Burger lovers are in for a flavourful kick as Le Burger Week returns to the city.

This year Winnipeg hits a new level of flavour with 119 restaurants participating, 17 more locations than last year.

Daniel Gurevich, Le Burger Week’s Winnipeg ambassador, described the event as a “friendly culinary competition.”

The event takes place across many Canadian cities including Vancouver, Saskatoon, Calgary and Montreal.

“We have the most participating restaurants,” said Gurevich.

He explained that each year participating restaurants create a brand-new burger for customers and serve it for a week. After trying the new creations, consumers can go online to vote for their favourite burgers, while also sharing their dining experiences through social media.

The competition began Sept. 1 and runs until Sept. 7 in restaurants including Big Smoke Burger, Vicky’s Diner, the Handsome Daughter and the U of M’s the Hub Social Club.

According to a press release issued by Saputo, the company hosting Le Burger Week, Winnipeg’s restaurants are a portion of over 400 competitors across Canada and Haiti.

Competition categories include “People’s Choice,” “Most Creative” and “Healthiest Burger.”
Saputo is also sending undercover taste testers to restaurants in order to select the winner of the “Judges’ Choice” category.

“The main goal of the week is to have restaurants hopefully see, you know, some increase in business,” said Gurevich. “And it’s also for people to go out and try new restaurants that they haven’t tried before.

“It’s also for restaurants to get their creative juices flowing and to be able to create something fun.”

He said that the week brings the Winnipeg food scene together through burgers.

“Some of our goals have always been to have a larger variety of restaurants,” said Gurevich.

“To us, variety means different areas of the city so it’s accessible to more people. Plus, just types of restaurants. We try to have chain restaurants, breakfast restaurants, independently owned cafés, sushi restaurants, so we really like to have variety.”

After the competition ends, some restaurants keep their creations on the menu.
Gurevich noted that, in past years, restaurants like Deer + Almond, Salisbury House and Clementine have all kept their creations on the menu due to their popularity during past competitions.

Le Burger Week began in Montreal, created by entrepreneurs Na’eem Adam and Thierry Rassam in hopes of finding the best burgers in the city and help stimulate businessess. This year is the sixth year Le Burger Week has been run in Winnipeg.

“We’re happy to be involved,” said Gurevich, “and we’re very appreciative of all of the support that Winnipeg restaurants, Winnipeg eaters and everybody just kind of in the city gives us for the events, so we’re ever grateful for that and we hope to do it for years to come.”