DO YOU like cheeseburgers more than any other fast-food?
Do you find you have your own personal favourite cheeseburger-joint and a strong opinion on why it’s so good?
If you do, and you’re a member of the social networking site Facebook, then local Facebook group ‘The Cheeseburgers’ may be the group for you.
The Cheeseburgers, you see, are on a quest to find the best cheeseburger in Cyprus.
Since the group’s launch just seven months ago, they now have close to 70 members and regularly hold meetings in Nicosia restaurants, devoting their time to cheeseburger tasting.
The founding members of the group, Michalis Zambartas and Theodoros Demetriades like to think of the meetings as social gatherings with a purpose.
“It started as joke really,” said Zambartas. “We were at a gathering at a friend’s house and decided to out for burgers. We had a long discussion over where to go and what place served the best burgers, so I suggested we start a group that visits restaurants and grades their cheeseburgers, the objective being to find the best cheeseburger in Cyprus.”
They left it at that, but the following week Demetriades created a Facebook group called The Cheeseburgers and had hits from friends who thought it sounded fun.
Demetriades, who is the self-appointed coordinator of the group, takes on the task of notifying members of the meetings and maintains the page with pictures of the meetings and news.
“At the first meeting we held there were just three of us,” said Demetriades. “At the following we had six, the one after we had nine and at the last few meetings we held we had nearly 30 people attend.”
They explained that the meetings take place every two weeks, each time at a different restaurant.
Following suggestions made by members on the Facebook page, Demetriades decides on a restaurant and notifies every one of the location and time.
“When we first started we tended to know practically everyone at the meetings,” said Demetriades. “The interesting thing now is that we get people turning up who have only heard about us though Facebook, so recently we’ve ended up making friends with a few new cheeseburger fans.”
“After the first few meetings, once we decided it was going to be a regular thing,” said Zambartas, “we realised that searching for the best cheeseburger in Cyprus was going to be a mammoth task.
“We’re not just going to restrict the meetings to establishments that are exclusively known for serving burgers, we have plans to sample burgers at pizzerias, well known chains, restaurants and practically anywhere that can serve up a burger in a bun.”
Zambartas said that most members are in their late 20s to early 30s but age isn’t a pre-requisite to join.
About the grading, Demetriades explained that after each tasting session the group unanimously grades cheeseburgers from one to five, on criteria that were determined when the group started.
The criteria are as follows:
Overall taste, consistency of the burger, quality of the burger meat, the cheese, the bun, and the after-taste (how you feel after having eaten the burger and drunk a few beers).
“There are a few other factors we consider such as the service and surroundings,” said Zambartas, but these aren’t major factors because, as all cheeseburger-lovers know, some of the best burgers can be found in real dives where service and hygiene are non-existent.”
“The cheeseburger that received the highest vote so far,” said Demetriades “was from TGI Fridays in Nicosia”
“Their burger met all our criteria and we had a great night out, so they get a big thumbs-up from The Cheeseburgers.”
The Cheeseburgers last meeting was a special event that called for the biggest eaters of the group to part in a new challenge.
To celebrate their seventh month anniversary selected members of the group attempted to eat the biggest burger in Cyprus which weighs in at a whopping 2.7kg.
The group met at the Taka-Taka Mam restaurant in Engomi on Thursday evening for a meal that would push their eating abilities to the maximum.
“We’d heard about the famous Taka-Burger, which weighs nearly 3kg, and thought, the group has got to try that,” said Zambartas.
“It was a great night although no one came close to finishing the Taka-Burger,” said Demetriades.
“We’re definitely going to give it another go at some point, as we need a photo of at least one group member who has managed to tame it.”
While the group has so far only sampled cheeseburgers in Nicosia, they are branching out as of next month with a visit to Limassol, which will be the beginning of many out-of-town visits.
“It’s getting out of control,” said Demetriades. “We now have between 20-30 people showing up to meetings, which restricts us to visiting places that have the capacity for that number of people.”
One rule the group has is that each new member gets their photo taken while biting into a cheeseburger.
“We have a member who is our appointed photographer and takes snaps of each meeting which we then post on the Facebook page.”
The Facebook page sports pictures of members eating cheeseburgers around the world.
“Some people have posted pictures from Singapore, the States and we even have a guy tucking in to a giant burger in Qatar,” said Zambartas.
As for the future of The Cheeseburgers, Zambartas said, “We plan to keep meeting regularly for cheeseburger tasting sessions, and of course hopefully discover the best cheeseburger in Cyprus, wherever it may be.”
“We don’t think of ourselves as food critics,” said Demetriades, “not at all, we’re just a bunch of people who love socialising and going out for meals.”
“Everyone is welcome to join our Facebook group and show up to our meetings. Just don’t forget to bring your appetite.”
