10 From 21

Could I be my own worst enemy? I think back to when I was asked to update an old post on All Over Albany about the region’s donut landscape. The outdated post was a survey of a few local places. But I didn’t want to simply revisit that post with current information. Oh no. I argued that the only way to truly evaluate which shop was making great donuts was to eat them all.

Shockingly, the editor, who is usually quite sensible, went for it. And then I was doomed for months to eat over a hundred donuts in pursuit of The Best Dozen.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. The tragedy of my life is that I want to eat all of the things, but I can’t eat all of the things. For the record, this goes for drinking too. Although sometimes, like in the donut example, I’m able to find a way to eat all of the things.

My All Over Albany friends may be trying to kill me, because after the donut thing, we had a burger tasting where I discovered the joys of Burger 21. I found myself outvoted by the other judges, who went for the significantly denser, hard-cooked patty at BurgerFi over the Burger 21 patty with its pink center juicy from rendered beef fat.

Well, after publicly declaring my enjoyment of the Burger 21 specimen, an interesting thing happened.

I got a note from the owner of the local location, who was interested in hosting a Yelp event. So I racked my brain about what we could do at a burger place that would be fun and interesting.

Do you know the concept behind Burger 21? I didn’t until I asked. But the deal is that they have 21 different burgers. Twenty are on the menu week in and week out. However, on the 21st of each month, a new burger appears until the 21st of the next month.

Remember. I want to eat all the things. I always want to eat all of the things.

Could we eat the whole menu? Dear God, that sounded like a terrible idea. If you recall I went to the BurgerFi grand opening media preview, and we were given full sized samples of a few sandwiches. It was just a shocking amount of food. I’m sure much of it went to waste.

But half the menu? That might be doable. Ten burgers out of the twenty on the standard menu. If you cut those burgers down into quarters, that only makes the equivalent of two and a half burgers. Okay, fine, that’s still a lot of food. However, take into consideration that the Yelp Events last for two hours. That’s just a little bit over a burger an hour.

Easy peasy.

Now here’s the best part. We’re actually doing it. Burger 21 has agreed to host an event on Tuesday, January 26. And they will be breaking the ten burger samples into five two-burger courses. Each course will come with a beer sample too.

Originally, the local owner had suggested pairing the burger courses with milkshakes. That seemed like it would be far too heavy. But for anyone who still has a bit of room after sampling ten of the restaurant’s burgers, milkshakes will be available to go as a parting gift.

I’ve already picked up my bottle of ouzo, so it will be here at home waiting for my return.

Seriously though, I can’t tell you how excited I am about this opportunity. The menu at Burger 21 is long. It would take several visits to navigate your way through its offerings. But getting to try a wide swath of the menu is a great way to find what burgers really tickle your fancy.

I’m mentioning this because this event is open to anyone with a Yelp profile (that includes a real name and picture). If you don’t have one, it’s easy to set one up. And if you would like to join me in this massive undertaking, get your RSVP request in this week. The first round of confirmations goes out on Monday.

Hope to see some of you there.