Old Town Grill wins Corbin Burger Week’s People’s Choice Award

Old Town Grill is the new burger champion of Corbin.

The restaurant, located in Trademart Shopping Center, earned the 2019 Burger Week People’s Choice Award with its OTG Brisket Burger.

The all beef patty was served on a potato bun with brisket sauce, brisket, cheddar cheese and a side of onions.

It was the creation of OTG General Manager Michael Caffrey and Assistant General Manager Scotty Gray.

“We were going for a southern barbecue flavor because the people around here love barbecue and they love a messy burger,” Caffrey said.

“People loved it!” he said. “We were popping out 10 to 20 at a time from the kitchen.”

“It was really cool!”

Caffrey said Burger Week was a great experience for the restaurant, drawing both new customers and customers who are just returning after a bad experience.

“I talked to a lot of people who didn’t even know we were here,” Craffey said.

Corbin Tourism Director Maggy Kriebel said Old Town Grill edged out defending champion JonEvan Jack’s by 50 votes with 9,453 total votes cast.

“That is about 2,000 more votes than last year,” Kriebel said.

The traveling trophy, which has been on display at JonEvan Jack’s over the last year, will be turned over to Old Town Grill in the coming days, where it will remain through Burger Week 2020.

2019 marks the fourth year for Corbin’s Burger Week.

The one big change from previous years was the institution of the Seven Commandments.

The commandments were posted at each participating restaurant in order to improve the experience for both customers and restaurant owners/staff.

The commandments include:

1. There’s a good chance they will run out
2. There will likely be waits
3. You will tip like a pro
4. You really should buy a drink and/or other foods
5. You shall have no other meat than beef
6. Dine-in
7. You shall vote for your favorite burger and share your experience on social media

“The Seven Commandments was the final thing to ensure Burger Week was a success,” Kriebel said. “It set the expectations in a fun way, but ensured there was no confusion.”

With the success of Burger Week, and the promise shown from the inaugural “Finger Lickin’ Chicken Week,” which was held in January, Kriebel said Corbin Tourism is considering several other special theme weeks, including Dessert Week, and, potentially, a week where the participating restaurants may develop a featured dish.

“The goal is to have one week each quarter,” Kriebel said explaining that Dessert Week may be held in October to coincide with pumpkin season, and Restaurant Week, as the featured dish event may be known, would be held in the spring.