B2A2: The Rankings After Six Burgers

Six burgers in. Time to rank them.

The B2A2 series started as a simple question: who makes the best burger in Ann Arbor? Six entries later, the question has gotten more complicated. The series includes a cocktail bar, a Cuban street food counter, a James Beard semifinalist, a build-your-own counter joint, a GQ-endorsed pub in Ypsilanti, and a $3 slider bar in Detroit's Corktown. They are not all playing the same game, and ranking them requires deciding what "best" means.

Here's how I'm calling it after six entries. This is a mid-series ranking. It will change.

1. Echelon Kitchen & Bar

200 S Main St, Ann Arbor. The wood-fired smash burger at Echelon is the one I keep thinking about. The sear comes from a kitchen that knows exactly how hot to run the surface, and the char has a depth that the other entries can't match. The bun holds up. The toppings are restrained and intentional. This is a burger built by a chef who has opinions about what a burger should be, and the opinions are correct.

It is also the most expensive burger in the series, which matters in a ranking that claims to be about the best burger and not just the best restaurant. But the price buys something the cheaper options don't: precision. Every component has been thought through. Read the full entry.

2. Sidetrack Bar & Grill

56 E Cross St, Ypsilanti. The wagyu signature burger at Sidetrack is the entry that expanded the series beyond Ann Arbor, and it earned its spot. The patty has a richness from the wagyu fat that standard beef can't replicate. The bun is house-made. The room is a crooked building in Depot Town where GQ once told you to eat, and the burger lives up to the reputation.

Sidetrack is the pub burger the series was missing. It doesn't have the chef-driven precision of Echelon, but it has something Echelon doesn't: the feeling that you could eat this burger every week and never get tired of it. Read the full entry.

3. Raven's Club

Main St, Ann Arbor. The smash burger at Raven's Club started the series for a reason. The sear is deep and even. The garlic aioli ties the plate together. The fries are excellent. It is a technically sound burger served in a dark cocktail bar, and the contrast between the setting and the simplicity of the food is part of the appeal.

Third place is not a criticism. In a series where the top three are separated by small margins, Raven's Club holds its position because the execution has been consistent across multiple visits. Read the full entry.

4. Blimpy Burger

304 S Ashley St, Ann Arbor. Blimpy is the populist entry. You build your own burger at the counter, and what you get is a function of your choices, not a chef's vision. The flat-top sear is honest. The prices are low. The experience is Ann Arbor in a way that none of the other entries can claim.

I ranked Blimpy fourth because the burger itself, evaluated on the same criteria as the others, is not as refined. The patty is thinner. The bun is standard. The toppings are your responsibility. But Blimpy is the burger that has fed more Ann Arbor residents than any other entry on this list, and there's a version of this ranking where longevity and cultural weight push it higher. Read the full entry.

5. Frita Batidos

117 W Washington St, Ann Arbor. The frita is the entry that challenged the definition of "burger" in the first place. Cuban-style, topped with shoestring fries and a sauce that borrows from Havana street food. It is delicious. It is creative. It is the most distinctive thing in the series.

I ranked it fifth because, by the criteria that matter most in a burger ranking, it is competing on different terms. The frita is a different food with a different lineage, and judging it against a smash burger is like judging a sonnet against a novel. Both are good. They are not the same thing. Read the full entry.

6. Green Dot Stables

2200 W Lafayette Blvd, Detroit. The slider bar in Corktown where almost everything costs $3. The beef slider is thin, griddled, and served on a soft roll with standard toppings. It has sear. The proportions are right. Eat four and you've spent $12 on a fuller, more varied meal than any single burger in the series.

I ranked Green Dot sixth because a slider is not a burger in the way the other entries are burgers. The patty is smaller, the format is different, and the experience is about volume and variety rather than a single, composed dish. But the same argument I made about Frita Batidos applies here: if the series only includes things that look exactly like a classic burger, the series isn't asking interesting questions. Green Dot asks the most interesting value question in B2A2 — whether $3 and a Detroit address belong in the same conversation as $18 and a James Beard kitchen. I think they do. Read the full entry.

What I've Learned

Six burgers have clarified a few things. First: the smash burger is the dominant format in Ann Arbor. Three of the six entries use it, and the best two burgers in the series are both smash burgers. The technique rewards the kind of high-heat, fast-sear cooking that a small kitchen can execute consistently.

Second: price correlates with quality, up to a point. Echelon is the most expensive and the best. Green Dot is the cheapest and the most democratic. Blimpy sits somewhere in between, and Sidetrack delivers the best value relative to what you get for a single composed burger. None of these burgers are bad, and the gap between first and sixth is smaller than the gap between sixth and the average bar burger you'd get anywhere else.

Third: the series has gone wider, and it was the right call. Six entries across three cities — Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Detroit. Sidetrack proved that the best burger might not be on Main Street. Green Dot proved that $3 sliders in Corktown belong in the conversation. The geographic expansion has made the series more honest about what "best burger in Ann Arbor" actually means when the region's food scene doesn't stop at the city limits.

This ranking will change. New entries will push existing ones up or down. That's the point of a living series. For now, Echelon holds the top spot, and I would not argue with anyone who put Sidetrack first. The margin is a sear and a bun.

Read the full B2A2 series: Best Burger in Ann Arbor: The Running List.