In the three years since I wrote a story in GQ about the 20 best burgers in America, I’ve never come across a burger that I felt would have cracked my list.

Until last week.

I was in Las Vegas, hanging around the restaurant Bradley Ogden in Caesars Palace Hotel, when I noticed that the bar menu contained a plug for the restaurant’s burger. It came from an old pal, John Curtas (eatinglv.com), who declared it the best burger in Las Vegas.

I poked my head in the kitchen, and noted that it smelled of wood smoke, extraordinary in a city where virtually all odors, good and bad, are pumped out of restaurants (and hotels) the moment they materialize. Sterile wouldn’t be too strong a word for this city. The wood was being used to cook burgers on an indoor grill.

I turned and ran for the bar. “Burger, please,” I said.

Perfect wouldn’t be too strong a word for this burger. Not only would it have made my list, it would have cracked the top ten.

In appearance, this is a pretty simple burger. House-made roll, soft and just thick enough. Medium-large patty made from rib-eye and kobe. Then comes the cooking. There’s a lot of basting with red-wine butter. There’s that wood smoke, curling upward and gorgeously enveloping the meat.

The burger was so great it brought tears to my eyes. That hadn’t happened since the previous night, when I went all-in with a suited A-Q during a Texas Hold `em poker tournament and lost to a crummy pair of eights.

3570 Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV; (877) 346-4642 (for Bradley Ogden reservations); caesarspalace.com