Hamburgers, 1992

So the City Paper may be part of a bankrupt chain and we may be guilty of a bankrupt form of alternative journalism, but we can still sell burgers, dammit!

The "Free Burger Day" coupon in this week's issue has generated a long line of freeloaders today looking to cash in at Z-Burger, the Tenleytown joint that hopes to, one day, rival the Five Guys chain for sheer volume of restaurants. David Walker, City Paper's advertising sales director, tried to stop by and order himself a free ground-beef sammie. The line was so long, he went to McDonald's instead. (As far as pure beef flavor goes, I'd argue there's not much drop off there.)

It's not too late to take advantage of the offer. It goes til 10 p.m., when Z-Burger closes. But after you bums finish off your burger, you should thank Walker and account executive Andy Minarik, who are responsible for this freebie. When Z-Burger's owner was fishing around for ideas on how to advertise his budding chain, the pair suggested Free Burger Day. He agreed. He may be regretting it now. I don't know. I tried calling over there, but the dude on the line essentially hung up on me.

Received a somewhat mysterious note plugging a "burger crawl" Saturday inspired by Young & Hungry columnist Tim Carman's local burger roundup last week in the Washington Post. The (somewhat ambitious) schedule is:

• 11 a.m.: Elevation Burger, Falls Church
• 11:45 a.m.: Big Buns, Arlington
• 12:30 p.m.: Good Stuff, Capitol Hill
• 1:15 p.m.: Five Guys, Dupont Circle
• 2 p.m.: Z-Burger, Tenleytown
• 2:45 p.m.: BGR, Bethesda
• 3:15 p.m.: Urban Burger, Rockville

And, if you're really nuts, you could always saunter over to Ray's Hell-Burger in Arlington in the evening if you're still hungry. No names were on the note I was sent; e-mail burgercrawldc@gmail.com for further detail.