Home Plate Bar-B-Que has been once again crowned champion of Beijing’s burger circuit, walking away with the Burger Cup for a third consecutive year since taking the title from 2011 winner Blue Frog.

Home Plate survived a challenge in the final head-to-head match from upstart Slow Boat Brewery, whose burgers did not even make the Round of 64 in 2013 but has shown some real mettle on the back of their innovatively gluttonous Fryburger, a burger stuffed with beer-battered French fries.

It’s been a long ride for Home Plate, which once again made its way into the finals via hard-fought victories over bracketmates Domain (#16), Burgers & Beer (#9), Temple Bar (#4) and Union Bar and Grille (#3), before going on to meet and defeat Bracket A’s top seed Great Leap Brewing and then besting Slow Boat.

Home Plate fans consistently praised the juiciness of their burgers as well as the value and the atmosphere of its two locations, the original behind the Hilton Hotel and its more recent venue in Sanlitun.

In the Third Place Match, Great Leap bounded by The Big Smoke to take slot #3 on the strength of its burgers, craft beer and atmosphere.

And with this, we now have our conclusionary rankings in the 2014 Cup, and you just may want to use the October 1 holiday to work off those extra pounds, as a full 68 percent of you reported eating more burgers than usual over the Burger Cup period, while 55 percent said you’ve consumed more beer.

As we wrap up, let’s take a look back at a tumultuous year in the rankings, with new entrants in the Top 10, others taking steep falls and a new fleet of contenders making the rankings.

Biggest Jumps: Stuff’d rose 24 spots, from #38 to #14; Temple Bar rose 23 spots to move from #36 to #13; The Cut jumped 14 spots to go from #44 to #30; The Big Smoke climbed 13 spots to make it to #4 from its previous perch at #17; Paddy O’Shea’s went from #31 to 19; 4corners jumped from #22 to 11; and Pentalounge moved up 8 spots from #55 to #47.

Welcome to the Jungle: Slow Boat tops the list of contestants that didn’t make the cut in last year’s tourney to place in this year’s, coming in at #2. Others that made their debut this year include #17 Katchup; #20 Burger Bar; #22 Q Mex; #23 Beer Mania; #25 Morton’s of Chicago; #27 Windy City; #28 The Irish Volunteer and #31 The Kro’s Nest.

Biggest Drops: It wasn’t a great cup for several venues who saw their rankings drop as competition heated up. Cafe Flatwhite dropped 33 slots from #16 last year to #49 this year; Chef Too plummeted 25 spaces to go from #12 to #37; Peter’s Tex-Mex dropped from #23 to #44; Grandma’s Kitchen went from #19 to 39; and The Bookworm went from #42 to barely making the grate at #62.

Farewell: After charting in 2013, #30 Burger Counter, #32 The Corner and #36 The James Joyce all fell out of the rankings entirely.

Here, in a brief chart, is our field of 64 for 2014 and how they did vs 2013:

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on September 28, 2014.

Photos: the Beijinger

Reigning champ Home Plate Bar-B-Que narrowly defeated a strong showing by Great Leap Brewing to enter the Championship of the Beijinger’s 2014 Burger Cup, where it will face off against Slow Boat Brewery, which moved past The Big Smoke on its way to the final match.

It’s been a grueling battle for both of the final match’s contestants. On their way through the field of 64 venues, Home Plate defeated Domain, Burgers & Beer, Temple Bar, Union Bar and Grille and finally Great Leap to make it to the penultimate match. Meanwhile, the previously unranked Slow Boat sailed past Lakers, The Irish Volunteer, Lily’s American Diner, Plan B, and The Big Smoke to reach the final.

Home Plate’s signature burger is the Double Cheese Burger. It’s chock full of Australian beef goodness and comes at the bargain price of RMB 55 (sides are extra). Served on a buttered, toasted sesame seed bun, Home Plate’s beast is topped with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and red onion and slathered with one of their home-made sauces: house-made mustard or one of the BBQ sauces that made them famous: Kansas, Memphis or Texas style.

Meanwhile, Slow Boat’s claim-to-fame is their Fryburger, which takes the perfect burger side dish – French Fries – and shoves them right in there between the two halves of the toasted bun. Served with a pickle for RMB 50, Slow Boat’s Australian ground beef patty is topped with American cheese and their signature aioli sauce, adding up to a mouth-watering combination.

The third-place match is another mouth-waterer, given the quality and appeal of the two contestants, Great Leap and The Big Smoke.

Great Leap defeated Main Street, Windy City, 4corners and The Local before being bumped off by Home Plate to earn their place in the consolation round. The Big Smoke defeated Eudora Station, The Kro’s Nest, Lush and blue frog before stalling in front of Slow Boat to enter the battle for #3.

Great Leap’s top selling burger, the Cheeseburger, is simple yet sophisticated, featuring fresh (never frozen) single-source Inner Mongolian beef which is butchered, prepared and ground in-house. It’s then topped with American cheese and house-made pickles and served with Mayo and GLB Fancy Sauce on a toasted Sesame Seed Bun.

On the other side stands The Big Smoke with their signature burger, the Portabella Blue Cheese Burger. This 100% beef burger is served on a sesame seed bun and is toppped with a deep fried portabella mushroom stuffed with blue cheese, lettuce and red onion and dressed with their spicy chipotle lime mayo. At RMB 68, it is served withthe Big Smoke’s signature truffle-oiled,hand-cut French Fries.

So there you have it: We’re down to the finals and you have until Saturday night to vote … that’s plenty of time for even you burger virgins to try each one of the top four before making up your mind.

Here’s our lineup card:

Championship: Home Plate vs Slow Boat
3rd Place Match: Great Leap vs The Big Smoke

Meanwhile, In the last round of voting we also asked you your favorite of several contenders for a dream burger combination. The overwhelming favorite was the Joybringer No. 1 created by voter Tijs Bulk of the Netherlands (who in fact hails from not too far from the birthplace of Gouda cheese). The Joybringer features a beef patty on a lightly toasted bun topped with Gouda cheese, lettuce, tomato, caramalized onions, bacon, mustard, mayonnaise and BBQ sauce. Voters reported they’d be willing to pay RMB 47 for such a combo … it remains to be seen if any of Beijing’s burgermeisters would like to put this combo on their menu.

Finally, we asked you to rank the four establishments that were knocked out in the previous round. Adding to our previously-ranked #9 and #10, the 2014 list of Top 10 Beijing Burgers is beginning to take shape.

5. The Local
6. Blue Frog
7. Plan B
8. Union Bar and Grille
9. Frost Coffee, Cocktails and Dining
10. Let’s Burger

This post first appeared thebeijinger.com on September 23, 2014

Photos: courtesy of Home Plate, Big Smoke, The Great Leap, Slow Boat & graphics by Susu Luo

The Beijinger Burger Cup is back, and it’s bigger and beefier than ever. We’re shaking it up for 2014 with a slightly new format – instead of a cook off for the finalists, we are hosting a huge Burger Festival Launch Party to kick off this year’s competition.

Join us on Saturday, August 23 at Tube Station Pizza in Lido for Beijing’s biggest ever burger festival. 15 of your favorite local burger vendors (see below), including The Local, Alibi, The Vineyard, Great Leap Brewing and Home Plate Bar-B-Que, will be peddling their wares to up your burger-related excitement before voting for the final 64 burger venues starts. Duvel, Vandergeeten, Great Leap, and Panda Brew will be on hand selling drinks of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variety should you need something to wash it all down with.

Date: Saturday, August 23, 2014
Time: 11am-8pm
Venue: Tube Station Pizza, Lido (6 FangYuan Xilu, Chaoyang District, near the west corner of Lido Park)
Entrance: Free, burgers available for purchase individually

Voting will go live on Monday, August 25 but until then, stay tuned for Burger Wars (having started yesterday on thebeijinger.com), where we pit some of the Capital’s top burgers against each other.

To get a taste for this year’s competition check out who made it into 2013’s top eight here.

List of confirmed Burger Festival vendors:
Alibi
Beer Mania
Blue Frog
Burger Bar
Duvel
El Gran Bocado
Great Leap Brewing
Home Plate Bar-B-Que
Langham Hotel
Lily’s American Diner
Luga’s Villa
New World Hotel
Paddy O’Shea’s
Panda Brew
Penta Hotel
Q Mex
The Local
VDG
Vineyard
Windy City

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on July 21, 2014.

Photo: The Beijinger