'No Burger Left Behind'

There was excited, salivating chatter around the Source’s office in preparation for Burger Week, presented by Steakhouse Elite. With imaginations running wild for smashed or thick patties, bite-sized sliders topped with oozing cheese or beef balls infused with onions and bacon, this Thursday, April 3 to next Wednesday, April 9 will see 26 Central Oregon eateries serving up 30 specialty burgers at $10 a pop — that’s 26 meaty options and four meatless ones from Bend to Redmond over to Sisters and back down to Tumalo. There’s even one in Madras.

The water cooler talk inevitably settled on how Bend local Josh Cordell would be spending his week. Known for his Burger Friday posts on Instagram, we casually christened him “Bend’s burger expert” because he hasn’t missed a Burger Friday since he started this deliciously self-imposed challenge 135 weeks ago. That makes Burger Week number 136 — that’s more than two and a half years of burgery goodness.

We gave Cordell a call to find out how he’ll be spending his Burger Week — answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Burger aficionado Josh Cordell and his 11-year old daughter Brynlee on a recent Burger Friday. Credit: Josh Cordell

Source Weekly: How have you not run out of places to go? Are there ever repeat visits?

Josh Cordell: We try not to go to the same place very often, but we’ll do that once in a while. Sometimes it’s just me, and then occasionally I’ll do it with a friend, but usually it’s me and my wife and our youngest daughter, who’s 11. We try to get out of town a lot of weekends and so we try to hit up different places around Oregon. We try to go everywhere in Central Oregon. There’s still a few in Central Oregon that we haven’t had. And then we’ll have repeats of ones that we really like.

SW: What burger joints are on your repeat list?

JC: Well, I have a burger named after me at Mountain Burger. I’ll often go there with friends, or when people are in town, they’ll want to go there and do that. So I go to Mountain Burger fairly often. Americana is one of our favorites.

SW: I see The Cordell Burger on Mountain Burger’s menu with swiss cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, bacon and pesto aioli.

JC: Yeah, that was one that I got to design. I got to pick the ingredients.

SW: During past Burger Weeks, have you tried all the burgers available?

JC: This will be my third Burger Week. What I’ve done both times is I’ve held off and not had any burgers until Friday. Part of doing this is that I’ll occasionally cheat when someone really wants to go have a burger, but I really try to avoid having burgers anytime but Friday. The last two Burger Weeks, I tried to have as many burgers as possible on that Friday. I was halving the burgers last year. I think I had like six and a half burgers last year. But the first year was the crazier one. There was one burger spot that was closed when I tried to go there. But other than that, I hit every burger spot that was on the list that day. I didn’t finish all of them. I had leftovers. I kept a cooler with me, and so I had some leftover burgers, but all of it got eaten — just it took me over the weekend to finish the rest of them.

SW: I love that you paced yourself but also made sure nothing was wasted.

JC: No burger left behind is kind of the way I try to live. I haven’t seen the list yet for this year, but I have really big plans. I [will] fast the day before, so I’m gonna not eat anything on Thursday, and then I’m gonna make a list of where the burgers are. I’m still trying to figure out my transportation. I’m trying to see what the weather is like to figure out if I’m either walking or if I’m gonna ride a bike with a cooler on it. I’m gonna just make a full day of eating burgers.

SW: Your transportation plan will help you burn some calories and maybe clear up some space for eating more burgers.

JC: Exactly.

SW: With 25 locations and 28 burgers on the list, what’s your goal?

JC: I’m thinking 10 burgers is probably my goal. No fries, though. I’m gonna have to go zero fries.

SW: So 10 burgers would potentially be 20 places?

JC: Yeah, I could split them, eat half. I’ll definitely hit a spot with my daughter, and then I’ll figure out if I’m meeting other people [and sharing]. I was halving the burgers last year, but there was like three of them where I was like, “This was too good.” And I just ate the whole thing.

SW: I saw you’ve coached high school sports for years. But it sounds like you might need a burger coach this week.

JC: I am gonna need someone for sure. I know I’ll be feeling it. But what a great thing to be in training for. I feel like I’ve been training my whole life for Burger Week. I think I’m ready.

Are you ready for Burger Week from April 3-9? Get all the details at bendsource.com/burgerweek

This article appears in Central Oregon Pets Spring 2025.