Giving You the Finger

Eating all six burgers offered by Comet, Honeypie and Palomino is a reward in itself. Each one an homage to a Milwaukee band. Each one raising money for WMSE. Each one a mouth party.  But when you show real fortitude in the face of six amazing sandwiches and great commitment to the Mighty WMSE, it’s nice to have something to show for it…like a big foam finger. Eat all six, get your placemat stamped, get yourself a foam finger. What am I going to do with a foam finger? you may ask. The WMSE staff has some ideas for you:

Ask admittance to the station.

Ding-dong. Foam finger here to see you.

Say, “Hey! You! Tom! Yeah, you!”

Making a point of Tom Crawford.

Put a little extra ooph in your work day.

Ryan Schleicher, the six-finger typer.

extra insulation

Thank goodness for autocorrect.

Decide what to listen to next.

The finger helps Erin Wolf select tunes for her next show.

Make fun of your coworkers.

Poor Matt Schoeffler. Naughty Justin Shoman.

Rock out.

Tom Crawford at the last Yanni concert.

Recreate a scene from Reservoir Dogs.

All disagreements should be settled via foam finger.

Relieve boredom.

Chris DeMay searches for the big one.

Silence your artwork.

Mark Winter auction sculpture, you be quiet.

Dance like no one’s watching.

Justin Shoman shows Miley how it’s done.

And in case that’s not enough motivation to go get your burger on, some food porn from Comet:

Def Farmonic burger

Collections of Colonies of Beef burger

Comet is killin’ its Bay View brothers in the burger smack down. As of Monday Aug. 26th burger count stands:

Comet- 497

Honeypie – 291

Palomino – 174

Step up Southsiders! Get down to Honeypie and Palomino and show those fancy-pants Eastsiders what you’re made of!

You have until day of the Food Slam, Friday, September 13th, to gobble your way to foam finger fame. (If you do, be sure to post a photo on the WMSE Facebook page.)

by Food Slam blogger Steph Kilen

Anticipation Burger Task Force

The countdown to Food Slam has begun, and the anticipation is killing you. Nearly 30 local food vendors, a building full of cool people, plus paintings of gemologists, rope weavers and a guy performing surgery on himself – Come on! Of course you’re excited. But, a month’s a long time to dance around like a kid waiting for Santa. Never fear! Anticipation Burger Task Force is here to get you through until the big day.

Grab your wet-naps and forget about your waistline because Palomino  joins Comet Café  and Honeypie  this year in serving up the love for WMSE. Each restaurant is featuring two different burgers; one carnivore, one veg. That means six different burgers waiting for you throughout the city. Two dollars from the purchase of every burger goes to WMSE. If you eat all six, you will be the proud owner of a special edition foam finger that you can use to point to your belly as further proof of your commitment to the cause.

Adam Lucks and the chefs of each restaurant really knocked it out of the park this year. While I found whatever burger I was eating at the moment was my favorite, I must admit, even though I am a meat lover, the veg burgers really made me swoon. Grab a friend, or a stranger, and go halfsies; best of both worlds, no other-plate-envy, no spontaneous wrestling in the restaurants.

The Juicy Details

Comet

The Collections of Colonies of Beef burger is so great it doesn’t need bacon, but after all, it is Comet and well, you’ll be happy it’s on there. The patties are a mix of chorizo and beef. You could call it “berizo” or “choreef,” but either way, I call it delightful. Mild white cheddar, ancho ranch sauce and chimicurri add brightness and smoke and a little something to stick it all together. Musical pairing: “Lawn” Collections of Colonies of Bees

Smoked paprika feta. Like an earworm, these three words rolled around in my head for hours after eating the Def Farmonic burger. This veg burger is actually made of vegetables: roasted summer squashes, red pepper and onion mixed with chickpeas, cornmeal and carrot. Topped with heirloom tomato slices, sherry aioli and the aforementioned spiced cheese, the Def Farmonic is a delicious mess. Musical pairing: “My Own Devices” Def Harmonic

Honeypie

Do not be scared by the chili con carne, fried jalapenos and pepperjack cheese on the Call Meat Lightning. The combo is super flavorful, but will not give you hot mouth. This burger represents everything we’ve come to love about Honeypie; comfort food that is just a bit over the top. “We couldn’t just do jalapenos,” said Honeypie chef Eli Murphy. “We had to deep fry them.” Excellent idea. Musical pairing: “Soft Skeletons” Call Me Lightning

The Chickpea Flambeau is proof that a burger can be refreshing. A falafel patty topped with tabouli and lemon tahini dressing is light, but not lightweight. It’s a really satisfying version of the classic Middle Eastern combo. Musical pairing: “I Don’t Want to Be an Eddy” Couch Flambeau

Palomino

Welcome to the Anticipation Burger Task Force, Palomino! We’re so glad you joined us! The Compound Red Meat burger is all sorts of Southern spin goodness. You had me at fried green tomato and sealed the deal with the bacon, poblano relish and house made beer vinegar aioli. The toppings themselves would make a great sandwich, but they don’t over power the flavor of the grass-fed beef patty. Musical pairing: “J Hates Too” Compound Red

If you have had a bad day, John the Sandwich will snuggle you up with its tasty walnut patty and distract you from your troubles with its collard green and summer vegetable kimchi and sriracha veganise. You should try it even if you’re in a good mood. It’s comfort food that’s also a mouth party. Musical pairing: “Jungle” John the Savage

There you have it; plenty of instant gratification for you while you cross off the days to September 13^th.  Go forth and eat! (And get your Food Slam tickets!)

by Food Slam blogger, Steph Kilen

Burger Count Update

We just got the first updates from the managers at Comet and Honeypie. Here are the breakdowns.

 

 

 

 

 

Old Milwaukee: 145
New Milwaukee: 109

Total Sales: 254
Total Donated: $508.00 

Old Milwaukee: 149
New Milwaukee: 88

Total Sales: 237
Total Donated: $474.00

As you can see, the total sales competition between the two cafes is a pretty close one, separated by only $34.00, but Old Milwaukee is demolishing New Milwaukee 294 to 197. Yup, Old “Carnivorous” Milwaukee has about a 100-sale lead.

Will the damsel catch the old guy? That’s up to you, Milwaukee.

Thanks to everyone who has so far purchased either sandwich from either establishment!

More Burger Returns

Words by Ryan

The first veggie burger Comet and Honeypie have ever created for WMSE is a huge hit so far. This comment came through on Facebook this weekend from Erik R:

“WMSE Veggie Burger at Comet. Holy f*ing ball of YUM! Come on folks! Go get one. Or two. Yes, they also make a regular beef version, too.”

If you missed Erin’s detailed post about both burgers, here you go. Now, go eat as many as your belly and conscience will allow from now until September 30th.

Early Burger Returns

Photo from The Cakewalk blog

We’re only one full day into the burger promotion with Comet and Honeypie Cafes, but already we are seeing some great early returns.

From Twitter:

@roachcraft – “The new @WMSE burger (minus mushrooms) gets a thumbs-up; not an instant heart attack like past entries, totally unique, totally MKE.”

We can only assume that Mr. Roach will convulse and die if he eats mushrooms because we can’t imagine any other reason to exclude the mushrooms. Locally grown, delicious mushrooms, even.

From the Cakewalk Blog:

“I split the WMSE burger with Sasa since there is no chance I could eat the whole thing myself. It was great, but what was really exciting to me was this brussel sprout that was garnishing the “Old Milwaukee” style burger. I planted a solitary brussel sprout plant, which appears to be growing alright, if not a bit on the slow side. If I can’t glean enough to pickle, I will procure farmer’s market sprouts to make these spicy hot brussel sprouts!”

While Ms. Cake wasn’t ready to tackle the entire burger, as Mr. Roach said, this year’s burgers are much less heart-attack inducing than previous years’ creations. During our tasted test, all four testers were able to eat half of the Old Milwaukee and half of the New Milwaukee. As we said in the initial burger promotion post, “do what we did—cut ‘em in half, divvy ‘em up, and taste the best of both worlds.”