Where’s the beef? For ten restaurants, six judges and 300 guests, it will be at the sold-out Perkins Road Burger Fest hosted at The Overpass Merchant on Perkins Road from 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. on Jan. 28. The event is presented by Geaux Rouge.
Associate attorney-by-day Franz Borghardt is the mastermind behind The Perkins Road Burger Fest and the organization Geaux Rouge, which has been almost two years in the making. As a hobby, Borghardt created the Facebook page Baton Rouge Brunches which featured various events and restaurant reviews from around the area.
“That kind of morphed into a desire to do something more than just brunch,” Borghardt said. “Brunch is kind of a limited brand … and so after doing some brainstorming, I came up with this concept called Geaux Rouge.”
Conceptually, the page is designed to feature and celebrate the best parts of Baton Rougeincluding stories, local people, businesses, place, cultural and art events and culinary features, Borghardt said.
In addition to the Geaux Rouge page, Borghardt decided to create the Baton Rouge Burgers Facebook page. The Best Downtown Baton Rouge Burger Contest was hosted at Brickyard South in August with an attendance of over 100 people and presented by Baton Rouge Burgers, Borghardt said.
From there, he decided he wanted to do an event for charity. This desire spawned the first collaboration with Geaux Rouge back in November for the Tigerland and Campus Gates Burger Battle.
“It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do, brand-wise,” Borghardt said.
The Tigerland and Campus Gates Burger Battle had six burger competitors and donated proceeds to Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center.
In an effort to grow, Borghardt and his team worked with digital marketing group ThreeSixtyEight to come up with the initial concept of The Perkins Road Burger Fest, which was to only sell 150 tickets and donate proceeds to Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center and A.C. Lewis YMCA. ThreeSixtyEight urged Borghardt to sell 150 initial advanced tickets, which eventually sold out and prompted Borghardt to go back to the competing restaurants and inquire about doubling their supply, and the competitors obliged, Borghardt said.
“We knew that we wanted to do a festival, we knew that we wanted to do it at the [Perkins Road Historic Merchants District],” he said. “We just didn’t realize it was going to grow as quickly as it did, to where we are now.”
The Overpass Merchant, Kalurah Street Grill, Galatoire’s Bistro, City Pork Deli & Charcuterie, Phil’s Oyster Bar & Seafood Restaurant, Table Kitchen & Bar, Ivar’s Sports Bar and Grill, Iverstine Farms Butcher, Burgersmith and Bet-R Neighborhood Market are competing in the Burger Fest. In addition to each of these restaurants donating 300 sliders for the guests and six full-size burgers for the judge’s competition, Mockler Beverage Company is donating beer and Table Fresh is donating the produce.
“Burgers are one of those universal foods,” Borghardt said. “One of the great things about our city is we have so many great food events. What’s difficult is to do a great food event, that the price point really allows the average citizen that wants to come out and support charities… a $20 ticket, that’s a no brainer.”