May is National Burger Month. (Who knew?) To celebrate Sacramento Burger Month, de Vere’s Irish Pub is offering a different gourmet burger, fries and a paired microbrew each week for $15.50.

I was invited with a number of other local bloggers by de Vere’s to a complimentary burger tasting last month try the gourmet burgers their chefs had whipped up for the occasion.


Week One – Tostada Burger: The first week of May, the Irish Pub will be offering a Mexican-themed burger in connection with Cinco de Mayo, or as de Vere’s does it, O’Drinko de Mayo. The burger has a bun, a tostada with pico de gallo, the patty and then another whole tostada. The burger also has a jalapeno mayo, and is paired with Corona.

Week Two – Firehouse Burger: This smokehouse-themed burger is topped with smoked goat cheese, a red wine and shallot reduction and onion strings. The patty itself is smoked and a blend of both ground beef and ground pork. The Firehouse Burger will be paired with a New Belgium beer (from the makers of Fat Tire) – likely the Trippel or Abbey.

Week Three – Stadium Burger: This monstrosity of a burger replaces the traditional bun with a pretzel bun, has a patty stuffed with cheddar, and is topped with lettuce, tomato, house-picked relish and whole grain mustard.  This burger will be paired with Mothership Wit, an organic wheat beer.

Week Four – You make the call: de Vere’s will let its Facebook fans vote on which burger to feature – either a prime rib burger or a burger featuring short rib.

We were given the opportunity to try all three of the burgers, and honestly, I liked all three. I really enjoyed the Tostada Burger and the Stadium Burger. They were unique concepts executed well and paired with good beer. The Tostada Burger had a great contrast in textures between the soft bun and the crunchy tostada shells. While I’m a wimp at eating spicy food, the jalapeno mayo and pico de gallo gave the burger a good kick without being too spicy.

The Stadium Burger was equally tasty, but in a different way. The pretzel is a familiar flavor, but in a new form factor. The whole grain mustard was also nice addition to balance out the flavors.

I enjoyed the Firehouse Burger, but there was nothing exceptional about it. It was a very good burger that probably suffered by its lack of novelty when eaten in the same meal with the other two high concept burgers.

Personally, I’ll be hitting up de Vere’s this week to get another chance to eat the Tostada Burger.

Sac Burger Month is being run by local burger blogger Burger Junkies (whom I met at the tasting). He’s also giving away a camera this month to anybody who participates in Sac Burger Month, tweets about their experience with the #SacBurgerMonth hashtag and includes a pic of what they’re eating. For more information, visit Burger Junkies.