VINES AND TINES: Rogue Burgers has flavor, flourish and pedigree

Published 5:30 am Sunday, July 9, 2023

Justin Miller exhibits a matter-of-fact confidence as he flips burgers inside his Rogue Burgers food truck in the parking lot of Awen Winecraft, at 3939 W. Main St., between Medford and Jacksonville.

His burgers are big, messy and delicious, and he knows it.

Where he comes from — El Reno, Oklahoma — burgers aren’t just food, they’re a point of civic pride.

El Reno is the home of the world’s largest onion burger, a 750-pound behemoth that inspires a community festival around its creation each year. 

Miller, 49, moved with his family to Medford three years ago and brought his hamburger pedigree with him.

Miller said he started cooking at 9 years old because his parents worked the swing shift, so he and his siblings had to fend for themselves. 

“I cooked for everyone,” he said, “because I was the only one who could follow recipes.”

Coming from a town famous for onion burgers, he naturally made a lot of them as a child chef.

Miller started his Rogue Burgers food truck in February. He started at 1203 N. Riverside Ave., moved to South Riverside and then back to the north end.

Reviews of his burgers on local Facebook pages were effusive, but he had a hard time finding the right spot to park his truck. He says he was losing money at one point. 

A couple of weeks ago, he moved to Awen — the former site of White’s Country Market — and he’s hoping he’ll become a fixture there.

The menu, written in chalk on a blackboard affixed to the outside of his trailer, features the Deluxe Old Fashioned, Western BBQ, Black Bean Chipotle, Magic Mushroom, Cowboy Deluxe, Bacon Bleu Cheese, OG Patty Melt, Ortega Burger and the Junior Burger.

The prices ranged from $10 to $13 per burger. His hours are noonish to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. 

He uses locally sourced ingredients — hamburger from Cherry Street Meats and Cartwright’s Market — as much as possible, along with Oregon-based addendums such as Tillamook cheese.

His favorite item on the menu is the Bacon Bleu Cheese burger, featuring the world’s best blue cheese, made up the road in Central Point by Rogue Creamery.

It’s the gravy that makes it special, he says.

“The melting cheese mixes with the mustard and mayo to make like a gravy,” he said.

On our recent trip, my wife ordered the Western BBQ, and I settled on the Cowboy Deluxe. At that point we hadn’t heard Miller’s description of the synergistic blue cheese gravy phenomenon or we undoubtedly would have gone there.

As we waited for our burgers, we went into the air-conditioning of Awen’s tasting room and sampled a flight of three red wines. Then we said what the heck and sampled three whites too.

We took our burgers home and ate them on the patio, though tables are available inside and out at Awen.

For more information, find Rogue Burgers on Facebook, or call Miller at 541-973-9333.