Bun B’s Trill Burgers named nation’s best on ‘Good Morning America’

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NEW YORK – In New York’s Times Square ⁠— as bustling and above ground as a place can be ⁠— Houston rap star and businessman Bun B and his Trill Burger team were hardly underground kingz. Trill Burgers won best burger in America in the “United States of Burgers” competition on Good Morning America Friday morning.

“I get paid to have the right words, and I don’t,” said Bun, a rapper with a handle seemingly designed for a burger business. “For something like this to happen to us so fast, it’s beyond surreal. But our team really worked hard to make this happen.

Trill Burgers is coming up on its first anniversary. The pop-up burger joint was an instant hit in Houston and has made appearances at music festivals. Trill Burgers will make an appearance at the Rock the Bells music festival in Queens in a week.

Bun was joined by chef Mike Pham, with whom he developed the Trill Burger and introduced it to Houston. Their burger was one of four finalists invited to New York. A five-judge panel ⁠— chef Gina Neely, former NFL star Tiki Barber, former NBA star Jalen Rose, WWE wrestler Titus O’Neil and ABC’s Sam Champion ⁠— rated the burgers. Trill Burgers received three votes, which placed the Golden Burger Trophy into Bun’s hands.

Houston rapper Bun B’s hoists the trophy for best burger in America on ABC’s Good Morning America on July 29, 2022. Bun and chef Mike Pham won the award with their signature Trill Burger.

Andrew Dansby

The winners were a bit glassy eyed having emerged before 5 a.m. to set up their burger-making station at ABC’s studio in Times Square. Bun shrugged off the fatigue: “These are musician hours,” he said. “This is usually when I go home from a gig.”

With a “Good Morning America” segment on Selena and the tall, vertical billboard on the Times Building flashing ads for albums by Beyonce and Lizzo, they may have felt a little more at home some 1,600 miles from Houston.

Pham is a Houston chef with 14 years experience. He said his first job was in a burger restaurant, so he’s long held a desire to create a signature burger business. “With this burger, we wanted to hit on sweet, salty, bitter, sour and savory,” he said. “I wanted to bring some southeast Asian influence. But we knew if we could do hit those five things, we’d have an all-American burger.”

Bun added, “This burger was created to specifications that I like. We worked on it, perfected it, and I knew if I liked it, other people would, too.”

The Trill Burger is made from 44 Farms beef, a secret “Trill Sauce,” caramelized onions, house-made pickles between two halves of a Martin’s potato roll bun.

Houston rapper Bun B, chef Mike Pham and their Trill Burger team won best burger in America on ABC’s Good Morning America on July 29, 2022.

Andrew Dansby

Bun and Pham won a competition in Houston last week that punched their card to New York, where “GMA” fans cheered them on as they prepped their burger within an outdoor arena flanked by plastic shrubs with some NYU cheerleaders nearby repeatedly chanting “Barbecue finalists!” before an ABC representative corrected them.

In the near future, Trill Burgers is planning a permanent brick-and-mortar location. And while Bun reveled in Trill Burgers’ victory, he seemed to have his eyes set on a much broader audience for their food: “I think this is the best burger in the world.”

The Times Square scene was otherwise as it might be any other day. A cyclist on the sidewalk drew the ire of pedestrians. One man repeatedly yelled, “Have you accepted Jesus?”

“This is a hamburger contest,” one viewer replied.

And one man standing by the barricades said what all of us were thinking: “Where are the samples at?”