What's On Tap
If you’ve ever been to a Dogfish Head Alehouse, then you know about our Burgers of the Week. This special burger changes up every week and brings variety to our menu along with our daily specials. Each location features a different burger and to say some are a bit off-centered, is putting it mildly.
While some restaurants take the lead from the head kitchen manager (as we do in Falls Church,) Gaithersburg takes a cue from the crew. “We always make a few variations of one recipe and let the staff taste test and choose,” says manager Katie.
Fairfax wanted to share a more in-depth look at the process. Manager Justin wants our fans to know how much thought and creativity goes into the burger.
“On average, we create about 45 new burgers every year. There will be a total of 50 Burgers of the Week in 2015. Some will be classics that we bring back from the past. Some examples: Big Daddy Burger which started out as THE END OF THE WORLD BURGER in December 2012. After we all survived the end of the world we decided this burger was worth bringing back. The Halloween burger (Reese Cups on a Burger) is another hit we bring back each year. The team at Dogfish Alehouse can be really creative. We thrive on creating the next new thing. This only happens by everyone throwing around ideas until one sticks. The server staff, kitchen staff, and managers all contribute to our creations,” Justin reveals.
“We look at seasonal availability of ingredients and look for ways to connect our burgers with our themed events. It’s also important that our Burger Of The Week work to enhance the guest’s beer drinking experience. The food/beer pairing experience at the alehouse really sets us apart from our peers in the region. We test how the flavors work in concert with beer. It’s common knowledge among our team that spice will be amplified by hops in our IPA’s and that a worldwide stout or sixty-one will complement the sweeter burger concepts. The off-centered culture among our guests and team provides the perfect landscape for strange and wonderful burgers. We will drink or eat just about anything at least once.”
There you have it. If you haven’t tried a Burger of the Week yet, you should. It might just be the best burger you’ve ever had!
Sometimes you get a craving for a big, juicy burger, and nothing else will do. (And by “sometimes,” we mean “all the time.”)