This burger started with a good cocktail.
When the staff at Seven, inside the Cherokee Casino in West Siloam Springs, Okla., made a new cocktail, called the Woo Pig Sooie, it inspired senior director of hospitality Rudy Jalio to ask head chef Ray Leung to make a burger to match. And just how does one match that cocktail, which contains bacon-infused vodka, maple syrup and Godiva chocolate liqueur, accented and garnished with a piece of chocolate-covered bacon?
In Leung’s vision, it required something seriously massive. The line of Titan Burgers was launched about two months ago at the casino, which opened in 2008.
The “smallest” of the burgers, a relative term, features a single ½ pound patty topped with an onion ring, a fried pickle and a generous helping of Head Country pulled pork. It’s called the Woo Pig Sooie burger, and it’s served with pork cracklings ($7.99).
The largest of the concoctions, the Sooner Burger ($7.99), contains three of those patties - and, additionally, a chicken fried steak and country gravy.
Even if compressed, it’s three patties and a chicken-fried steak tall, and a very large mouthful indeed.
“We want to give you the experience of lockjaw,” says Leung.
A third burger, the most popular of the new offerings, is essentially an oversized double cheeseburger, with two patties and twice the cheese ($6.99). It’s served with French fries.
The final of the new creations is the Inferno Burger, which is topped with house-made habanero volcano sauce ($6.99). This burger, packed with pineapple salsa and chips, features a fourth-generation sauce, something Leung has worked to make spicier each time.
The current version contains a few drops - that’s all that’s needed - of Dave’s Insanity Sauce.
If someone wants a spicier version, Leung is happy to oblige, he says.
Though they may not be large in number, the kind of person willing to take down a 9-inch-tall burger might be the same kind of person who would attempt a brain-combusting sandwich.
“It’s a very particular market,” Jalio says. “But we wanted to do something different.”
Whats Up, Pages 15 on 05/24/2013