Rockin’ Robyn’s buffalo burger was so popular last year that she’s not messing with it. It’s back, ingredient-for-ingredient an exact version of the one that sold by the hundreds (and hundreds and hundreds) in 2013. What I really like about Robyn is that she’s the only cart that’s brave enough to handle Burger Week traffic. Well, I also like that she’s one of the friendliest and most gracious restaurateurs I came across in my years as food and drink editor for the Mercury. I don’t even get remembered at places I’ve spent north of $500, but when I drop by Robyn’s cart in the new pod at 34th and Belmont after half a year away, she treats me like long-lost family. We would all do well to support someone who’s such a beacon of hospitality, particularly one that shines so bright through such a small window.
- Chris Onstad
- Robyn’s $5 Buffalo Burger. Beefier than beef itself.
The burger is, once again: Ground buffalo patty (meat provided by Nicky USA), peppered bacon, roasted red peppers, smoked Gouda cheese, tomato, a thick slab of white onion, pickles, and a Portland French Bakery brioche bun. Robyn works her proprietary blend of spices into the meat to make it unique.
- Chris Onstad
- This is not Robyn’s $5 Burger Week burger, but it IS a photo of a burger she insisted on making me last Friday.
She isn’t keeping the buffalo on hand until Burger Week itself (the topmost photo here is of last year’s Buffalo burger), but I recently stopped by anyway to re-familiarize myself with her $5 kids’ basket (I had fourteen burgers last week, leave me alone), which includes a more petite burger than the Burger Week burger, hand-cut fries, and a soda. The above is a gratuitous beauty shot of that, to which we chose to add bacon, for the sake of posterity. A Widmer beer also wound up behind it, because conveniently, the beer cart across from hers is pouring Widmer’s Burger Week keg selection. It is what the scientists call symbiosis.
– * –
Read all the Burger Week details here!
The Portland Mercury would like to thank our partners once again this year, world-class meat provider Nicky USA, Widmer Brothers Brewing, and Jim Beam Kentucky Fire!
Important reminder: THESE BURGERS WILL SELL OUT. Last year’s restaurants had one main issue with the event last year, and that was people getting angry and rude when they found out that they are part of a reality where restaurants that are getting slammed run out of food. We have better forecasting numbers this year, but please: go early, be kind, get a drink, and, most importantly, a $5 burger is a privilege, not a right. You know what someone who acts like a horse’s ass is? Hint: It has two enormous buttocks and large poops fall out of the middle.