This Coral Gables favorite just won Burger Bash. But it might lose its longtime home
The last three weeks have presented Rita Tennyson with one improbable moment after another that culminated with her standing on stage at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival’s Burger Bash Friday night with a trophy for the judges’ favorite burger.
It was three weeks ago that festival founder and Coral Gables resident Lee Schrager tasted her cheddar cheeseburger with bacon relish and caramelized onions at a neighborhood farmers market and invited her to the annual competition for best burger.
Usually, she makes a version of that burger at Burger Bob’s, the longstanding diner on Coral Gables’ Granada Golf Course. But two weeks ago Burger Bob’s closed after the city declined to renew the restaurant’s lease.
“The city has really screwed them over,” Schrager said from the stage.
The city put out a request for a new concept at the golf course. Tennyson, who has worked with owner Robert “Bob” Maguire at Burger Bob’s for 28 years, has been fighting to have her proposal considered to renovate and stay on the golf course over an influential lobbyist who wanted to install a “chef-driven restaurant.” Last month, Rodney Barreto pulled his bid after community members opposed it.
On Friday, those problems seemed farther away for Tennyson, whose R Catering — which she runs with her two children, two brothers and a cousin — won the judges’ Very Best Burger award and a $1,500 check.
“Tonight, I’m going to focus on the positive,” she said. “We want to stay positive because today is an amazing day.”
Celebrity chef José Andrés, who was shortlisted for the Nobel Peace Prize for the work of his nonprofit World Central Kitchen, handed her the check, shortly after asking for a moment of silence in memory of the people of Ukraine. (“We have no room for war,” he told the crowd.)
“Seeing her tears, I think we feel what every small restaurant owner has been through in the last two years,” Andrés said, hugging Tennyson.
It was the second year of a new look for one of the festival’s signature events. The festival cut capacity from the usual 4,000-plus crammed under the beachside tent behind the Ritz-Carlton South Beach to two sessions of 1,100 people, with an hour cleaning session in between, to reduce the risk of transmitting the novel coronavirus. That meant two sets of judges’ and People’s Choice winners.
Andrés was standing in for celebrity chef Rachael Ray, who had to miss the event when she tested positive for COVID-19 and couldn’t make the flight from New York.
“I’m sick and not from COVID, but heartsick,” because she couldn’t attend, she texted Schrager.
That left Andrés to hand out the night’s other awards. La Birra Bar, the Argentine family-run franchise which opened its first U.S. location in North Miami Beach in August, won the first session’s People’s Choice award and $5,000 for its 4-ounce beef patty with American cheese, red onions and house sauce. In the second session, Motek Café won the second people’s choice award and $5,000 for its Lebanese burger stuffed in a pita with harissa aioli. And downtown’s Vice Burger won the other Very Best Burger judge’s choice and the $1,500 prize with its wagyu beef burger.
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 10:13 PM.
