Cooking the perfect backyard burger can’t be easy when you don’t have a backyard with which to work. I guess that’s why Bobby Flay is Bobby Flay. He and his Vegas kitchen crews somehow imbue each juicy, slightly charred burger with the nostalgic flavors of summertime. The crispy bacon and crispier potato chips layered into melty American cheese on the blissful Bacon Crunchburger ($15) do the heavy lifting.

The celebrity chef’s food at the three Strip locations of Bobby’s Burgers locations (Harrah’s, Paris and Caesars Palace) reminds me of actual cookouts from my past, the main reason I’ve been making trips to the Boulevard and battling tourists to eat these burgers since Flay’s original Burger Palace concept first opened in front of CityCenter in 2014.

During my recent sorta-staycation at Horseshoe Las Vegas, after I watched the Golden Knights win their way back into the Stanley Cup Final at the rooftop Beer Park at Paris, I celebrated with a beer, that Bacon Crunchburger and a cookies and cream milkshake. It was so good in that perfect summer moment, I went back for lunch the next day and tried the Nacho Burger with queso and pickled jalapeños.

Those were the second- and third-best burgers I’ve eaten this summer. The best was cooked by my friend George on a tiny grill on his back porch, after we had beers and watched a Fourth of July parade drift by slowly. Even Bobby Flay can’t topple that, but I doubt he would want to.

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