Northern Life columnist Eric Moore won the grand prize in A&W restaurant’s 50th Anniversary My Favorite Memories contest. His “burger” memory, “blew the judges away,” according to a news release.
Moore wins a trip for four and a four-night stay in any Canadian city that has an A&W restaurant.
More than 25,000 submissions were received since June when A&W announced their contest that invited Canadians to share stories. A panel of three judges graded the entries based on personal significance, uniqueness, relevance and creativity.
The unsuspecting Moore was surprised with the good news this week when the A&W Root Bear and restaurant representatives visited his home.
For the past two summers, Moore has shared his experiences at camp with Northern Life readers.
The award-winning entry is about Moore’s first visit to an A&W when he was on a school field trip 40 years ago.
“I don’t exactly actually recall ordering my meal, or where I sat or with whom. But there are fragments of memory, snippets: the head of foam on the root beer and how the mug was actually frosted...Oh, it tasted so much thicker and smoother than the bottled swill of previous experience. The TeenBurger! Stacked exactly like the one on Channel 11 and tasting like it was cooked by angels...” he wrote.
Moore decided to bring his dad home a burger too. “..But, what with one thing and another: the aroma of the TeenBurger ... my newly gained appreciation of just how incredibly delicious was the beverage sloshing about inside the waxed container, not to mention the fact that home was over an hour away-well I just couldn’t help myself. When Dad picked me up...that evening I was able to present him with half of a rather soggy TeenBurger. (The root beer was long gone). Dad accepted the morsel with a completely straight face and declared it the best bit of burger he’d ever tasted.”
