Is This Charleston's Best Burger?

The Daily Meal recently published our 101 Best Burgers in America for 2014, and in order to compile our ranking, we assembled a list of nearly 200 burgers from all across the country, from Spruce Pine, North Carolina to Hillsboro, Oregon. We then divided these burgers by region, and compiled a survey that was taken by a panel of 50 noted food writers, journalists, bloggers, and culinary authorities from across the country, asking them to vote for their favorites; limited, of course, to the ones that they'd tried. We tallied the results, and published the 101 stellar American burgers with the most votes.

So what's the secret to the burger at Husk, Sean Brock's Charleston landmark? Bacon that's ground right into the patty.

Sean Brock is on a personal quest to perfect the burger, and after eating his cheeseburger at Husk, you'll most likely agree that he's achieved his goal. Housemade buns are steamed, sliced, toasted, and smeared with butter and beef fat. The two patties are a blend of chuck and hickory-smoked Benton's bacon, seared on a ripping-hot nonstick griddle and scraped off to retain a ridiculous crust. The toppings include three slices of American cheese, shaved white onions in between the patties, bread-and-butter pickles, a special sauce that closely resembles the one at In-N-Out, and lettuce and tomato only when they're in season.

So although the cheeseburger at Husk is the only burger from Charleston included in our compilation this year, patty lovers in The Holy City can be proud that their rendition of the American classic is the thirteenth-best in the country.

Kate Kolenda is the Restaurant/City Guide Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @BeefWerky and @theconversant.