Quail eggs return to this year's Burgers And Brew
Bill Lubing/ courtesy REAP Food Group
Get your quail eggs but save room for bone marrow.
The adorable little food experiments on a bun served at Burgers And Brew every summer make adventurous eating much less scary. And the good folks at REAP Food Group’s Buy Fresh, Buy Local have put together another memorable pairing of mini-burgers and beers for third annual event on June 5 at the Capital Brewery (7734 Terrace Ave., 608-836-7100).
This year’s selections feature a range of burger-bending flavors, including a Moroccan lamb burger from Bunky’s Café (2425 Atwood Ave., 608-204-7004), a Cuban burger topped with ham, gouda, and mustard from Metcalfe’s Market (726 N. Midvale Blvd., 608-238-7612), and a messily delicious-sounding bison burger dressed with onions, bacon, spinach, cheddar, and herb aioli.
The event will also see the return of Lombardino’s (2500 University Ave., 608-238-1922) now-infamous grilled lamb burger topped with a fried quail egg. Fresco (227 State St., 608-663-7374) may steal the crazy-shit crown this year, though, with its burger topped with black truffle aioli, radish, and get this, onions caramelized in bone marrow—that’s right, the squishy tissue inside of bones now makes for good frying.
For those with less adventurous palates, Brasserie V (1923 Monroe St., 608-255-8500) returns to the event with its classic but far from ordinary cheeseburger, and the Willy Street Co-op (1221 Williamson St., 608-251-6776) will have an Italian sausage burger dressed with mozzarella and a roasted tomato relish. Vegetarians, often given short shrift when grilled meat is the focus, have more options than ever before with five veggie burgers—and, remarkably, only one is a portobello mushroom.
For each $25 ticket, you get three mini burgers paired with a 5-ounce beer from one of 11 Wisconsin breweries. All proceeds benefit REAP’s Buy Fresh, Buy Local program, which helps connect local farmers with chefs and other food-service providers.
