Charbar Co. is known locally for having the best burgers on Hilton Head Island, and now the restaurant is gunning for the title of best burger in the world.
After winning a qualifying competition in Orlando, Fla., last weekend, Charbar Co. clinched a spot in the World Burger Championship competition to be held at the World Food Championships in Las Vegas in November.
The restaurant won with its signature "Dirty South Burger," a perfected combination of fresh ground beef, pimento cheese, candied jalepenos, porkbelly confit and barbecue marmalade.
"Everything that we do is from scratch," right down to the buns, said Charbar Co.'s CEO Nick Bergelt. "That was the primary distinguishing factor."
Out of 16 competitors, Charbar Co. was the only non-Florida restaurant at the Barks and Burgers competition in Orlando. Bergelt and his team had to convert the 6,000 event attendees who had no clue who they were into Charbar Co. fans for the People's Choice Best Burger award.
"At the end of the day, taste was the only thing we had to rest our laurels on," Bergelt said. "And it paid off."
Now, the restaurant's crew will head to the World Burger Championship, where 50 of the world's best hamburgers and their cooks will compete for a $10,000 prize.
Surprisingly, the competition circuit is relatively new for the Charbar Co. team. The Barks and Burgers event was the restaurant's first out of town competition, although it's done well in one particular event at home. On Oct. 4, Charbar Co. won First Place & People&'s Choice Best Burger at Hilton Head's Burgers and Brew Festival for the third year in a row.
"That was the extent of it," Bergelt said, "but we knew that ultimately the goal was to compete on a world scale."
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