ELORA – Restaurants in Downtown Elora are looking to settle some beef over who has the best burger in town.
This month, burger enthusiasts are invited to compare a featured burger at six participating restaurants around Downtown Elora from now until Nov. 18.
The participating restaurants are: The Badley, The Evelyn, The Friendly Society, Handsome Devil Bistro, Elora Mill and Elora Brewing Company.
Patrons can request a ballot at the restaurant to be initialled by a server after having their burger. After all six burgers have been tried, the ballot can be submitted with their choice of winner at any of the restaurants.
“There’s a lot of great burgers in this village and we thought this would be a fun way to highlight it,” said Maclean Hann, owner of The Evelyn.
It’s also a bit of an odd time period for restaurants, Hann explained, and otherwise brings people in when they might not think to go out in Downtown Elora.
“From the beginning of November to sort of the end of the second week or start of the third week of November that’s historically a quiet time for the village,” Hann said.
“Monster Month is over, the leaves are falling off the trees and holiday parties haven’t kick-started yet.”
Geoffrey Wild, owner of The Badley and other restaurants in Elora, agreed this is a slow period and a good way to get people out to try a usual restaurant staple.
“As a restaurant community we are always very competitive with each other and here’s another opportunity for us to showcase one of the mainstays on virtually every menu in town,” Wild said.
Wild and Hann noted a lot of people ordering the burgers at theirs and other restaurants since the competition started on Nov. 4.
“Every restaurateur I’ve spoken to over the weekend has had a good haul of people through,” Wild said. “Also speaking to the locals, everybody that has come through and is there for the battle specifically are really enjoying it.”
Some of the restaurants have gone fairly classic, others have gone over the top.
In the case of The Friendly Society, it features a cheese sauce poured on top for a photo worthy moment.
“It does well for showmanship … It's fun, even if we don’t win, at least we have a lot of fun doing it,” said Becky Lalui, owner at the Friendly Society. “It’s also very instagrammable.”
The competition is ultimately very friendly among the tight knit restaurant community in Elora.
“Elora has so many amazing restaurants and a burger competition is a great way to showcase that talent,” said Jon Laurencic, Elora Brewing Company co-founder, in an email. “We all know each other well and having a bit of cheeky competition is always a lot of fun.”
Hann said the winning restaurant gets the bragging rights but all restaurants will benefit from a little increased traffic in November.
“Truthfully with promotions like this I think all the participants are, as cheesy as this might sound, everybody wins,” Hann said.
