San Francisco fails to make Travel and Leisure's top 20 burger cities list.

[wolfe]

Are they kidding?
http://www.travelandleisure.com/artic...

[Tripeler]

Somehow, this makes me feel relieved.

[jason carey]

yawn. Isn't this whole burger thing way to full of itself? Its jsut a burger..

[ML8000]

Someone needs to start a Top Burrito/Tacos Cities list. That'll be fun.

[dunstable]

http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/05/cinco-de-mayo-best-mexican-food-city-in-the-us.html

Let the ranting begin!

Here's another one with actual voting results, although who knows how many places these people have been:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/city-v...

I wonder how many Chicago voters would point to Rick Bayless.

[dunstable]

Found it! And it WAS Travel and Leisure, although it wasn't 20 burgers. Here you go, this probably tells you all you need to know about such lists.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/slide...

[dunstable]

A friend of mine who once did occasional writing for travel magazines admitted what I'd sort of suspected: almost no research goes into these "Best ____ of America" type lists. In many cases, it will be one person who creates the list entirely based on what he can find on Google. It is almost never the work of some well-traveled committee, and they certainly did not send staffers across the country with the purpose of eating a ton of burgers.

Yeah, not long ago he showed me a list of "Best 20 Burgers in America" from some travel magazine, possibly this same magazine, which ranked specific establishments across the country. The highest ranked San Francisco burger? Burger Joint! I'm not even sure it's in the top 20 of SAN FRANCISCO burgers, never mind top 20 in all of America. But, there we are.

[sugartoof]

Burger Joint was unfortunately an often mentioned, highly rated burger at one point, even if it never deserved such accolades. It's a city where Pasta Pomodora won awards. I wouldn't blame travel editors for repeating hype cultivated by locals, or at least local presses, themselves.

Roam comes to mind as a burger place that doesn't turn out anything all that notable beyond Burger Joint, but the decor and sustainable food schtick disguises that, and it gets listed as a top burger spot.

[Robert Lauriston]

This article was based on a survey of Travel & Leisure readers, so no one involved in writing it necessarily even visited any of the cities mentioned.

[GH1618]

I don't find anything wrong with that list. San Franciscans are a little full of themselves, in my opinion. They seem to think they should be at or near the top in any list having something to do with food. It doesn't matter here — it's just a hamburger. You can get a respectable hamburger just about anywhere — even in San Francisco — but you are not likely to plan your vacation around the quest for the perfect burger.

[pane]

"...but you are not likely to plan your vacation around the quest for the perfect burger"

Meet grayelf: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/838958

And her excellent trip report, including the section on Mission Bowling Club's burger: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/846932