The winner of the burger battle at Tony's Market

The winner and still the chomp!

​Since Tony's Market moved in across the street from the Westword office at 950 Broadway, we've been making a lot of runs to the store. But nothing beat our most recent mission: joining a crew of faithful customers and founder Tony Rosacci to judge specialty burgers, all created by staffers at the four Tony's outlets.

We ate chicken-fried steak burgers, Popeye's bison burgers, Asian burgers and La Hamburguesa. And when all was said and done, the winner was the eleventh, and last, burger we tried: The Local, created by Josh Rosacci, grandson of Tony and son of chef Mick Rosacci.

The Local boasted a sky-high stack of local produce -- corn, tomatoes, zucchini -- on top of a ground pork patty. And even though we'd d already sampled ten burgers, this one had us going back for more -- if only because it was difficult to get your mouth around everything in just one bite.

Other judge-pleasers: The Gandenberger Burger by Kris Gandenberger, which won for Best Taste; Joe Moschetto's Popeye Bison, which took the Healthiest award; and the "We Know Its Unhealthy But It Tastes Sooo Good Burger," the Heffer Burger, by Josh Harbert, a more sophisticated patty melt (mushroom soup on top!) that we're looking forward to ordering on the first cold day of fall.

Josh Rosacci is based at the Broadway store, where his winning recipe could soon be included in the lineup of burgers offered in the Bistro at that location.