Burger Week set for Feb. 17-28
Ten restaurants participating from Moosomin, Rocanville, Fleming, & Maryfield
February 10, 2025, 8:41 am
by Nicole Taylor
Ten restaurants will be participating in Burger Week this year, which will run from February 17-28, giving people 12 days to try the tasty burger creations on offer from local restaurants.
Restaurants from four different communities—Moosomin, Rocanville, Fleming and Maryfield—are all involved in Burger Week this year.
The participating restaurants include the Red Barn, Cork & Bone, Witch’s Brew, Dairy Queen, Skout Brewing, and the Nutrien Sportsplex in Moosomin, the Rocanville Golf Club and Blueberry Kitchen in Rocanville, the Fleming Windsor Bar & Grill in Fleming, and the Arlington Hotel in Maryfield.
This year the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce will be hosting Burger Week. Burger stamp cards will be handed out at each of the participating restaurants. People can get their card stamped at each restaurant they dine at. When they get their card stamped at five different restaurants they can leave the card at that restaurant and start a new card or bring their completed card to the World-Spectator office in Moosomin for a chance to win $500 in Moosomin Bucks.
People will also get a chance to vote on their favorite burger. A prize will be giving out to the winning restaurant.
“After talking to the local restaurants, we decided to run Burger Week for 12 days this year to give people a chance to try all of the burgers,” says Kevin Weedmark with the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce. “Everyone loves burger week, but it’s tough to eat that many burgers in one week. This gives people more time to try all of the burgers, support the local restaurants, and vote on their favorite!”
This marks the fifth year for Burger Week.
Local restaurants say they look forward to Burger Week each year.
“I think that it connects people to our local restaurants and aims to boost sales and visibility,” says Morgan Kerr with Moosomin Dairy Queen. “We really have a lot of fun trying all the unique, creative burgers. It also gives us an opportunity, and a reason to support the other local restaurants. We don’t eat out a lot so it gives us a chance to try that. It’s a fun time—fun for us creating, and fun to try the other burgers.”
“I think Burger Week has always been well supported. It helps with exposure and boosting sales.
“There are people who don’t regularly eat at Dairy Queen that maybe come to our restaurants and try something they’ve never had and think ‘Oh! Maybe we’ll make this a regular spot’.”
Kerr says she’s not surprised Burger Week is so popular and well supported.
“I’m not surprised Burger Week continues to thrive because it’s Moosomin, and is there a single thing that Moosomin doesn’t get behind? I don’t think there is. When it comes to supporting local businesses, local people, and local goals, I think that Moosomin has always topped anywhere else.”
She says the event is good at getting people out and about having fun and trying the local restaurants.
“We see people that we normally wouldn’t see because of this event. We hear them talk about the other restaurants they’ve tried, and how this burger was different from that one. They seem genuinely excited about it. You get everyone from students at lunch to senior citizens in the evening talking about it. Everyone seems to get really excited.”
“I started participating because I was a new business and I was asked to the first year and I thought it was a cool idea,” says Jarrod Slugoski, the owner of Cork & Bone Bistro. “I was blown away by the response, and I think that Moosomin really enjoyed the concept of what was going on, and the opportunity to try a lot of people’s different ideas of a burger.
“I think it is a really cool idea, and it just kind of spawned from there. Now I like the competitiveness of it.
“Doing this event annually gives us a lot of time to think about what we want to do for the next year. We are ready for this year for sure.
“Burger Week allows us the opportunity to get our name out there to a bigger array of people. I know there were a lot of people who had never been to my restaurant until they came for burgers and went ‘oh this place is pretty nice, let’s try it out,’ so in that respect it definitely helps with traffic. A lot more people tend to come in during burger week for sure.”
Slugoski says he’s happy that the even is running for 12 days this year.
“The last promotions were only one week long. People would work in teams and buy all the burgers and try them all at once, but I think the fact that it’s over a longer period this time around, people have the opportunity to try the burgers at their leisure. The first day is always crazy.”
He say customers look forward to Burger Week every year.
“The customers like the idea. A lot of people who have tried burgers in the last competitions have asked ‘what are you doing for your burger this year?’ There is definitely an interest in Moosomin and there are a lot more people looking forward to it each year. We already have customers asking about our burger this year.”
“It’s fun and it’s part of our community spirit,” says Angela Thorn with Moosomin Rec. The town’s Sportsplex will be offering a burger creation again this year.
“It gets people out eating and spending a little bit more in the community. I noticed that people get a bit overwhelmed when it’s all in a week, but I think it will be better with it being longer this year, because that’s a lot of burgers to eat in a week!
“We would get friends together and get a couple and cut them into fours so we could try them all, but not eat a full burger at every place. It’s a fun little outing.
“I think Burger Week gets more people into the Sportsplex at lunch than normal. People are trying to go at lunch and supper, so I find it picks up our lunch hours a bit more. Sandy (our Sportsplex kitchen manager), says it’s going to be a pizza burger which I think is suiting and super fun. I can hardly wait to try it.”
“This will be our third year participating in Burger Week,” says Racquel Cozens with Blueberry Kitchen in Rocanville. “We participate because we enjoy the challenge to come up with a better burger every year. Burger week also draws people to town and it’s a nice financial boost.
“People come in, grab their burgers, and usually stop at the gas station or the grocery store next to us, or make other pit stops, which I’m sure helps other businesses as well.
“The last month people have been asking when is it going start and if we are participating again. People remember it and look forward to it.
“Burger Week probably doubles or triples our income for the week. It is a really nice boost. We are doing a pickle theme this year. I make my own bread, so we’ve got a dill bun, and then pickles everywhere, and we always do a garnish on top. Last year we had the bacon and that went over really good. Our food is homemade so I’ve done the marinade before with the dill pickle brine, and this year we’ll have a dill pickle marinated chicken wing for on top.”
“It helps to get our name out there and get customers coming in the door,” says Kari Bell with Rocanville Golf Club. “It brings people to town, who will likely go check out other businesses. We have had a few people asking if it’s going to happen. This will be my first year doing it as the manager. We are looking forward to it. We are doing a chicken and waffle burger.”
“We love burger week because we get to create a new and exciting burger for our burger fans to try,” says Melinda Griffin with the Red Barn in Moosomin.
“It makes for great conversation between staff at the back of house on the design.
“We keep in mind that cooked fresh quality is always a key factor during all operations and especially during peak times, so their input is huge.
“This year we are offering the ‘9 Yards Burger.’ The name stems from nine ingredients, so the whole nine yards—beef burger, smoked pork, cheddar cheese, bacon, twice dusted jalapenos, lettuce, tomatoes, chipotle mayo and pickles. We have always been confident with our creation for both dine-in customers as well as our take-out and delivery customers. So we are hoping you all enjoy it again this year.”
How does Griffin think it benefit the local businesses?
“It is an amazing campaign for everyone,” says Griffin. Thank you Chamber for taking this on!
“People travel to other towns to try the other businesses’ creations and make an adventure out of it. Many of our customers in past years have traveled with friends, making it a lunch date or afternoon cruise. And while in a sister town, why not stop at a couple of shops and find a trinket or two? Plus it’s good vibes for businesses to support other businesses.
“Everyone looks forward to Burger Week. Our staff enjoy engaging with customers when they ask what do you recommend. This gives us an opportunity for additional conversation. It truly is great hearing ‘We heard we had to try yours!’
“Everyone seems to know what Burger Week is—our local fans and even ones travelling through. So it’s great that our small-town communities are participating together to put on such a great event here in Southeast Saskatchewan.
“Our social media engagement is huge as well. Between fans sharing posts, staff’s involvement in posts and then sharing, it’s all great energy, and our staff get to see all the positive feedback and it makes all the efforts worth it.
“In past years we sold upwards of 700 burgers over and above our regular burger sales and our feedback is usually the same—‘Wow, what a great burger!’
“There is a lot of behind the scenes work here at Red Barn during this feature. We make all our hamburgers fresh in-house weekly and our pulled pork is smoked and slow roasted in-house as well. On top of that, there is the prep involved in the slicing of tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, cooking bacon and hand dusting the jalapenos.
“We love, love, love serving all our customers, so the blood, sweat and tears from selling so many burgers makes it all worthwhile. Plus the bragging rights of having an amazing burger helps a little too . . .”
