Breaking burger news: Krug's Tavern in Newark is the winner of our N.J.'s best burger contest.

The Ironbound bar edged out nine other contestants in our finalist round with a burger -- simple, classic, no-nonsense -- symbolic of the neighborhood hangout.

A bacon cheeseburger, to be exact. Medium-rare, oozing juicy, messy goodness. Have plenty of napkins nearby; you'll need them.

In fact, bacon and cheese are pretty much the only two burger options at Krug's. A plate of pickles and hot peppers comes with it, and that's about as complicated as the burger experience gets at Krug's (pronounced Kroogs).

(Let the record show many of the best burgers of the 100 sampled in the semi-finalist round were much more complicated than the one at Krug's. Did they hit all my burger buttons like the one at Krug's did? No.)

Our epic search for N.J.'s best burger started two months ago, when we asked readers to nominate their favorite burger joints. Boy, did they. There were several thousand recommendations; 300-plus places were placed on the initial ballots, in five categories (best burger joint burger, best restaurant burger, best bar burger, best diner/deli burger, best specialty/veggie burger).

About 60,000 people voted; the top five vote-getters in each category made up 25 semifinalists; I picked the other 25. I visited all 50 semi-finalists, sampling exactly 100 burgers, ranging from palm-sized (tasty onion-topped sliders at legendary White Manna in Hackensack) to pyramid-sized (the Meat Lovers Burger at the Dog House Saloon in Washington Township, Bergen County).

I then picked ten finalists and went back for seconds last week. Then came the toughest challenge of all: picking the best. It was a tough, nearly impossible task.

New Jersey's best burger starts with great meat -- an 80/20 blend from meat wholesaler Ray's Enterprises in Newark. It takes about 20 minutes to cook the 12-ounce patties on the tiny grill at Krug's. This isn't fast food; sit down at the bar, have a beer. Watch and listen to your burger sizzling on the grill.

The secret to Krug's burger?

"Don't squeeze it down," said Joyce LaMotta, the fourth-generation co-owner of Krug's. "Try to keep the juice in there. We don't even put salt and pepper on it." She laughed. "It's a straight piece of meat."

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The crew aboard the Munchmobile during our finalist round visit ran out of superlatives to describe the burger.

"When that burger hit my tongue, I think I was in a state of euphoria," Joan Bolla said. "The meat was outrageously flavorful. No condiments were necessary."



"Quite possibly the best burger I have ever had, and I've had a lot of burgers,'' Kelly Reilly said. "It was one of those melt-in-your-mouth experiences, cooked to perfection, juicy and flavorful.''

The bar itself doesn't look like much from the outside -- faded sign, and a parking lot out back accented by a graffiti-streaked dumpster. The parking lot is about as big as the grill -- tiny.

"I love my vegetables," one regular told me, "but I've got to have red meat."

Krug's, in a famed Newark neighborhood known more for its Spanish-Portuguese restaurants, bars and cafes, is that kind of place.

The bar was opened by Frank Krug in 1932; it is now owned by the LaMotta family, related to Jake LaMotta, the middleweight champion boxer of the '40s and '50s and portrayed by Robert DeNiro in "Raging Bull." Jake has visited the bar. So has George H.W. Bush, during the 1984 presidential campaign.

The neighborhood bar has been around 80-plus years, but it's still a relative secret. One could argue it took its home city a while to recognize it as a landmark; last month, the city of Newark installed a street sign at the corner of Wilson Avenue and Napoleon Street that reads Krug's Tavern Way.

Peter Genovese may be reached at pgenovese@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteGenovese or via The Munchmobile @NJ_Munchmobile. Find the Munchmobile on Facebook and Instagram.