Sara Stadem | Editor
Throughout the month of January, the Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce gave away weekly prizes of Hartford Bucks for those that posted about the Hartford Burger Battle, but the big winner came on Friday, February 5.
For those that weren’t on line at the time, the Chamber went live on Friday morning to announce the winner of the 3rd Annual Hartford Burger Battle. When they went live, they were outside the winner’s restaurant waiting to surprise the winner, The Stomping Grounds, with the news and their traveling trophy.
This was the second year The Stomping Grounds participated in the Hartford Burger Battle and their burger was the Trojan Horse Burger which was a Belgian pearl sugar waffle for a bun with an egg, sausage patty, pecan smoked cottage bacon topped with pepper/ghost smoky cheese and served with a side of maple syrup.
Owner of The Stomping Ground Justin Eich said, “The win was definitely a surprise. I was working last Friday and I saw a couple cars pull in and I know their vehicles (the ladies of the Chamber) and they weren’t written in the book to use the back room. So, I went in the kitchen to get bagels ready for them.” He continued, “About 20 minutes before that, I had gotten a call to see if we were open and asked who I was; I thought the call was strange but I’ve had similar phone calls so I didn’t think much of it so I was pleasantly surprised.”
Eich said, “I know a lot of people liked that the burger had a little bit of a kick. We changed the cheese for some of those that wanted it. Some also said they could just eat the waffle without syrup, which is another reason we did what we did with the burger so that we could potentially offer just the waffle.”
He figured he would end up with extra waffles at the end of the battle. Eich was prepared to sell those separately. Instead, what happened was The Stomping Ground sold out of the Trojan Horse Burger on the last Saturday of the battle, with hours to go of the competition, with seven more requests for the burger after the last one was sold. “I would have never guessed; I would have thought we would have gone into Monday with leftover waffles,” Eich stated.
When asked if he saw an increase from last year, Eich said he did see an increase but not right away. Both years they were open on New Year’s Day and thought they had a slower start this year. “I would say the first five to seven days this year were slower but once the 10th to 12th of the month hit, it was really consistent.”
Although he didn’t do the numbers, Eich thought he did about a third or greater of his Burger Battle sales on Saturdays which makes sense to him since it was a breakfast burger.
Eich does think the Burger Battle helps bring people to the Hartford community. “I know we had out-of-towners because they would tell us. That started back in October. We had more people, especially on Saturdays. We have a group that anywhere from two to four couples who come out quite a few Saturdays in the last three to four months because they like it out here,” Eich said. He continued, “The Burger Battle brings people out here because they want to try it out here and like it out here. Couples want to stop out and try things here because they just don’t know things are out here. They said, ‘I’m here for your Burger Battle.’ It might not seem like a big thing but it got people out and about again.”
Amy Larson, Chamber member, stated they were really happy to see their number of participants were up this year. “Last year we had under 1,000 voters, around 950 and this year, we were over 1,400 voters. It was just awesome that everyone and more participated again this year.”
Eich clarified he has had several requests for the Trojan Horse Burger to remain on the menu. The voters have spoken and have been heard! The Trojan Horse will remain on the menu through March and Eich will see from there, depending how it goes over.