How Bun B and Trill Burgers Won Best Burger in America Honors on Good Morning America — A National Moment For Houston Food

There are burgers, and then there is the burger that Good Morning America deemed the best burger in America. Bar none. And who pray tell walked away with that honor (not to mention a prize of $10,000)? None other than Houston’s own hip-hop star turned restaurateur Bun B (Bernard Freeman) and Mike Pham.

Bun B and Pham are the owner and chef respectively of Trill Burgers, the pop-up hamburger joint that can now boast about being the winner of GMA’s the United States of Burgers beating burger contestants cooking up their best from states all across the country.

It was a hard-fought win, with Pham and Bun B making it to the finals this week, competing against heavy hitters in the burger game like Lucky’s Last Chance (Philadelphia), Babe’s Meat and Counter (Miami) and The Companion (Atlanta). All under the pressure of live morning television.

The judges included celebrity chef Gina Neely, former NFL star turned media personality Tiki Barber, former NBA star Jalen Rose, WWE wrestler Titus O’Neil and ABC’s own Sam Champion. The Trill Burgers duo scored three out of five votes from the discerning tasters to take the Golden Burger Trophy home to Houston today.

“It’s so surreal that it doesn’t make sense,” Bun B said minutes after the show. “To be in Times Square having won the best burger in America live on Good Morning America, it’s not even in the realm of things that we would have imagined for this brand.

“We just wanted to put in hard work and be justified for what we did, and today we got the ultimate validation. I can’t wait to bring this burger to America.”

The smashburger driven Trill Burgers was founded by rapper and entrepreneur Bun B of UGK, restauranteur Andy Nguyen of Food Fighters Universe and Houston publicist Nick Scurfield of The Scurfield Group and soon gained a following with fans including Snoop Dogg, Ken Griffey Jr and James Harden. The trio launched with a simple menu that included three burgers: the OG Trill Burger made with Texas 44 Farms beef topped with Trill Sauce and pickles on a Martin’s potato bun, another topped with caramelized onions and a vegan-style burger option.

While the guys continue to work on opening the first brick-and-mortar Trill Burgers restaurant in Houston, they’ll be traveling to New York (Queens) to the Rock the Bells music festival on August 6th. For more updates on where the best burger in America will be popping up next, head to @trillburgers.