A Curtis Comeau photo essay
They truly are for everyone.
A Woodshed masterpiece
They can cost $8 or $34, and regardless of the price, they make you equally happy. Burgers show up at school cafeterias, backyard barbecues, on first dates, at hockey games, weddings, hangovers and family reunions. Burgers are celebration food and recovery food at the same time. Heck, we have burgers that taste like meat yet have no meat in them at all!
Pretty much every restaurant offers a burger; we have burger-only restaurants and burger-only food trucks, and even local butchers serve up burgers to eat on the spot. What a time to be alive.
Local chefs have dived headfirst into the burger culture using arguably Canada’s best available beef to create a wide range of burger offerings. This is cattle country after all. We do have some of the best beef in the world, so naturally, we would have some of the best burger joints in the country. Though admittedly, I may be a little biased.
Here are a few of my favourites.
Backstairs Burger: Creativity Gone Wild
Chef Levi Biddlecombe
Chef Levi Biddlecombe opened Backstairs Burger during COVID. It has since become one of the city’s most talked-about smashburger joints. Levi puts Alberta beef front and centre, mixed with creative toppings like espresso peanut butter, bone marrow caramel and banana aioli. “Burgers are supposed to be fun,” says Biddlecombe. The vibe at the south side location is something that should be visited by Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Burger names like Sugar Skull, Basic Bitch and Joe Burrow leave a lot to the imagination. Levi’s burgers are unapologetically creative, messy and tasty.
A classic Backstairs burger
Popowich Meat Company: A Grill King (or Queen) Heaven
Mike Popowich. Inset: ready-made patties
Popowich Meat Company is a family butcher shop owned by Mike and Treena Popowich, focused on ethically sourced Alberta products. Pop by Popowich for a nice range of ready-to-cook burger patties. Their custom take-home beef patty blend is of the high-quality butcher burger sort. Notables include the Wagyu and Steak patties. “We make the wagyu burger from flatiron and ribeye trim. They are made to order, and we also have our regular steak burger—a 5-oz patty made from ribeye, striploin and tenderloin.” Your backyard barbecue burgers will never be the same when you bring home a pack of Popowich patties.
Flat Boy Burgers: California Lovin’
Flat Boy Burger at Shiddy’s
Flat Boy serves up California-style smashburgers at Shiddy’s Rumpus Room on Happy Beer Street. The Flat Boy smash burger is made by pressing a beef patty onto a hot griddle or pan, creating a thin patty with crisp edges and intense caramelized flavour. Flat Boy Burgers uses Martin’s potato rolls, buttery, brioche-style buns, very soft and squishy which pairs well with the smashed patties and Flat Sauce. The Flat Boy bun is one of the reasons their burger works so well—thin, crispy patties, a soft, steamed, toasted bun and American cheese? Burger heaven. Naturally these burgers go perfectly with the late-night choice of Sea Change beverages.
Woodshed Burgers: All Killer No Filler
Woodshed’s custom beef blend. Inset: a stack ’o burgers
Woodshed owner chef Paul Shufelt opened the first location on 124th Street with the concept that a burger patty should, first and foremost, have no filler. Paul has stayed away from the smash burger trend and focused on a decadent backyard-style burger. The patties are made with Holstein Nonay beef, from Lakeside Farmstead in Sturgeon County, giving them a unique and deliciously juicy flavour. (At his Hayloft steakhouse, chef participates in a whole animal program with Jeff Nonay; the trim is used for the burgers at Woodshed.) Paul also uses a wide variety of ingredients across the burger range—arugula, Gruyere cheese, pickled onions, and tomato jam. Sesame seed buns are made daily by Bon Ton Bakery. The result? Some of Edmonton’s favourite burgers.
The Butchery: Aged to Perfection
Chef Blair Lebsack digs in. Inset: The Butchery’s Smash Burger
You will be hard-pressed to find a better lunchtime burger in downtown Edmonton than Chef Blair Lebsack’s dry-aged smash burger at The Butchery. Beef is very important to Blair, and his smash burger is made with special dry-aged ground beef, which has a deeper, nuttier flavour, then loaded with American cheese, onion, pickle and secret sauce. Little do most people know, except you, Tomato readers, that Blair also believes the way the meat is ground makes a huge difference to the quality of the final product. Want to try The Butchery ground beef? No problem, pick up a pound to make your own patties at home. The Butchery also has formed beef burger patties and many other grinds—bison, elk, lamb. All great for burgers.
Ribeye: Choices, Choices, Choices
Ribeye’s ground-to-order patties. Inset: the savoury outcome
Follow any direction on the Anthony Henday, and you will find yourself close to a Ribeye Butcher Shop. Located in several Edmonton suburban communities, and in St. Albert, Ribeye Butcher Shops sell a lot of burger patties for take-home cooking—Wagyu, lamb, bison and even elk burgers. But, what many people don’t know, is they also serve made-to-order smashburgers to eat right in the store. “Your burger will be ground fresh when you order it,” says Ribeye Windermere GM Artur Levidov. “Our burgers are simple, but we make them that way. We want our beef to be highlighted front and center.”
