The Prague Post Online: Tempo: Around Town

July 6th, 2008

Reader's Survey^NEW Endowment Fund Book of Lists ONLINE Reservations Classifieds Subscriptions

Around Town

Record biggest burger

By Beth Potter
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 2nd, 2008 issue

What does it take to create “the biggest party burger in Europe”?

If you’re one of the chefs at Jáma, weeks of planning. You have to find three professionals who can flip the meat without breaking it, work two weeks with a bakery to get just the right bun and then hope for a little bit of luck.

This “party burger,” at 36 kilograms (79 pounds) of beef before cooking, was the guest of honor for the restaurant’s 14th birthday party March 28, an event hit up by numerous longtime locals and newbies alike. (Don’t think we didn’t notice the six young guys who showed up at 1:30 a.m. Everybody else might have been busy dancing to the Village People, but we saw you guys.)

But back to the burger. Once it was ready, it took two people to carry it out to the cheering crowd. Owner Max Munson estimated it would serve 75 hungry bar-goers before the event got started, but so many people were eating and drinking before its appearance that about one-quarter of the burger went back to the kitchen.

Henry Joe managed to wolf down a piece after a full plate of pork ribs … the kind that practically melt in your mouth, never mind that they looked like they came from a pig the size of a door.

Joe says he was at Jáma for its opening, so he made the trek from New York for the party. The liquor distributor also spends time in London.

His friend Barry Gardner says he has been warming a barstool at Jáma regularly since a friend discovered the place soon after it opened. His gang is the “VIP” crowd, as Munson called his regulars at the party.

“We socialize together outside of work, so it’s a big family, a big friendship,” Gardner says. “This is our ‘local,’ our Cheers.”

Not only does the crew get together at the restaurant, but they also go bowling and to other events scheduled by the Munson, Gardner says.

“Jáma is very familiar because it’s very friendly,” Gardner says.

Sitting near him was Oksana Šhuga, a transplant to Prague by way of Ukraine, who says she stops by every Friday and sometimes more often.

“Yes, we are regulars,” she says, smiling.

Munson checked in with statisticians in Pelřimov (where all true Czech statistics are kept), to make sure he had a record-breaking burger on his hands. Head chef Martin Lev was cool as a cucumber beforehand, promising to turn out a piece of meat cooked to a nice medium. (Like a fine piece of meatloaf, the piece we had was cooked through but still tender.)

It didn’t fit on the kitchen’s griddle, or on the grill outside, so Lev came up with a novel solution to place tin foil over the gas stove and get things going that way.

Colleague Zdenék Holicky chopped up mounds of tomatoes, lettuce and cheese for the juicy finale.

Candles on top of the burger looked like they could start a forest fire. Then the entire Jáma crew stopped what they were doing to blow out the candles and sing.

Joel Fraboni, 36, says he has made some great friends in the barroom, including his girlfriend, who shimmied behind the bar in a harem costume.

Later in the evening, the well-oiled (and by now well-fed) group began scratching eyeliner moustaches on each other’s faces. Seems like we never lose that “any excuse to party” ethic.

Beth Potter can be reached at bpotter@praguepost.com

Be the first to add a comment!

Most e-mailed articles
Czech entomologists arrested in India Brno companies hunt for tech workers A healthy break from mediocrity

Related articles
When classical met punk

Most visited in Book of Lists

The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.