Thirteen Restaurants, Nine Dollars, and One Day Left
Every town that grows as fast as Mt. Juliet eventually runs into the same quiet problem: the restaurants multiply faster than anybody's willingness to try them. You find three places you like, and the other forty stay theoretical.
Burger Week is a direct answer to that, and Mt. Juliet is holding its first one right now. Thirteen local restaurants, one burger each, $9 apiece — and it ends Sunday, Aug. 30. If you have been meaning to get around to it, this is the weekend it stops being possible.
Who's in
The thirteen participating kitchens are M.L. Rose Neighborhood Pub, Hillside Hangout, The Papermill, Burger Republic, Milestone Craft Deli, Red River Nomad, Mt. Juliet Sport & Social Co., Kat's Bar & Grill, The Pub Bar & Grill, Barrel House, Bagel Barn, Pooky Jane's Kitchen & Pub and Green Onion Deli.
What is worth noticing about that list is how little it repeats itself. A deli, a bagel shop, a craft-deli, a couple of proper pubs, a sports-and-social hall — these are not thirteen versions of the same burger. Barrel House, for instance, went in an Argentinian direction with theirs. The event is organized by Mt. Juliet Buzz, and the full lineup and details live on its social channels.
The part that costs you nothing
There is a contest attached, and it is the low-effort kind: photograph the burgers you try, post them to Instagram, and you are entered to win a pool of gift cards reported at more than $300. No passport to get stamped, no app to download, no entry fee. Buy a burger, take a picture, done.
The early returns suggest it worked. Barrel House owner Danny Medina said the first Monday alone tripled the restaurant's sales — which is the entire point of an event like this. A $9 burger is not a discount so much as a door held open. Restaurants take the margin hit on the burger and bet that you will order a drink, bring somebody, and come back in October at full price.
Why a small town does this at all
Burger weeks and restaurant weeks are a well-worn format in bigger cities, where they are usually run by a tourism bureau or an alt-weekly with a marketing budget. What makes Mt. Juliet's version interesting is that it is neither. It is a community-run promotion in a city that has spent the last two decades turning from a bedroom community into a place with its own downtown gravity — and the restaurant list is the evidence. Thirteen independent kitchens willing to coordinate on a single price point is not something Mt. Juliet could have assembled ten years ago.
It also lands at a useful moment. The Providence Marketplace corridor and the older Lebanon Road side of town have been filling in steadily — Nicoletto's is building its largest room yet on Lebanon Road, and out toward the lake a 1958 steakhouse is coming back under new owners. A week that pushes people to walk into a room they have never walked into before is, in that context, doing something more useful than selling burgers.
How to spend the last day
Realistically you are getting one or two in, not thirteen. Pick the one closest to you and the one you have never had a reason to visit — that second choice is the whole idea. Prices and hours are set by each restaurant, so it is worth a quick call before you drive.
And if the weekend turns into a full food crawl: our local's guide to Mt. Juliet maps out where to eat and what else is worth your Saturday, and if you want to keep arguing about it afterward, we have opinions on the best burger in the Nashville area.
