Tag: Seth Agranov

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

BurgerFest Is Back

CREDIT: Frank Chin

Frank Chin

Last October, Seth Agranov, founder of the Best Memphis Burger Festival, announced he was stepping away from the event, citing time conflicts and declining attendance. He said he hoped the festival would be taken over.

Details were finalized last week, and the festival will be back on October 27th at Tiger Lane. The event will be run by Southwood Entertainment Group.

Brian Ellsworth of Southwood says that Agranov and his team all had full-time jobs, which made running such an event difficult. Putting on events is Ellsworth’s full-time job.

First things first, he changed the name slightly to BurgerFest, as that’s what everybody calls it anyway.

He’s also changing the structure of the event, so that there’s less pressure on the competing teams to feed the crowd. In fact, this year, there will be no competition. (It will return in future events.)

Ellsworth is currently recruiting 2 well-known burger places to provide samples. This year, festival-goers can get a punch card for sampling 3 burgers and 5 beers. He hopes to up the burger count eventually to 6.

Ellsworth purchased the rights to the festival for around $10,000. He said there’s money to be made with the festival, but past efforts weren’t so successful.

He says he wants the event to better serve the public. There will be a burger bar, where full-size burgers can be purchased, live music, and an expanded children’s area.

Ellsworth has a vision of an expanded festival — one that is multiple days with carnival rides. He sees a festival that satisfies all comers — foodies who are there to flex their burger-making muscles and those who come out to have fun and hang out.  

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Burger Fest Founder Calls It Quits

CREDIT: Frank Chin

Frank Chin

Seth Agranov

Seth Agranov, founder of the Best Memphis Burger Fest, announced today that he is walking away from the festival, due, in part, to declining attendance and increasing time demands. He says he hopes someone will take over the festival.

From the statement:

Over the past six years, Burger Fest has become a passion and a love affair of mine. I’ve put everything into it and in return, it’s paid me back with a renewed faith and admiration for this great city, a love for the people in it and amazement at my own abilities to make a difference, even on a small scale.  …

I started Burger Fest with a goal in mind and a dream of what it one day could be. As a fundraiser and cooking competition, it has far surpassed all my goals. As for my dream, it remains just that for now. I am content knowing I never said, “what if I …” or “I wish I had…” ….

I will miss it like nothing else, but I feel strongly that the time to walk away is now. I have no regrets. On the contrary, I have a heart overflowing with love for the people, organizations and teams associated with Burger Fest and those that helped me reach all my festival goals. Maybe I did live my dream? Nonetheless, I am proud to step off this ride knowing that what I may have created very quickly grew into something way bigger than me. I owe everything to you all – my family, my friends, my sponsors, my teams, my Burger Squad, my Memphis. …

The amazing thing about giving is that it becomes addictive. I can never stop giving back to the city that has given me so much. I’d like to remain involved with Memphis Paws and continue to be a part of the local food scene. I still think the best is yet to come. I’m also happy to make all my resources available to anyone interested in continuing Best Memphis Burger Fest. I really hope someone does.

Dr. Seuss said, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” Today, I am smiling!

To you all and for all you’ve done – I am forever grateful. The unknown is exciting. I look forward to sharing it with you.

Respectfully,

Seth Agranov
President, Memphis Paws, Inc.
Founder & Director, Best Memphis Burger Fest

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Popper Throwdown Set for March 25

Seth Agranov, the founder of the Best Memphis Burger Festival, is now the founder of the 901 Popper Throwdown.

“Really, why not?” says Agranov.

Aganov says the whole thing started as some “chest-bumping on Facebook” over poppers. Talk of a contest bubbled up — something small, maybe in someone’s backyard. But, then, no one really wanted to play host, and so …

The 901 Poppers Throwdown will be in front of High Cotton Brewing on Saturday, March 25, noon to 7 p.m. It will be on the smallish side with 10 to 15 teams competing in two categories: anything goes; and anything goes in poppers using High Cotton beer. There will also be a pickled jalapeno eating contest.

We all know poppers, right? The general format is a jalapeno pepper stuffed with cream cheese and some other stuff. They whole thing is usually wrapped in bacon.

But Agranov says there are many approaches to the popper. One can deep-fry them or bake them. Some swear by the bacon, others bread them. Sometimes peppers other than the jalapeno are used.

Agranov, who says he makes poppers mostly by request, favors the sliced in half take, with a cream cheese mixed with cheddar cheese. He says his secret is the honey-butter glaze he uses and he smokes them for about an hour over low heat.

At the event, there will be live music and a kid’s area (though no kids inside High Cotton), maybe some burgers. One thing that won’t be found at the Popper Throwdown are peppers hotter than jalapenos. Those aren’t allowed.