We’re on to the SWEET SIXTEEN in the Denver Burger Bracket! The match-ups are getting tougher but we’re determined to find a winner! We choose the winners in the bracket and YOU vote for your favorite burger in our “People’s Choice” polls. Top vote getters will be in the final “People’s Choice” poll along with our final match-up. In the end we’ll crown Our Winner and a People’s Choice Winner!

(5) ChoLon Bistro vs. (8) Crown Burgers

A battle of upsets! ChoLon Bistro vs. Crown Burgers is our only Sweet Sixteen match-up where both restaurants were the lower seed in the previous round. Crown Burgers was our biggest upset of the tournament and, as we predicted, we’re receiving a lot of flak about it. ChoLon Bistro on the other hand squeaked by Le Grand Bistro, as both restaurants took to social media to drum up votes and interest for the win. In the end ChoLon’s Asian flavors lingered just long enough to claim victory.

Both restaurants also won in part because of the surprise factor. Crown Burgers came out of nowhere with their magically delicious pastrami topped burger that I immediately craved upon leaving the S. Colorado Blvd. establishment. ChoLon’s burger managed to impart an absolutely authentic and fantastic Asian flavor that stayed with me for days. I’ve never had a burger that made me feel like I was eating an entirely different dish, but when I finish ChoLon’s burger, I thought that I had just had a fantastic bowl of ramen or some outstanding potstickers.

Even though both of these burgers are unconventional and somewhat under that radar, that was kind of the whole point of the Denver Burger Bracket. We knew that there was already a Denver Burger Battle. We knew that Westword was already having people vote on their favorite burgers. But we didn’t think that they dug far enough. We wanted to include some lesser known burgers, because you never know what you could be missing out on. And 32 burgers just cracks the surface of course. There are 100s of great burgers in the Denver area that only a handful of people know about. So 32 burgers expands the landscape, and next years bracket we’ll include a minimum of 16 new burgers, along with some tried and true favorites.

Our Winner

OK back to this year’s bracket. Sometimes deciding between a cheap but meaty pastrami burger and a high quality restaurant Asian burger is harder than it looks, you know? So what does this match-up come down to? It comes down to which flavor stuck with me the longest. Which burger had me dreaming about? That would be the one from ChoLon Bistro. They’re advancing to the Elite Eight.