Summer is finally here! We don't know about you but summer screams BBQ for us, specifically a good burger. We discovered B.Good burgers back when we lived in the Brookline area. If you haven't been to B.Good you need to go...now. Well, not right now, finish reading, then head over. B.Good isn't just another fast food burger place, there's an honest difference in quality and flavor here. B.Good is a local business started by two friends, Anthony Ackil and Jon Olinto. Their mission was to make fast food real. There's no secret chemicals or hard to pronounce ingredients here. Just honest good food and some baked fries that will blow you away. Seriously, don't let the idea of a baked fry scare you, we swear they're good. So what's better than a good burger? A good burger with craft beer of course! We met up with Jon Olinto to do some craft beer and burger pairings with B.Good burgers. The short story here is that we ended up with some amazing food pairings that you need to try. Sadly we did run out of time and didn't get to pair all of their burgers. The good news is we'll be back shortly with Part Two of this article where we pair the rest of their burgers. But enough talk, on to the good stuff!
Cousin Oliver with Victory Prima Pils
B. Good's Cousin Oliver is the quintessential burger, a simple beef burger topped with crisp lettuce, tomato onions and pickles. What really puts this burger over the top, though, is the addition of their secret suace. You do have to ask for this, but make sure you do! A simple burger like this cried out for a nice clean beer. We relied on a summer time staple and favorite of ours, Vicotry Prima Pils. This pilsner is crisp, clean and refreshing. While slightly aggressively hopped, as many Victory beers are, it's never overwhelming. The hops helped cut through the tangyness of the secret sauce and blended perfectly with the sweet tomatoes and juicy burger. We're getting hungry again just thinking about this. Jon had never had this beer before and instantly said he needed to go buy some after doing this pairing.
Buffalo Chicken and Oskar Blues Mama's Little Yella Pils
Who doesn't love buffalo chicken? We can't think of anyone we know. The buffalo chicken sandwich is exactly what you'd expect. A nice juicy chicken breast with buffalo sauce, lettuce and blue cheese. Buffalo can be a tough one to pair, while it's easy to be refreshing you want to compliment the spice, not just quell the heat with something cold. To accomplish this feat we went with Oskar Blues Mama's Little Yella Pils. The Pils, a new offering from Oskar Blues this year, provided a nice malt base to bring out more flavors whole also providing some hop bitterness to cut through the heat. All in all this is just a nice refreshing pairing.
Adopted Luke Turkey Burger and Founders Porter
This pairing happened by recommendation of Jon. We were tasting the Founders Porter with another burger when Jon instantly said, "you know this would be awesome with the Adopted Luke." Moments like this are exactly why we like to have the people who came up with the food with us for the pairings. So what's an Adopted Luke? This burger combines
though not necessarily craft beer, a Bohemia or Pacifico i think would go well with a westside burger @ b.good