One of the country’s best burgers is from Miami — again
The best burger at the 2019 South Beach Wine & Food Festival’s Burger Bash is a familiar name — not just to the festival, but to Miamians.
Pincho, the Miami-founded burger and kabob restaurant, won the coveted People’s Choice award at the festival’s beachside bash Friday night, edging competition from more than 40 restaurants from around the country. It’s a familiar place for Pincho, which won the same $5,000 prize at this event in 2015, recognition that helped boost the two-store company into a burgeoning franchise.
It won this year with the aptly named Pipo’s Choice burger: a brisket-and-chuck patty with applewood-smoked bacon, fried sweet plantains, potato sticks and guava ketchup.
“The last time we won, it really put us on the map,” said Pincho’s Otto Othman, who cofounded the company with his cousin and business partner Nedal Ahmad. “It changed our lives. And it’s amazing timing for us to win this award again.”
Pincho, which recently changed its name from Pincho Factory, has 10 locations now in Miami-Dade and Broward, with plans to expand to 10 more in Washington D.C., starting later this year.
The crowd crowns the big winners. But a panel of judges that included Neil Patrick Harris and his husband, chef David Burtka, “Today’s” Al Roker, and the rapper Rev Run, named LT Steak & Seafood the judges’ best burger for a $2,500 prize. Red Robin awarded a $10,000 scholarship to Florida International University nursing student Mariet Cardenes for her entry, which will appear on Red Robin restaurant menus this year.
Last year, two Miami restaurants were honored by the festival, facing stiff competition from around the country: the defunct Swine Table & Bar won the People’s Choice and the Kendall gastropub Barley won the Red Robin award.
This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 12:17 AM.
