On Saturday I headed to the 5th annual Hamptons Burger Bloodbath presented by Ben Leventhal, executive editor of The Feast. When tickets went up for sale on GiltCity I was immediately ready for the burger games to begin. Top local chefs competed to determine who makes the best beach burger. The event, held at the new GiltCity Hamptons House – a private residence that GiltCity rented for the summer – included all you can eat burgers and an open bar. Everyone was making their picks for who created the ultimate burger.
Chefs included Micheal White from Marea, Alto and Convivio; Wylie Dufresne from WD-50; Marc Vidal from Vidal; Mo Koyfman, the 2010 defending champ and Principal at Spark Capital/pro grillmaster; as well as Jesse Gerstein, Zach Chodorow, Preston Madison and Cobi Levy.
Judges included Southern Wine & Spirits’ Lee Brian Schrager; Food & Wine’s Kate Karader; owner of LaFrieda Meats, Pat Lafrieda; and 2011 SoBe Burger Bash champ, Marc Murphy.
What Worked Really Well
- Concept of the event and the burgers themselves were delish!
- Signature cocktails were fantastic.
- Valet parking was key! Also, they gave carpoolers a $50 credit to GiltCity.
- Air conditioned portable restrooms.
- Event space lent well to a backyard burger bash.
Areas to Develop the Event Further
- Include signage with name of chef, their restaurant and overview of their burger at each grill. We didn’t know who was who or what made their burger unique.
- Be genuine to what is on the invite. The invite said open bar: beer, wine and cocktails. There was no wine. It also mentioned a gift bag to which there was none.
- Include shaded areas for a summer event. The one area of shade, the pool gazebo, was used as one of the bars when it could have been better served as a seating area in the shade.
- A few more ideas: Make napkins available on all the tables. More seating in the shade.
Ideas to Really Make the Event Pop
- What goes along with burgers…fries! Have servers walking around with cones of fries or do a fry bar with various dipping sauces.
- Incorporate the pool in a poolside event. Have some models in the pool playing volleyball or add some floating decor to the pool.
