Burgers and Locations:
- The Triple King Challenge, Fat Burger, Issaquah
- The XXX Burger, XXX Diner, Issaquah
- The Thundering Hooves Burger, Whitehouse Crawford, Walla Walla
- The Miner Burger, Miner's, Yakima
- The Smitty Burger, Fat Smitty's, Discovery Bay
- The Red Mill Burger, Red Mill, Seattle



Champion:
- The Smitty Burger, Fat Smitty's, Discovery Bay

 

The Ranks:
- Alex Bennett
- Kyle Buckingham
- Ryan King
- Mark Benson

Recap of 2005:

A number of our friends who had heard about last years asked to join, but we ruled most of them out because they were unable to commit to every stop. We started an ongoing debate about the number of people that we hoped to eventually have on the tour: on one hand, more members would help to legitimize the results, but on the other hand, if different people showed up in different numbers at each spot, the evaluation would be very informal and therefore pointless. For this reason we chose only the people who were willing to commit to every spot. We finally decided on our close friends Ryan and Mark and celebrated with an induction barbeque.

As for the actual execution of the tour, this year was infinitely better than the last one. We significantly widened the range of the burger stops so that they were more geographically state-inclusive. One of the first things we realized was how much gas it was going to cost to travel back and forth across the state. Luckily, we were all able to cram into one car which helped reduce expenses but when everything was said and done, we had spent at least two hundred dollars of our own money. While this was not a small sum, we knew that it would take that much to do it right.

The Spots:

Almost all of this year's contestants threw down amazing burgers. Fat Smitty's was an experience all to itself. The outside of the place is adorned with random burger paraphernalia and a number of large wooden statues; one of them being gigantic burger and another was a replica of Fat Smitty himself. On the whole, the place resembles something out of candy land with a strange touch of conservative, small-town vigor. As we walked into the restaurant (which is less than a stones throw from the highway), the first thing we noticed was the money hanging from the ceilings. All in all, there was probably about $2000 in one to five dollar bills individually pinned to part of every wall. Mixed with these were various photo ID's; a few of which were actually driver's licenses; in addition to business cards, clipped out comics, bumper stickers, and just about anything else that was deemed wall-worthy. Then we met Fat Smitty. This proud one-of-a-kind war veteran saunters up to you with a slight limp and a grandfather-esque smile that could charm even the coldest of hearts into submission. In addition to the great atmosphere, the Smitty Burger leaves all expectations satisfied. The gigantic, greasy, juicy, cheesy concoction which is the Smitty Burger easily displays that decades of experience matters when it comes to grilling burgers. Once we left, we knew that the long Ferry ride to Discovery Bay had been completely worth it.

While Fat Smitty's did walk away with the crown and an official plaque proclaiming their honor as state champions, XXX only lost to them by a third of a percentage point. Without diving too far into detail, it is sufficient to say that the outrageously delicious, three patty, monstrosity XXX burger easily gave Fat Smitty a run for its money. Its hard to argue with a burger that is the size of a small child. But while both of these places passed every one of our categories with flying colors, the Smitty just inched passed XXX for the win. The other burgers on the list also deserve their critical acclaim, especially Whitehouse Crawford, who undeniably had the best meat of any competitor. In total, the tour went pretty smoothly albeit a number of small glitches along the way. Kyle locked the keys in the car, not once, but three different times, and we also got lost in Yakima for a good half an hour.
                                                                                                                                    
After the tour was over, Alex had emailed the Washington State Beef Commission about our tour and to our surprise they had shown a lot of interest in what we were doing. We sat down with one of their executives who gave us a lot of useful information about the ways in which we should go about the tour and what things to avoid. At this point we had not outlawed chain businesses but generally frowned upon them. For this reason Fatburger was able to make it on the list but it would be the last chain on the tour. We decided to ban chains because most of them lack any sense of local pride and in reality never stand up to the hand made burgers of privately owned places. Later that summer we discovered that Red Mill had been given national acclaim but we found it lacking compared to most of the other places. The burger itself was pretty good, but when put to the test against the Smitty or XXX burger, it took a back row seat. We decided that each year's champion would hold the plaque until the following tour.

The local press interviewed us (The Issaquah Press) and published an article titled "In Search of the States Best Burger." The press article really helped to further the awareness of our tour, but for the most part we just came off as highschooler's having fun, which was, at its heart, what the tour was all about.

Issaquah Press Article :
http://www.issaquahpress.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=2771&SectionID=8&SubSectionID=&S=1