Chicago Is The Third-Best Burger City In America
By Anthony Todd in Food on May 30, 2012 8:40PM
Another day, another list of "best cities for whatever-the-hell editors want to eat." On the plus side, the results of this list were somewhat unexpected. Neither New York nor Portland won! Travel and Leisure magazine, the magazine that documents two things that most people do not have enough of, has ranked Chicago third in its list of America's Best Burger Cities.
The winner? We were shocked to learn that it's Providence, Rhode Island. That city also ranked second on T&L's list of best dining cities for 2011. Guess we'll be making a trip soon. Also in the "surprising" category - #2 was Philadelphia, which apparently has a burger topped with maple bourbon-glazed cipollini onions and foie gras. We're buying tickets now.
Chicago came in third, which is respectable. Last year, we only made it to #6, so this is a big improvement. At this rate, next year we'll be #1. T&L particularly singled out Kuma's Corner (surprise surprise) as well as Billy Goat Tavern. Since high-end burger shops have been one of the most prominent food trends of the past five years (see Butcher and the Burger, DMK Burger Bar, Rockit Burger Bar and many others), we're not surprised to see Chicago do well on this list. Now if only we could win awards for craft brewing and farmers markets, we'd be all set.