck topped with pastrami, Giardiniera relish, Swiss cheese and zesty Thousand Island dressing; and The All-American, a one-half pound chuck patty made distinctive with pepperjack cheese, cranberry mayonnaise, sliced apples and bacon.
For other special events, Boston has made burgers out of ground corned beef (for a Reuben Burger) and 50/50 beef and bacon (“It’s really tasty,” he says). He has also prepared “bacon candy”—bacon dipped in maple syrup and baked until it is chewy like caramel—to adorn some of his fancier burgers.
Fun With Buns
At Park Ridge (Ill.) Country Club, Executive Chef Glenn Zamet showcases three burgers on the club’s dining room menu. There is the Angus Burger, which can be topped any way the member prefers; the Wagyu Burger, topped with truffled goat cheese, oven-dried tomatoes, crisp pancetta and baby arugula; and the club’s signature Farm House Burger, made from a special blend of ground brisket, short rib and chuck, and topped with local cheddar cheese, applewood bacon and an over-easy cage-free egg.
Boosting Wine and Beer Sales Through Burgers
Burgers are the basis of numerous special promotions throughout the year at Des Moines Golf & Country Club in West Des Moines, Iowa. And at least three times a year, during the spring and summer, those promotions feature pairings with wines and beers.
“These promotions provide a great way for us to showcase not only our food, but our spirits selections,” says Executive Chef Terry Boston. “The craft beers, especially, have really taken off.”
For a special craft beer tasting dinner, Boston created an open-face prime rib burger on a pretzel coaster (half of a bun) topped with Stilton cheese, balsamic bacon, caramelized red onion ring and Dijon mayo. A Pints and Patties promotion offered a choice of three burgers with deluxe toppings paired with different craft beers for $12.50.
One wine-centric promotion that gained steam its second time around was Burger Date Night, which offered two burgers and a bottle of wine for $25.
“The first time we ran it, the promotion did okay, but when we ran it the second time, it did very well,” Boston says. “I think it was a matter of making members aware of it through our club publication and word-of-mouth.”
Throughout September, another promotion paired a seven-ounce pour of featured wine with a Wagyu burger for $30. And Wagyu and Wine Nights give the club the opportunity to pair burgers with glasses of wines that are limited in inventory. The price varies from $26 to $28, depending on the wine that is featured.
A summer Tuesday night burger bar, which Park Ridge CC promoted through e-mail and its newsletter, proved so popular with members that Zamet continued it through September. Upscale topping options included house-made pickles, oven-dried tomatoes and wild mushrooms. To make his burgers even more appealing, Zamet switches up the buns, serving some on pretzel buns, others on whole wheat and some on a brioche-like “butter bun.” “The quality of the bun is just as important as the quality of the meat,” he says.
Outside at the pool cabana and golf halfway house, the burgers are smaller than the ones served in the restaurant. “The members want to eat quickly, and we sell a ton of burgers to the kids,” Zamet explains.
Sliders Rule
On both the restaurant and banquet menus at clubs, small sliders are making a big impact. At weddings in particular, they are becoming a go-to late night snack.
At Des Moines G&CC, Boston offers the mini-burgers set up on a buffet with condiments. A more deluxe treatment, with blue cheese and caramelized red onion, is also available.
Zamet, who has seen the popularity of sliders soar over the past two years, will set up a station with a grill outside the dining room, to prepare the burgers to order. And at Laurel Creek CC, Carpenter just introduced a slider station on the banquet menu and is finding it to be an increasingly popular choice for cocktail parties and bar mitzvahs, as well as weddings.
For luncheons, Zamet has done a trio of sliders—beef, turkey and veggie burgers—served with a basket of fries. He has also featured a Mediterranean lamb burger for special occasions. And on his dining room menu, a very well received promotion paired a trio of sliders with a glass of wine for $15.
“Burgers are great for us because they can be positioned as anything from fast-food to elegant food,” Carpenter says. “For our members, they’re always comfort food—and when you make them with premium ingredients, they can be a fairly inexpensive luxury food.”
Recipes:
Black Bean Burger
Angus Sliders
Open-Face Prime Rib Burger on Pretzel Coaster
Assorted Burger Toppings and Accompaniments
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