Where: Bernie’s Burger Bus serving at the legendary Marquis II, 2631 Bissonet Street, Houston, Texas 77005

When: Thursday, December 6 2012

Why:  To celebrate Boost Mobile’s commitment to the community and enabling families to be heard by offering wireless phones and services with no long-term contracts featuring “shrinking payments,” the company has teamed up with the Houston Food Bank to help ”Shrink Hunger.” Joining Boost Mobile in this cause is Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing, who will be on hand to distribute free lunch from Houston’s own Bernie’s Burger Bus, to Houston residents that come out to join the fight.

For every Houston resident that participates in the event, Boost Mobile will donate a weekend’s worth of food for a Houston child through Houston Food Bank’s Backpack Buddy program. Boost Mobile will be donating a total of $5,600 to the food bank’s Backpack Buddy program in recognition of Brian Cushing’s (#56) dedication to the Houston community. This will provide a weekend’s worth of meals to approximately 1,860 Houston children.

Boost Mobile rewards Houston residents’ loyalty, by encouraging commitment with its monthly unlimited with shrinking payments no-contract service, where the longer you stay the less you pay with on-time payments for unlimited voice, text messaging, Web, email and calls to 411. When combined with handsets as low as $29, Boost Mobile can save residents hundreds of dollars per year, but still provide access to the top-selling phones in today’s mobile space.

Schedule

• 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
• 11 a.m. – Food truck opens and Brian Cushing on hand to serve meals to residents
• 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. – Boost Mobile giveaways (phones, autographed footballs). Every 29th customer in line will each receive a giveaway to promote Boost Mobile’s affordable handset
• 12:15 pm – Check presentation to Houston Food Bank by Boost Mobile representative
• 1 p.m. – Event ends

2012 FAVORITE BURGER

Winner: Bernie’s Burger Bus

Finalists: Burger Guys * Goode Co. Hamburgers & Taqueria * Lankford Grocery * Mockingbird Bistro * Petrol Station * Rudyard’s

2012 FAVORITE FOOD TRUCK/CART

Winner: Bernie’s Burger Bus

Finalists: H-Town StrEATS * Melange Crêperie * Pi Pizza * Sirena Seafood * Tacos Tierra Caliente * The Modular

The Study Hall

By The Houston Press Staff – Read Full Article

It may look like a school bus, but it’s a lean, mean, burger-grilling machine. Winner of the 2012Houston Press Burger Bracket, Bernie’s Burger Bus is the true definition of gourmet food truck, utilizing the freshest ingredients — fresh-ground Black Angus beef, freshly made baked buns, and homemade condiments — to make one of the juiciest, tastiest burgers you’ll ever have the pleasure of eating. The school-themed menu features the traditional American burger “The Principal”; the double-patty, Texas-cheddar topped “The Bully”; and the famous “Study Hall” burger, topped with barbecue sauce and crispy-seared, slow-braised pork belly.

Photo by Geoffrey Koslov

With 34 percent, Bernie’s Burger Bus earned more than double the number of votes of its nearest competitor to top 29-95’s Houston’s Best Food Truck poll.

Good Dog Hot Dogs and the Waffle Bus were second and third, respectively.

Bernie’s owner Justin Turner has two buses serving Black Angus burgers topped with premium fixings and house-made condiments. Don’t miss the Blue Cheese Fries topped with bacon and green onion. Find Bernie’s next stop at berniesburgerbus.com.

The winner of the $100 gift card for best review was Connie Moffit, who wrote of Rice Box, “just seeing the Chinese lanterns dancing on the awning … puts a smile on my face.”

28. Bernie’s Burger Bus
Chef Justin Turner’s jaunty burger joint on wheels shows the level of perfection to which Houston’s new crop of food trucks can aspire — and what a laser-like focus on ingredients can do. When the rehabbed yellow school bus pulls up outside Inversion Coffeehouse or Lizzard’s Pub, local burger connoisseurs line up like eager schoolkids. Turner’s obsessive need to concoct everything from scratch makes the crucial difference: from the bronzed, multi-textured glories of his hand-cut French fries to the lush beefiness of the inch-tall patties he grinds daily, at a ratio of 70 percent chuck to 30 percent brisket. Even his housemade ketchup and pickles are brilliant, as is the garlicky slow-roasted tomato he uses in place of the usual pallid slice.

Cuisine: Hamburgers
Entree price range: $
Where: various locations in Midtown, Montrose and Heights

Chili Cheese Fries from Bernie’s Burger Bus

By Katharine Shilcutt — Read full article

BEHOLD YOUR NEW GOD.

1. Bernie’s Burger Bus

Absolutely everything is housemade at Bernie’s Burger Bus, from the condiments (chef Justin Turner’s ketchup is so damn good, customer demand for the stuff led to it being sold on its own at Revival Market) to the fries. Hand-cut, they’re crispy and pillowy all at once — and even better when topped with some of Turner’s homemade chili (as seen above). You won’t find a better fry in town.

Justin Turner proudly displays his Burger Bracket trophy. Photos by Allison McPhail

By Katharine Shilcutt — Read original article

School’s out for summer: The little yellow school bus that delivers some seriously juicy burgers, Bernie’s Burger Bus, won our 2nd annual Burger Bracket last night at The Distillery.

It was a fortuitous time for a win, as Bernie’s has just launched a second bus in its burger fleet. You can catch the original Bernie’s Burger Bus and its winning entry today at Sugarbaby’s, or take your pick of the two buses tomorrow — one will be at Inversion in Montrose for lunch while the other will be at the newly renamed Boomtown Coffee in the Heights.

I was unfortunately unable to attend, due to an extremely unfortuitous bout of bronchitis. So while I was looped out on Cheratussin last night, Burger Bracket judge Jim Rassinier (better known around these parts as commenter Fatty FatBastard) helpfully took copious notes on the competition:

When I was asked to help judge this bracket, I was honored. It is always fun to get to decide who “you” consider to be the best, and I was happy to oblige. But when I found out where the finals were being held, it did seem awfully coincidental. The thing is, the owner of the place and my team all went to high school together. In fact, we kept waxing nostalgic about old stories through the years… Interestingly enough, one of our judges was working for 12 straight hours and had to bow out, so we had the Distillery owner become our substitute.

On to the burgers.

The consensus was that The Burger Guys had a very good burger, but it was too greasy and salty. I found this odd because at last year’s competition I found theirs to be on the sweet side. It was still, without question, one of the better burgers in this city, and I would still recommend the place to anyone.

Next was Beaver’s. Although my three other teammates thought it was good, I found mine inedible. It was powdery, tasteless and dry. Perhaps I got one of the poorer made ones, but I was far less impressed than I was on the initial tasting. And as one judge who liked it stated, “It was pretty good, but there’s no way in hell I’m saying a veggie burger wins.” Bottom line, Beaver’s is a great place to go; just make sure and get some mac & cheese.

As to Mockingbird Bistro: It ended up being the runner up. We pretty much agreed with the result, but only from the burger that was presented. This burger was much more well done than the one we received at the restaurant, and that tended to make the Stilton cheese overpower the actual burger. I’ll have to stress again that everyone needs to try this at the actual restaurant to truly understand the greatness of this burger. That said, I think Mockingbird may have dodged a bullet, because this is apparently a profit loser at this fantastic restaurant.

As much as we loved the burgers, we were in agreement with the choice of Bernie’s Burger Bus being the best this year. The mushrooms, bacon, bun… This is definitely another place you simply have to try. I talked to the owner for a few minutes about where they set up shop, and he rattled off at least five different places, including the Marquis II and Inversion coffee house. But his best piece of advice? Find them on Twitter or Facebook because he makes a “Study Hall” burger once a month that includes… Well, like them and find out.

All in all, this was a blast and hopefully we get the honor of judging again in the future.

Thanks to Jim for the recap, thanks to the four finalists for participating and thanks to everyone who came out. Until next March!

10:30am-3:00pm @ U of H, Main Campus [mappress mapid="59"]

11:30am-2:30pm @ Inversion Coffee House [mappress mapid="32"]

6pm-10pm @ Little Woodrow’s, Heights Location [mappress mapid="48"]

6pm-9:30pm @ Inversion Coffee House [mappress mapid="32"]

SugarBaby’s Cupcake Boutique from 11:30am-2:30pm [mappress mapid="22"]

Inversion Coffee House from 6pm-9:30pm [mappress mapid="38"]

Boneyard Drinkery from 1pm-6pm [mappress mapid="39"]