There is no way to accurately describe what Steve’s Burgers in Garfield means to this website.  Meeting Stephen Chrisomalis, Jr. and his dad, Steve, Sr., was simply fate.

We were one year old as a site when Ed and I stopped in for hot dogs in 2011 and then came back soon after with co-founder Don in tow for burgers.  A review was written and posted shortly thereafter.

Steve’s Burgers wasn’t our first food review. His roadstand wasn’t on our first hot dog tour. He and his dad weren’t even our first interview. But, it was our first deeply-rooted friendship to come out of YDKJ and it remains a treasured friendship to this day.

In 2015, when we turned five years old, we asked Steve if he would consider making a You Don’t Know Jersey Burger. Steve didn’t have a burger on the menu with Taylor ham so we thought “let’s remedy this situation!”  We even included the North/South Jersey “controversy” and came up with the tagline, “One slice of Taylor ham, and one slice of pork roll.” Naturally, it was all the same meat…. that’s our response to the TH/PR argument every time it comes up. We limited the burger’s run to just the month of May because we weren’t sure who would venture out just to eat a burger with our name on it. 

By the end of May, Steve told us that the burger was so popular that he was going to put it on the permanent menu. We were beside ourselves with delight. The YDKJ Burger wasn’t just a fleeting moment of excitement, it was now a real thing forever!

Then came 2020 and our ten year anniversary. Naturally, at the beginning of the year we were dreaming up all kinds of events we could host to look back on the last ten years of our lives and the life of You Don’t Know Jersey. As you can imagine, those long-hoped-for plans came crashing down to earth by the time March 2020 rolled in.

I’ve been devastated knowing that we will be honoring May 2, 2020 at home and not with the hundreds of friends we’ve made thanks to this site. I wanted a concert, for sure. I wanted to do some whiskey and beer tastings with our fans and friends. I wanted to do a photowalk somewhere. I wanted to do something with Montclair Bread Company who shares May 2nd as a birthday.

And now… nothing.

Well, not nothing. Our friends are stepping up and doing what they can. And, naturally, Steve’s Burgers is involved. He’s going to give away ten family meals to the ten winners we choose on Saturday, May 2, 2020. That will be four burgers, four sides, and four drinks per winner!

Starting right now, tag us on Instagram with your saddest quarantine meal. Then, watch our Instagram account on Saturday at noon and we will announce the ten winners. We will need to be able to DM you the details so make sure you follow us on IG and follow Steve’s Burgers, too, because we could get you a meal for your whole family!

And, happy birthday to us!

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