All stories about "Pitch Your Burg"

After sifting through the entry to our Pitch Your Burg contest, we've chosen a winner: New Haven, CT! New Haven, as pitched by Lucy is a bustling budding metropolis undoubtedly worthy of Gridskipperage. It is the birthplace of many things from Yale to hamburgers. Too cool for school, we're going to welcome New Haven to our Gridskipper family by focusing on the burgers.

Louis' Lunch is the uterus of what we think of as the American Burger. The shoebox size joint is old school all the way, from the dark oak booths to the minimalist hamburgers. Opened in 1909, the burger hasn't changed at all: A beef patty, broiled, between two pieces of toast. Juicy yet firm, unadorned and proud, (ketchup and mustard are prohibited) all its juices cloistered, ready to explode in one rapturous bite, the burger has reached monastic excellence. In fact, the dark wooden booths, the rich light filtering through yellowed windows give the joint a timeless ecceclesiastic gravitas. Tables are palimpsests of New Haven's adolescence, as teenagers for the last fifty years have carved their fleeting loves into the surface. With burgers $4.00, washed down with a birch beer, it's a wonder there isn't any I Heart Louis graffiti carved into the table.

Note: According to tradition, Louis' is closed between August 1st and September 5th.

Louis' Lunch [Official site]

Previously: Burger Watch: Chicago, B Good Burger Goodness, Phoenix's Delux Burger, Dumont Restaurant, Sao Paulo's Bitchen Brazil Burgers, Hamburgers Vegas Style

Lucy G, a medical student at Yale, feels ardently about her adopted hometown. In response to our Pitch your Burg contest, Lucy wrote this paean to what locals call Elm City.

Dear Gridskipper, You should write about New Haven, Connecticut. The variety of restaurants and theaters per capita rival New York statistics, though they're waaaay less expensive and waaaay more accessible. The city cares about its residents and give them tons of events.The annual free concerts on the green series kicked off this July with Kenny Rogers (sans Roasters) and continued with Boyz II Men last Saturday. And the residents care about the city too. The group with no name, TGWNN (pronounced tigwin) unites post-college twenty-somethings who live in and love New Haven to get together and enjoy the city. New Haven's also a historic food city. America's first hamburger joint opened up here and New Haven, not New York, is where pizza came to the states. Even today, Louie's Lunch serves hamburgers the old way (no 25 dollar hamburgers here) and the Pizza-called Apizza here--continues to fuel Romeo and Juliet fueds bewtween Pepe's and Sally's restaurants. And if edibly discs don't get you on our side, consider that New Haven is the birthplace of the frisbee too.

Thanks Lucy G. By grace of your enthusiasm New Haven is the curent front runner. But since we haven't come to the end of the road, still I can't let go and declare New Haven victorious. If you think your city deserves more coverage than a Thermal parka, email us your pitch at tips@gridskipper.com.

Previously: Pitch Your Burg: Round Three, Pitch Your Burg: Wellington Vs. You, Pitch Your Burg: Baku

Pitch Your Burg invites residents of cities worldwide to convince Gridskipper readers that their city deserves more coverage, or rather, coverage at all. In the first installment Grand Rapids, Michigan prevailed over apathy (it was the only contestant) but in round two Wellington, New Zealand beat out Baku, Azerbaijan, and was graced with indepth coverage. If you'd like to see your very own city covered, send in your own pitch - with at least one image, as many links as you can, and targeting the Gridskipper audience specifically - to tips@gridskipper.com. May the pitching begin!

Previously: Pitch Youre Burg: Baku, Pitch Your Burg: Wellington, Pitch Your Burg: Wellington v. You, PItch Your Burg: Grand Rapids Victorious, Pitch Your Burg: Grand Rapids

[Pitch Your Burg invites residents of cities worldwide to convince Gridskipper readers that their city deserves more coverage. Awhile back, Wellington, New Zealand, defeated Baku, Azerbaijan, for the privilege of a long post on Gridskipper. If you'd like to see your own city covered more/better/at all here, send in your own pitch -- with at least one image, as many links as you can, and targeting the Gridskipper audience specifically -- to tips@gridskipper.com.]

Firstly -- and despite the statue above that once graced Wellington International Airport -- Wellington is well over all that Lord of the Rings crap. Er, except for renaming one of the filming sites "Rivendell." And those tours, complete with hobbit ears. And no, you cannot buy Wellington (and the rest of New Zealand) for $2,330. Wellington has a real city's worth of real appeal, all waiting for you after the jump.

Thought I forgot about this, didn't ye? Oh no. The fine city of Wellington has thrashed its opponent Baku, and thus will get the full, close-up treatment in these pages directly. Meanwhile, if you'd like to particularly recommend things Wellingtonian, or even contribute to the victory post, by all means send in your kiwiphilic thoughts to tips@gridskipper.com. And if you want to nominate your own under-covered city as a future Pitch Your Burg candidate, email us your city pitch -- 200-300 words, one good image, and packed with as many local links as you can stand, all in aid of selling your city as cool to Gridskipper readers -- and we'll put you in the races.

[Photo: liquidhotmagma]

Previously: Pitch Your Burg: Wellington vs. Baku, Round 2, Pitch Your Burg: Baku, Pitch Your Burg: Wellington, Pitch Your Burg: Wellington vs. You, Pitch Your Burg: Grand Rapids Victorious

What were the chances that the contenders for this first head-to-head Pitch Your Burg would both originate in foreign countries with the letter "z" in their names? I'm no technician, but I figure that's the likely reason our poll servers disintegrated last night and subtracted all but 1 vote from Baku's total. Of course, it could also be Kiwi sabotage, but please, let's not strain New Zealand-Azerbaijani relations to the flashpoint. Nobody wants a war, or at least, not until we get some cameras in position. In any case, we're going to try what in electioneering circles is referred to as a "do-over." Below is a whole shiny new poll that asks the same question. Read up on Wellington and Baku once more, then vote again. How often will you be asked to do that, in good conscience and not at gunpoint? No, that's not a gun in my pocket; I genuinely am happy to see you. Check back with this post -- we hope -- for current totals, assuming no further assaults on the democratic process.

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Pitch Your Burg: Baku, Pitch Your Burg: Wellington, Pitch Your Burg: Wellington vs. You, Pitch Your Burg: Grand Rapids Victorious, Pitch Your Burg: Grand Rapids

[Pitch Your Burg challenges residents of cities given the short shrift on Gridskipper to convince you, the educated reader, that their metropoli indeed deserve more (or any) coverage. Unedited pitches from city residents or fans of same are presented for your review, followed by a poll. Vote to determine whether the city gets special survey post and subsequent coverage, or the cold, cold shoulder of permanent rejection. If you think your city deserves a shot on Gridskipper, send in your pitch -- 200-300 words, with at least one good, punchy image and as many local links as possible -- to tips@gridskipper.com.]

Now that you've read, considered, and evaluated the pitches from Wellington and Baku, it's time to choose which city is worth investigating and celebrating, and which city shall be consigned to the dustbin of history. Vote below, and check back in a week to see results, with coverage of the winner following shortly thereafter.

UPDATE: Yes, that blogpoll.com survey blew chunks, so we're returning to our glorious in-house polling, which has improved a bit. Vote anew below if you did so with the blogpoll krep, and check back with this post for current results.

UPDATE 2: The polling got effed up due to tech problems. New, restarted poll can be found here.

Previously: Pitch Your Burg: Baku, Pitch Your Burg: Wellington, Pitch Your Burg: Wellington vs. You, Pitch Your Burg: Grand Rapids Victorious, Pitch Your Burg: Grand Rapids

[Pitch Your Burg challenges residents of cities given the short shrift on Gridskipper to convince you, the educated reader, that their metropoli indeed deserve more (or any) coverage. Unedited pitches from city residents or fans of same are presented for your review, followed by a poll. Vote to determine whether the city gets special survey post and subsequent coverage, or the cold, cold shoulder of permanent rejection. If you think your city deserves a shot on Gridskipper, send in your pitch -- 200-300 words, with at least one good, punchy image and as many local links as possible -- to tips@gridskipper.com.]

Challenger 2: Baku, Azerbaijan
by Carpetblogger

A gray canker on the lower lip of the Absheron peninsula, oil-rich Baku combines the aesthetics of Houston, the hospitality of the Soviets, and the progressiveness of a Muslim culture shut off from the world for 70 years.

[Pitch Your Burg challenges residents of cities given the short shrift on Gridskipper to convince you, the educated reader, that their metropoli indeed deserve more (or any) coverage. Unedited pitches from city residents or fans of same are presented for your review, followed by a poll. Vote to determine whether the city gets special survey post and subsequent coverage, or the cold, cold shoulder of permanent rejection. If you think your city deserves a shot on Gridskipper, send in your pitch -- 200-300 words, with at least one good, punchy image and as many local links as possible -- to tips@gridskipper.com.]

Challenger 1: Wellington, New Zealand
by WellUrban

In the words of one of the poems displayed as typographic installations along Wellington's famous waterfront , this is "the city of action, the world headquarters of the verb". As further evidence, even our sculptures can't sit still: they whirl and sway and glow. Further from the public eye, underground galleries rock with experimental music nights and the alleys are full of street art.

After appearing in the debut episode of Pitch Your Burg last week, the city of Grand Rapids quadrupled in population, opened six restaurants with 18 Michelin stars between them, and issued coupons for free plastic surgery to all its escort services. Phenomenal as that experience was for us all, we're going to make Pitch Your Burg 2.0 a little more competitive. In the first installment, readers simply voted yes or no for whether we should pay more attention to a city that had previously flown under our radar. From now on, you'll be evaluating pitches from two different burgs -- and choosing which city gets the nod, and which city gets razed, the ruins plowed under, and the earth salted with bitter tears of fleeing former inhabitants.

And I'm pleased to announce our first contender: the bucolic burg of Wellington, New Zealand, shown above, whose pitcher proudly notes that his town boasts "a world record for the number of Oscars per head of population." If you think your heretofore unmentioned or shortchanged city can kick that kiwi ass, then send in your pitch to tips@gridskipper.com ASAP. Shoot for 200-300 words, pack it with as many links as you can, and include one good, representative image of your city or something cool in it. Remember, you're trying to convince the Gridskipper audience, so you must appeal to our most cerebral and base instincts simultaneously. When the second challenger pitch is in, both will be posted along with a reader poll to pick the winner. Get to it.

[Photo: Glutnix]

Previously: Pitch Your Burg: Grand Rapids Victorious, Pitch Your Burg: Grand Rapids

[Pitch Your Burg invites residents of cities worldwide to convince Gridskipper readers that their city deserves more coverage. The pitch for Grand Rapids, Michigan, resulted in a resounding affirmative majority. We are fortunate that an anonymous GR resident fan then rose to the challenge of writing up his burg far, far more comprehensively than we ever could or would. If you'd like to see your own city covered more/better/at all here, send in your own pitch -- with at least one image, as many links as you can, and targeting the Gridskipper audience specifically -- to tips@gridskipper.com. Note that future burg pitches will be head-to-head competitions between two different would-be municpal spokesmodels and their respective cities.]

By way of general background, the heyday of Grand Rapids was the late 1800s and early 1900s. At that time, it was a logging town, with the Grand River providing the necessary transport to Lake Michigan (and from there to Chicago). The other major industry was furniture. Then, Grand Rapids was the center of the nation’s furniture industry. Today, that’s true only with regard to office furniture (home to the industry’s big three -- Steelcase, Herman Miller, and Haworth). The dominant ethnic influence has been the Dutch, with a large concentration of the population still tracing their roots to the Netherlands (more on ethnicity below). The downtown developed around the river, with logging and furniture manufacturing facilities clustered on either side. Immediately to the east of downtown, a residential neighborhood developed on a hill known as Heritage Hill. It runs for a mile or so north to south, and it comprises a stunning array of late-19th and early-20th century residential architecture, ranging from ornate Victorians to Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie-style Meyer May House, built in 1910. Most of the downtown architecture dates from the same period, and much of it survived the attempts in the 1960s and 1970s at urban “revitalization” (although a few gems were torn down).

[Introducing a new occasional feature: Pitch Your Burg, where residents in cities given the short shrift on Gridskipper attempt to convince you, the educated reader, that their cities indeed deserve coverage. Unedited pitches from city residents or fans of same are presented for your review, followed by a poll. Vote to determine whether the city gets special survey post and subsequent coverage, or the cold, cold shoulder of permanent rejection. If you think your city deserves more (or any) airtime on Gridskipper, send in your pitch -- with at least one image and as many local links as you can -- to tips@gridskipper.com.]

Today's candidate: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Pitched by jayblogger

After years of flying under the radar, Grand Rapids, Michigan is asserting itself as a vibrant urban travel destination. The region's history as a furniture design and manufacturing center is reflected in the architecture of the city, both old and new. The Meyer May House offers an opportunity to experience a restored Prairie style Frank Lloyd Wright designed home. The spectacular Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park offers indoor and outdoor botanical pleasure. A premier destination hotel, The Amway Grand Plaza [pictured above], will soon be joined by a JW Marriott luxury hotel that is under construction. Nightlife options range from the small and cozy Bar Divani wine den to the massive 4 stories of fun in the B.O.B. Grand Rapids has a wide variety of dining options. San Chez, a tapas bistro, has been ranked as one of the best Hispanic restaurants in the nation. The 1913 Room, featuring French inspired cuisine, is the only Michigan restaurant on the AAA Five Diamond list. If you just want to grab a hot dog after a night out, The Dog Pit and the nostalgic Yesterdog will satisfy your cravings. A conspiracy theory has been brewing recently concerning a potential large-scale downtown development. There are wild and unconfirmed rumors of Google's involvement in the project that involve the blurry portions of downtown Grand Rapids on Google Maps and Earth. It may just be that Google is hiding the sordid and lascivious underbelly of Grand Rapids from the rest of world. Now is your time to find out what you've been missing in Grand Rapids.

How's the Grand Rapids pitch? Vote after the jump.