The PHiLURRY Is Now At Phil’s Grill!

The Burgerpalooza Cook Off Is Here!

The Burgerpalooza Cook Off! All proceeds raised go to The Miracle League of Greater New Orleans. In the past 4 years we’ve raised over $40,000 for The Miracle League, a baseball league for kids with physical and mental disabilities. In 2012 Gina expanded to include a soccer league and in June she’s adding a basketball league so the need has never been greater for this group.

Please consider entering a team, sponsoring a team, attending the event, passing the info on to your business, your family, your friends, your families friends business, etc! 

CLICK HERE to download our registration form!

- Phil

Phil’s Grill Uses Burger Bowl To Raise Money For Local ProStart Program

[New Orleans] – On Wednesday Phil de Gruy of Phil’s Grill presented a $1000 check to Bonnabel High School in Kenner, LA., for ProStart, a program by the National Restaurant Association designed to develop high school students into leaders in the foodservice industry.

The money was the proceeds from an annual contest run by the Phil’s Grill restaurant called the Road To The Burger Bowl.

“I didn’t have an expectation for how much to raise, so just as when I started Burgerpalooza in ‘08, I went into it thinking ‘if I can do anything that’s great,’ and we end up raising $1000,” Said Phil de Gruy, owner of Phil’s Grill. “The GNO Chapter donated $5000 earlier this year to another school devastated by Hurricane Isaac, so for me to be able to donate $1000 to Bonnabel made me feel good.”

The contest was facilitated by New Orleans-based interactive marketing company, eMerge, on behalf of Phil’s Grill. Football fans were encouraged to go online to the Phil’s Grill app and submit ideas for hamburgers that represented teams the New Orleans Saints would be playing. Weekly winners were voted for online, then featured in Phil’s Grill locations in the week leading up to the Saints playing that team. Customers could also redeem the hamburger by purchasing it and be entered into the contest for the grand prize.

“The Burger Bowl started in 2011 more out of relief that the NFL lockout was over than anything else,” said de Gruy. “It was fun and people started getting interested. Then it turned into a weekly cooking segment and took on a life of its own! We opened it up for fans to help build burgers and made it a competition.”

The winner of the Road To The Burger Bowl contest was Stephen Occhipinti who’s week four entry, The Smokin’ Greenbay-con Burger, was created to represent the Greenbay Packers. The ingredient list included a black angus beef patty, lettuce, red onion, tomato, jalapenos, bacon and “Zapp’d” Wisconsin cheddar cheese.

“The Burger Bowl was a blast!” said Occhipinti. “Not only did I enjoy submitting some delicious burger creations, I think I enjoyed eating the competition’s burgers even more! I’d like to thank Phil’s Grill and everyone that enjoyed my burger.”

Occhipinti received the grand prize, a cash award of $600 to spend at Louisiana Restaurant Association restaurants, and is excited about participating in the contest next year.

De Gruy is looking forward to raising more money for charity next season as the contest builds more exposure and momentum.

“I hope next year we’ll be able to get more people involved whether they’re suggesting burgers and themes or just sampling and voting for their favorites and make this an even bigger event, who knows maybe we’ll even have a trophy!”

Phil’s Grill is a locally owned, chef-driven restaurant that has been serving the New Orleans area for several years with its unique approach to the hamburger-eating experience. The company also hosts, and participates in, multiple charity events every year around the Greater New Orleans area. To find out more, contact Phil’s Grill at 504.305.1705, or by email atphil@phils-grill.com.

Don’t Give Up Good Burgers For Lent At Phil’s Grill

Here at Phil’s we have a proud tradition of giving our customers over 1,000,000 different burger combinations that they can choose from. After all, variety is the spice of life!

But with many people giving up meat for Lent, the number of foods they can enjoy starts to get limited. You see fast food places whipping out their one-time-a-year fish fillets to make up for the beef that will go un-ordered this season. And how many times have you caught that whiff of a hot, juicy burger and seriously wanted to punch something?

Well the bad/good news is, we didn’t stop serving meat because of Lent. The GREAT news is that we have a whole bunch of other options for you guys and gals to choose from! If you check out ourBYOB (Build Your Own Burger) menu, you’ll see a few examples that you probably neglected before.

Have you ever tried a Portobello Mushroom burger? If not, you don’t know what you’re missing!

What about a Veggie Burger? Now I know there are some bland stereotypes surround the word “Veggie Burger,” but come on, would I serve you anything that didn’t taste phenomenal?

Of course we have our Deviled Crab Cake burger which first made its debut in theBurger Bowl, and has been pretty popular so far this season.

Lastly we have our Gator Burger. Man let me tell you this one will knock your socks off! Alligator is a great source of protein, is low in fat and has no cholesterol. Best of all, it’s considered fish by the Catholic church, so you’re off the hook for Lent!

See you tomorrow!
- Phil

Don’t Give Up Great Burgers For Lent

Here at Phil’s we have a proud tradition of giving our customers over 1,000,000 different burger combinations that they can choose from. After all, variety is the spice of life!

But with many people giving up meat for Lent, the number of foods they can enjoy starts to get limited. You see fast food places whipping out their one-time-a-year fish fillets to make up for the beef that will go un-ordered this season. And how many times have you caught that whiff of a hot, juicy burger and seriously wanted to punch something?

Well the bad/good news is, we didn’t stop serving meat because of Lent. The GREAT news is that we have a whole bunch of other options for you guys and gals to choose from! If you check out our BYOB (Build Your Own Burger) menu, you’ll see a few examples that you probably neglected before.

Have you ever tried a Portobello Mushroom burger? If not, you don’t know what you’re missing!

What about a Veggie Burger? Now I know there are some bland stereotypes surround the word “Veggie Burger,” but come on, would I serve you anything that didn’t taste phenomenal?

Of course we have our Deviled Crab Cake burger which first made its debut in the Burger Bowl, and has been pretty popular so far this season.

Lastly we have our Gator Burger. Man let me tell you this one will knock your socks off! Alligator is a great source of protein, is low in fat and has no cholesterol. Best of all, it’s considered fish by the Catholic church, so you’re off the hook for Lent!

See you tomorrow!
- Phil

The Burger Bowl Championship!

Remember that with every Burger Bowl purchase, we will donate the proceeds to theProStartprogram at Bonnabel High School, an educational program to give kids a head start in the field of culinary arts, restaurant management & the service industry.

The winner of the burger bowl with receive 12 Louisiana Restaurant Association gift certificates, PLUS the honor of creating the February Burger of the Month! Soget to voting, and may the best burger win!

Round Two of the Burger Bowl Playoffs Is Getting Intense!

The Burger Bowl Playoffs Have Begun!

The Road To The Burger Bowl playoffs have started and it’s your duty to makesure your favorites from the season win! We have the bracket for this week broken down for you and you can vote by Liking and Sharing the burgers online, OR by going to Phil’s Grill and ordering the contender of your choice! Be sure to bring your friends and get more votes in!

I’m a Saints fan damn it!

I have been known to rant about Sean Payton’s cowboy ways. I think he out thinks himself too often and I question his “genius” label. Don’t get me wrong, I like (or liked) him being our coach. His “swagger” was critical to building the Saints into a consistent top tier team and winning the Super Bowl.

But I still grumbled when he’d want to chuck it all over the field, when statistics show that,since Payton and Brees arrived, we win nearly 80% of the time when we run the ball at least 22 times a game. That bubble screen to Reggie was called far too often! In hindsight that was probably a Reggie problem more than a Payton problem as Sproles gets more production out of it. But I digress… I think he gets too cute and it gets us in more trouble than we should be in but you take those moments to get the much greater success that is typical. I do feel we were a more balanced offense when Carmichael was calling the plays last year than when Payton was. I realize he is the strategist and planner and we benefit greatly from that.

So what is my point? We just had a very difficult season, the most unusual in the history of professional sports in terms of the suspensions. No team in any league has had to go through what the Saints had to go through. I blamed Payton 10 months ago when it broke and I’ve been blaming him ever since.

No owner, locker room or fan base has ever shown the type of loyalty that was shown to Payton this year! That guy should be sending all of us Christmas Cards, but instead he’s living the life of a rock star right now. We’re making shirts, masks, signs, we’re clamoring for his return and he’s allowing the stories to leak and be exaggerated that he may not be here next year. He had language written into his contract that if Loomis is suspended (interesting that would be in there), fired or quit he could walk. I get it; everyone wants an out clause in a contract. Benson probably has some too; unfortunately his weren’t for causing irreparable harm to a season by not following league direction and lying. The league voided the contract 10 months ago, yet that never gets leaked… Until midway through the season when it benefits Payton!

Let me be clear, I don’t believe he’s going anywhere. Mr. Benson has shown a willingness to open his checkbook and I think he’ll do so again; but I don’t think he should. (That was a lot of words to get to my point…sorry!) I’m officially on a campaign to let him go. If I’m Benson, I’m meeting with Goodell and shaking my Billion Dollar Finger at him and letting him know in no uncertain terms that it’s bulls*** this yahoo gets to act in such a way that he’s suspended for a year then gets to be a free agent. If the league does not support the organization then I’ll believe the conspiracy theories!

I’d demand that Payton can’t work under the current language of the contract but he also can’t negotiate with anyone unless the Saints get compensation. Then I’d call Gruden or anyone else I want. I’d let Payton go to any AFC team for a 1^st round pick possibly more. See ya later!

Oakland “traded” Gruden for multiple picks. The Jet’s traded Belichick to the Patriots. The penalties were extensive, unprecedented and way over board. I think Benson could get support from other owners as well. There is already argument that in a big market the league would not have come down so hard. Now we don’t know that because the other teams told to end programs, like the one we ran, did so and our leader Coach Payton flipped the league the bird and refused. It’s his arrogance that got us in the position we were in this year yet because he is banned he has been free from all ridicule. Brees has been pounded for his holdout first (“How could he?”) then a sub-par season. He is #1 in passing yards and touchdowns and 10^th in passing efficiency. He’s fallen on the sword with each bad decision on the field. The offense ranks #2 in drops led by Jimmy Graham who is #1 in the league in drops. Has Brees made terrible decisions at times this year? Yes, and he leads the league in interceptions and lost two games this year (San Francisco and Atlanta), but Payton will be rewarded or feels he should be as the top paid coach in the league for his dastardly deeds!

I was 13 when Archie was traded and I shed tears. We had never had a winning season but I loved the Saints and he was The Man! Then while making groceries at Schwegmann’s my Mom picked up a Shake Ya Snake t-shirt and I became a Stabler fan on Sundays. This team, led by Brees is talented. The front office is talented. The owner allows the football people to do their thing with seemingly no interference. The top level coaches would line up to take this gig right now. Payton should be kissing Mr. Benson’s you-know-what for his loyalty but instead he’s allowing the stories to circulate that he’s going where the money is.

I say, open the door and with a swift kick in the butt and send him on his way!

A Burger Is Like An Infographic

The other day I was looking around at some infographics about, what else, burgers! It was surprising how many of them are out there. Most are pretty generic and talk about how to make burgers, what’s the perfect burger, etc. But there are some really creative ones out there.

One such infographic from TopCultured came from weekly polls they did with burger aficionados, asking what they wanted on their ideal burgers. Then the graphic breaks down all the stuff they say they want.

Guess who gives customers options for most of the popular responses. This guy!

I think I enjoyed looking at these because they take a topic and break it down into burger-speak. I break things down into “burger speak” all the time, so let’s just say that this, “speaks” to me.

This first one talks about the economics behind hamburgers in the U.S. Not the most exciting topic, but man we eat a lot of burgers.

One of my favorites was titled “A Good Career Page is like a Tasty Burger.” I thought this was pretty creative, I mean, who would ever think to make that comparison? But it works! The main points basically were…

The bun of the burger is wholesome and good quality organization of the company.
The cheese is the community and vibe of the page and the company.
The tomato is the company team.
The lettuce is the workspace available to a job prospect.
The patty is the real, lean juicy job description
(You can see the whole thing here)

Some pretty cool points. I guess it’s in our nature to relate complicated topics to things we love. Someone who loves pizza could probably make the same points using their favorite food. But I’m both a business owner, and a lover of burgers, so I can relate to this one.

And since I love burgers, and burger infographics are pretty interesting, I have my own little burger infographic for your enjoyment! I present to you, the History of the Hamburger in America!

Hope you enjoyed it, we’ll see you tomorrow!

- Phil