The Home Place Inn and Restaurant in Kensington is the winner of the 2015 Burger Love campaign. Its burger creation, The Cabbage Patch, was the Most Loved Burger as determined from online voting.
This winning burger featured six ounces of charbroiled Island beef, homemade barbonaise sauce, romaine lettuce, homemade cream cheese pesto, grilled pear slices, beer braised red cabbage with bacon and red onions, plus kettle chips on a grilled onion bun, garnished with dill & cherry tomato. As part of the title, the Most Loved Burger will remain on The Home Place’s menu.
“I am very pleased to congratulate the winner of the 2015 Burger Love campaign, and to thank all of the participating restaurants”, said Agriculture and Forestry Minister George Webster. “This campaign has resulted in a significant increase in the awareness of the high quality of beef produced in this province, and its consumption.”
Sales of the burgers alone were over $1.9 million or over $64,000 a day. and the number of burgers sold over just 30 days is astronomical considering the population of Prince Edward Island.
When all the grills were turned off this April, a record breaking 145,527 burgers were enjoyed across the Island. That’s approximately a burger for every Islander, and an increase of 58 per cent over last year’s sales.
The multi-award winning PEI Burger Love campaign is a month-long celebration of 100 per cent Island beef, created by Fresh Media and presented in partnership with PEI Cattle Producers, the Department of Agriculture & Forestry, and PEI Flavours. For this year, 60 local restaurants competed to have their culinary burgers be potentially crowned as the Most Loved Burger.
“PEI Burger Love is a four month commitment for our team each year, and to realize we’ve reached such sales in only our fifth year is something we are incredibly proud of”, said Melody Dover, President of Fresh Media. “We are so honoured that Islanders of all ages came together to support local at such an unprecedented level”.
When organizers estimate that the average transaction also included a combination of side, beverage, and tips, they estimate that the minimum economic impact was over $2.6 million.
“What makes PEI Burger Love so unique is that these dollars stay on Prince Edward Island”, said Dover. “From markets, farmers, servers, restaurant owners, to local suppliers of buns, cheese, bacon and more, this is a homegrown idea that truly benefits so many people.”
The sales of the burgers also equalled over 65,000 lbs of local Island beef. Prior to the start of the campaign, the PEI Cattle Producers developed accreditation and audit agreements with markets to further ensure all the beef consumed was local.
“Our Island cattle producers take great care in producing some of the best tasting beef in the world”, said PEI Cattle Producers' Chair Brian Morrison. “While our beef continues to grow in popularity across Canada, we are thrilled that so many restaurants and Islanders have embraced this promotion of 100 per cent Island Beef.”
Another significant component of the campaign was the attempt to put PEI Burger Love and Island beef in the world record books for the Most Freshly Cooked Burgers Sold In 24-Hours. Fresh Media had worked with Guinness World Records for several months on all the details, rules and accreditations for this world record that had never been attempted before. Guinness World Records then provided a minimum sales number of 5,000 burgers sold during the 24-hours to set this new record. This number was determined by Guinness based on PEI Burger Love’s previous sales numbers per day, the number of participating restaurants for this year, as well our demographics and population.
Islanders certainly took up the challenge to put Prince Edward Island in the record books as an incredible 9,037 burgers were sold during the 24-hour attempt. Evidence must now finalized and sent to Guinness for it to officially recognize the new record.
“We cannot thank Islanders enough for investing their hard earned dollars in PEI Burger Love”, said Dover. “Together, we can proudly proclaim Prince Edward Island as ‘Burger Island’ as we continue to set the standard across Canada for how a community can come together to support local products.”