Mercer County Park turned into a burger battlefield Oct. 9, as four local eateries — Killarney’s Publick House in Hamilton, Dublin Square Pub in Bordentown, McCaffrey’s Supermarket in West Windsor, and Carolina BBQ in Hamilton all vied for the title of best burger in Mercer County in the Burgermania Mercer County Ultimate Burger contest.

Dublin Square is in Burlington County, which would have been an embarrassment to Mercer had they won. But Carolina BBQ took home the “Ultimate Burger” award, and Killarney’s walked away with the sub-category awards including best beef burger, best nonbeef burger for its chicken cordon bleu burger, and people’s choice.

Carolina BBQ chef Jeff Johnson seemed surprised when the awards were announced. All four burger stands served up sliders at a cost of $1 a burger, though Dublin Square’s corned beef reuben “sliders” were really full size.

Awards were not based on popularity; they were determined by a panel of judges made up of Mercer County Community College culinary school chefs Frank Benowitz and Douglas Fee, and restaurant critic and food journalist Pat Tanner.

Judges did not know whose burgers they were sampling when they tried them. Fee said Carolina’s burger stood out from the others because it was perfectly flavored.

Johnson said the burgers made for the contest are the same as a customer gets at Carolina BBQ. They start with Angus beef with fresh garlic and vine ripe tomatoes, then basted in vinegar, black pepper and olive oil and garlic again and grilled over charcoal and cherry wood for a smoky flavor.

“Its a moist, beefy burger,” Johnson said. “It’s not too overbearing with the flavor.”

Benowitz said Killarney’s Angus beef burger, glazed with Guinness barbecue sauce, came close to taking top honors.
“The glaze was very good, it just needed more of it,” he said.

McCaffrey’s entry was made just for the contest by chef Danny Hoffman, and will soon be rolled out as a specialty burger at the store. It is made of aged beef mixed with Italian pancetta and Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese.

Dublin Square had a long line well after 6 p.m., when the results of the contest were announced. At one point, they ran out of corned beef. Chef Christopher Moon said the burger was invented to celebrate Oktoberfest at the pub, and is available at the pub.

The burger was a crowd pleaser, but the judges thought that while it tasted good, the corned beef, cabbage, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing took focus away from the burger itself.

People attending the event were treated to concerts by cover bands Jimmy and the Parrots and and 2U.

Members of the public interviewed talked mostly about the Dublin Square burger.

Jay Kluge of Hamilton was among the many wowed by the size of the corned beef burger.

“My God, that’s a lot of burger,” he said.

Mike Kiernan, of Hamilton, also preferred the Dublin Square burger.

“Dublin Square was absolutely the best, hands down,” he said. “It was the only one of them that was a real burger.”