The Grinder: Charm City Burger Company’s Chef Mike Saperstein

Monday, August 16th, 2010

As we near The Burgies in September I figured it might be a good time to start putting some of the people behind my favorite burger places through The Grinder. Charm City Burger Company is located in Deerfield Beach, Florida and well worth the drive from wherever you might be located. It’s got a wide variety of great burgers, fresh cut fries and Blue Bell Ice Cream Shakes. It’s also got Mike Saperstein, the mastermind behind all their burger creations. So without further ado, The Grinder:

BB: So what’s a “must” topping on any burger?

MS: Definitely some sort of sauce. I am crazy about sauces, some of our burgers have up to 4 sauces in the preparations. A sauce is necessary for a few reasons 1. Adds another layer of flavor to the burger 2. Holds the variety of toppings together 3. Enhances the sloppy factor. We put our Charm Sauce or roasted garlic aioli on everything. My personal favorite is the Charm Secret Sauce style(mayo/ketchup/relish base)

BB: How essential is the grind and blend of beef to a burger’s success?

MS: They both are very important. We have three cuts of beef in our blend, Chuck, Brisket, and Short Rib. Anyone can try to copy the blend, but it is the way it is ground for us (in a specific manner) that makes the burger unique. We are partners with a local meat company and our burgers are fresh ground from whole muscle every morning and delivered within hours of being ground. We are also very brand specific in our burgers we only use Creekstone Farms Premium Angus for our patties. Our patties are made to be cooked over a flame grill, if they were going to be cooked on a flat top grill, the grind and blend would be much different.

BB: What’s next on the horizon for Charm City Burger Company?

MS: We are patiently looking for more locations. Our biggest project right now is launching a frozen version of our different burgers: Steak burger, Big fat Greek (lamb & feta), Banh Mi (Asian pork), & Mobster (Italian sausage) for the retail market. These incredible burgers will hit the stores in the next few months. We are also in the process of bottling our Secret Charm Sauce for retail sale. And the last project we have going on is we will be opening a Mexican street food quick service concept in Deerfield Beach by the end of the year.

BB: Any meat shakes on the way?

MS: No, but we have been throwing around beer-Ice Cream Floats

BB: Who created the characters of Charm City?

MS: The characters were my partner Evan’s idea, but as far as design goes we work together on the general ideas, and forward our vision on to our designer and he draws them up. It is a lot of fun. We think exactly like the artist so it’s a pretty easy process. It helps that he is extremely talented too.

BB: Why isn’t Burger Beast a character, I deserve it don’t you think?

MS: You definitely deserve a character. I see a resemblance to the big sloppy character We will see what we can do!

Burger Doctor

Frozen burgers, yuk. I have tried many and they are at best just average. I don't know that it makes sense for a burger joint to expand with a product that is lesser than what they got famous for…. Just my opinion.
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http://cityandshore.com Lori Jacoby

Wow- congrats on winning the Burger Bash!