The Buyer | Chuck Cramer: US-style burger chains need US wines to match

We’ve got burger joints to match anything from America, but now, says Chuck Cramer, we need to start offering quality US and Californian wines to go with the burgers. Plus his Top 10 burger places in London.

Move over Micky D’s, there’s a new burger in town and it’s called Sr Gourmet Burger.

Yes, this burger comes with all the accessories one would expect on a BMW 5 series. The London restaurant scene has changed dramatically over the past two years which has led to a proliferation of seriously good and trendy American style diners, steakhouses and BBQ joints.

Burger chains such as GBK and Byrons have gone national, successfully spreading the gospel according to St Paddy, that Joe Brit and can enjoy a burger as much as Billy Bob back in the good ole USA.

Both have done a good job introducing a better burger to the UK public, yet they haven’t gotten the wine mix right since very little Californian wine appears on their lists (not the good stuff, anyway!).
Consequently, specialty burger restaurants and USA style steakhouses have taken the hamburger to the next level, and literally introduced burgers that are mouth-watering tasty.

Today, the USA style hamburger has become as much of a staple of the British diet as fish n’ chips, and these burgers are awesome!
To top it off, these burgers in these ‘new,’ trendy eateries are being served with cracking Californian wine that range from premium to super-premium in price (and I’m not referring to the cheap plonk that we are accustomed to seeing on the supermarket shelves).

From supple and fruity Merlots, such as a Rutherford Hill Merlot, and tasty, well structured Cabernets from Frogs Leap to CaMomi to California’s signature grape variety, the big, bold Zinfandel, with the likes of a Federalist Visionary Zinfandel.

Here – as a born and bred Californian – are my top 10 favourite London spots for a fab burger experience (in alphabetical order):