2018's best burgers

This Saintly City branch of this Long Lake brewery is located in Lowertown's Market House Collaborative, where "collaborative" is truly the name of the game.

Shane Oporto, chef at anchor tenant Octo Fishbar, created the Birch's Lowertown menu and produces it in a corner of the Octo kitchen. The burger's beef comes from the collective's Peterson Craftsman Meats counter, and the bun is produced by another Market House player, the Salty Tart.

Each double-patty burger ($14) utilizes meat from a single (as in one, and not as in unmarried) cow, a rarity that's a benefit of controlling production — the Peterson grass-fed operation is near Osceola, Wis. — and having the run of the butcher shop.

"What I'm noticing from butchering over here at the butcher shop is that I'm able to grab short rib, rib eye, chuck, all the lead pieces from the round," Oporto said. "It's really nice to use that whole cow. I'm not being too picky and choosy and grabbing parts from 12 or 20 cows to create a certain formula. That's why the flavor is so good, because you're getting just that one cow."

The thin patties weigh in at 3 ounces. They start in a semi meatball-ish state before being smashed on a hot flat top stove and taken to a still juicy and still tender medium.

Oporto favors white American cheese. Contributing to the caloric overkill is a prodigious amount of a sauce that's equal parts ketchup and Kewpie mayonnaise. There's no lettuce, no tomato, no onion. But Oporto doesn't avoid the produce section entirely: He inserts a layer of crunchy refrigerator pickles.

The bun is Salty Tart chef/owner Michelle Gayer's milk-enriched formula. It's sliced, buttered and toasted, and then the crown of the bun gets a quick browning toast, too.

289 E. 5th St., St. Paul, 651-432-4677, birchslowertown.com

When chef Sam Collins decided to include a burger ($16, fries included) on his menu, he had one goal.

"We asked ourselves, 'How can we make the best classic cheeseburger that anyone has ever had?' " he said. "It had to start with the bun, because no burger is complete without the perfect bun. If the bun falls short, the burger falls short."

He's right, and Collins also practices what he preaches, because this bun does not disappoint. It's a brioche dough, baked on the premises. Every bite screams "butter," because it's incorporated into the dough and lavishly spread on the inside flat surfaces before they're toasted.

The patty, a thickish 6-ouncer that hugs the bun's edges, is also scrupulously prepared. It's a grass-fed blend of chuck, plus the scraps from the kitchen's New York strip steaks. Collins leaves nothing to chance, grinding and pattying the beef himself. "A lot of it is feel, and eye, and that's tough to explain," he said. "It's not the same as just handing someone a recipe. It's constant technique."

Along with more of those crisp, palate-cleansing pickles, the only other embellishment is a pile of soft — and softly sweet — onions, cooked on the flat top in a bit of olive oil and seasoned with a surprise ingredient: a splash of tamari. At every turn, the attention to detail is obvious, which explains why Collins clearly has a hit on his hands.

"It's our No. 1 seller," he said. "By a long shot."

402 S. Main St., Stillwater, 651-571-3501, fellerrestaurant.com

Chef/owner Destiny Buron purchases entire cows, one at a time, from a farmer in Watertown, Minn.

"I get the liver, the heart, the tongue, the bones, everything," she said. "The rest of the whole cow is ground into beef, for burgers. That's about 400 pounds of burger meat, per cow."

"There's no real secret," she said. "It's just all the good parts of the cow, and then we don't overcook it. It's so good, you can't beat it."

A generous layer of housemade pickles delivers a snappy, vinegary, slight garlicky punch. Buron prefers to pile on the American cheese. Onions are sliced thick and grilled, yet they retain their crunch. The bun — soft, not overly bread-y, nicely toasted — is baked at Grandma's Bakery in White Bear Lake.

"We lucked out," said Buron. "We were using Saint Agnes. The buns that they made were perfect, but they went out of business, and I thought, 'What am I going to do?' My mom called Grandma's, and they said, 'The guy from Saint Agnes, he works here now, and he brought his recipes — and most of his employees — with him. And I thought, 'Oh, score.' "

What a coincidence: Those two words flashed across my mind when I took my first bite of this first-rate old-school burger.

285 W. George St., St. Paul, 612-720-4766, homestreethomecafeandbakery.com

"For every 5 pounds of meat, there's 1 pound of butter," Eaton said. "It's a ton of butter."

No kidding. It's what Land O'Lakes has been telling us all along: Butter really does make everything better.

He's only just starting, dairy-wise. The two well-seasoned, nicely caramelized patties are liberally coated in a cleverly doctored Emmenthaler cheese.

"Cheese is my favorite food," Eaton said. "If people had the nerve to ask for extra cheese, they would do it. So I give it to them without them having to ask."

The sesame-topped challah bun — it's baked at P.J. Murphy's in St. Paul — contributes all kinds of goodness.

"I like the crunch of raw vegetables," Eaton said. "And I really like a Cali-style burger. And I wanted that classic deli feel."

No doubt about it, Eaton has another instant-classic burger on his hands.

901 W. Lake St., Mpls., 612-315-4608, meyvneats.com

When chef Peter Hoff was cooking in California, he became a card-carrying member of In-N-Out Burger nation. The diner-style, double-patty format he's using for the cheeseburger ($15, with fries) he's serving at this North Loop hot spot — to the tune of several hundred a week — is an affectionate homage to that venerated chain.

"Two patties means more surface for caramelization, more of that beefy, beefy flavor," he said. "And in my opinion, when you get those 6- and 7-ounce patties, they're harder to eat. They're a real commitment, managing those things."

"It's really rich, probably close to a 70/30 [meat/fat] ratio, nice and juicy," Hoff said. "When you're making thin, 2- to 3-ounce patties, you want more fat in the grind. That higher fat ratio keeps them from drying out."

The golden, challah-style bun — it's baked at Turtle Bread Co. — plays a key role in this burger's success.

So does the sauce, a Thousand Island-like formula and total umami-booster that's laid on with a heavy hand.

"We slather it on everything here," Hoff said with a laugh. "The In-N-Out Double-Double is the best burger there is. I'll just blatantly call myself a ripoff artist."

511 Washington Av. N., Mpls., 612-800-6033, noloskitchen.com