Local Burger, Prague’s original ‘Burgrárna!’

By 2009 burgers and the concept of ”pop-ups” were trending hard in other cities such as Brooklyn, Portland, L.A. and London. Married American couple Dean Selby and Lori Wyant , both with culinary backgrounds and Dean having worked at McDonald’s for three years in his youth, thought it was a good time to introduce some great burgers to Prague.

From 2009 to 2012 Local Burger was their burger stand and pop-up concept. They served up fresh-made 100% all beef burgers on homemade buns with tomato, shredded lettuce and secret sauce–American roadside burger-stand-style. The couple used ingredients supplied by local and regional family farms, hence “local.” At the same time the couple were involved in launching the first Farmer’s Market in 2010 at Jiriho z Podebrad and served up their burgers to journalists investigating the burger craze.

By 2012 full-fledged burger restaurants began popping up and the city was stricken with fear and full bellies as the Prague Burger Wars raged for over half a decade, spear-headed by anonymous food blogger Brewsta and his play-on-word’s blog ”Czech Please.” Brewsta’s notorious yearly-burger-review fueled both the public’s desire and hatred for one burger over another.

Dean and Lori continue to do wonderful things in and around Prague, Europe, and the United States. The burger wars are a thing of the past (Brewsta no longer even reviews them), but laid out in the aftermath are close to a hundred burger restaurants or Burgrárnas in Prague alone, and some old-timers will argue there is one that is still the best.

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