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With less than three days to go until Burger Days IV, we've been in straight up stomach-expansion mode this past week. During these training days, we don't discriminate when it comes to the grub. We're shoveling everything from pizza to burritos to Chinese and, yes, burgers into our faces-- anything that'll help prepare the bellies for Sunday's beefy binge. And while we wish we could go all-burger, all the time, we must be careful not to overdo it on the ground beef in these last crucial days before the big event. As difficult as it was, we limited ourselves to three burgers this week, and truth-be-told, we were a bit disappointed in couple of our favorites. Here's a quick look at the last three burgers we'll eat before diving head first into the beef on Sunday:  

Five Guys Burgers & Fries

Our first training burger was from Five Guys in Merrifield. We skipped the fries and focused all our attention on the beef here and ordered a simple bacon cheeseburger with onions. This one was a downer, as the patties came out a bit drier than we liked and the bacon was burnt to a not-so-delightful crunchiness. We're all for crispy bacon, but this shit left us checking our teeth for cracks. On the plus side the cheese was great.... so it had that going for it...which is nice. We're big fans of Five Guys, but this time, they were just average. Anyway, a less than auspicious beginning to our BDIV prep, but, fortunately, the stomach doesn't know a half-pound mediocre burger from a half-pound good burger, so consider the first phase of Operation Belly Expansion a success.  

Joe's Amazing Burgers

For the second stop of prep week, we hit up Joe's in McLean. While they've got a good-sized selection on the menu, one look at the special of the day and our minds were set. The beautiful beast that caught our eye was a double-pattied monster topped with a fat slab of ham, pepper jack cheese, some special sauce and a fried egg. They called it the Big Daddy. And it was freakin' huge. Forgive us for our nerdism, but once it was served, we went BioShockin' and tore that bitch apart.  Unfortunately, the quality and accuracy of the order wasn't up to level we've come to expect from Joe's. Our rare order wasn't even close– it was a shade past medium with no color at all and the burger as a whole suffered from it. The egg was done over hard, but we've now learned, unless we're at Stoney's or a select few other joints, we need to specify a runny yolk. It makes a world of difference. We did really like the ham; it had some char and added a good hunk of flavor to mix. All-in-all, the Big Daddy did a number on the belly, but no so much on the taste buds.  

BGR The Burger Joint

This is a textbook case of saving the best for last. And while the best of this trio didn't have to be all that good, the burger we got from BGR today was phenomenal. Not wanting to miss out on their burger of the month, the "Cue," our procrastinating asses naturally waited until the last day of June to get our hands on the sucker. The burger formerly known as White Trash was hooked up perfectly. The spot-on rare patty was a flavor explosion-- loosely packed, beefy, salty. Man, it was seasoned beautifully. On top was a tasty heaping of tangy BBQ pulled pork and a creamy bunch of coleslaw. Would have preferred a little more crunch to the slaw, but whatever, it didn't hinder the burger one bit. While we wanted to savor it as best we could, our insides kept yelling for more-- it lasted maybe five minutes on the plate. We can only hope to run into a burger or two like this one this weekend. Fingers crossed... As we head into the stretch run to BD IV, we think our training has given us some pretty good reference points for the burgers we'll encounter.  As for the stomachs, we've got pizzas on the way and heads of cabbage boiling on the stove. Bring on Sunday.