Burgers, Beards & Brews: We have a winner

Photo

Photo by: Special to The Vindicator

The BurgerGuyz present the coveted People’s Champion Award to The New Manhattan of Hubbard.

ANTHONY M. FUDA

BurgerGuyz@hotmail.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Battle is over. Burgers, Beards & Brews, which took place downtown this past weekend, was a huge success.

The BurgerGuyz, with the help of the Youngstown Thunder Car Show, raised $2,450 for The Rich Center for Autism, and the Rust Belt Whisker Society raised money for Golden String/The Purple Cat, all with the help of Third Arm Promotion, Wholesale Fireworks and Deschutes Brewery.

The event was packed both days, with approximately 5,000 people coming through the gates, and it culminated with the Legend of Put-in-Bay, Pat Dailey, performing a great show.

The event might be the second-most-visited event on the square and was such a success that the BurgerGuyz deemed Federal Plaza the permanent location for the burger festival.

We started the festivities Saturday with the first Youngstown Thunder Car Show, sponsored by Drive Magazine and Tom’s Automotive. DJ Big Rick manned the mike, helping make the event run smoothly.

The highlight of the car show came when the guys from the Discovery Channel show “Fat N’ Furious: Rolling Thunder” — Tommy Christmas, Chuck Kountz and Andy Pivarnik — named David George and his 1967 Chevelle Best in Show.

After that, the BurgerGuyz quickly moved on to orchestrate the burger judging. We had a lot of help from celebrity judges: The “Fat N’ Furious” guys, Youngstown State University President Jim Tressell, 21 WFMJ-TV’s Jennifer Brindisi, Jasmine Monroe and Derek Steyer, Lisa Neeld, and CD 93’s Fast Freddie, to name just a few.

Neeld was kind enough to be a veggie burger judge and then assist us in presenting the Youngstown Thunder Car Show awards as well as the burger award winners.

For the second year in a row, The New Manhattan took home the coveted People’s Champion Award.

After the burger judging, the beard part of the event started. There were 15 categories, and Phelps Street was filled with whiskers as far as the eye could see. You can find more about the Rust Belt Whisker Society and the winners on www.facebook.com/events/567257260085772.

Along with Pat Dailey, a number of local bands played throughout the weekend and kept people dancing: Hoss and The Juggernauts, The PickUps, North Shore, Two Days Until Tomorrow, The Cardboard Cutouts, ColorBlind, Chook Alberini, After Hours, Ryan Ross and The Youngstown Syndicate.

As the event was coming to a close, you could hear people saying, “I can’t wait until next year’s event.”

Keep reading the Valley food section each Wednesday for the best food the Valley has to offer.

If you know of a burger that should be on our hit list, send the info to BurgerGuyz@hotmail.com.