With one week left, Downtown Burger Battle already smashes records

Any way you slice it, this year’s Downtown Burger Battle is bigger than ever.

And increasingly, that’s exactly what people are doing with their burgers: slicing them.

“Sharing burgers with others works best,” Shannon Sprock said. “That allows you to go to multiple places and try more burgers … so far we’ve only done two people (sharing) but planning to switch to four or five this weekend.”

Amy McCallon agreed.

“We like to split them amongst us as well,” she said. “There are four of us, and we usually try four different burgers at a time. It’s a good way to try lots of different burgers without becoming completely overwhelmed by the amount of different ones to try.”

With a record-breaking 32 restaurants and breweries participating this year, it has taken some strategy to sample as many as possible.

Facebook groups have organized activities to get to four or five locations, Jon Witkhop said.

“We will order enough burgers to cut up into quarters so we can try it all without getting full on one burger,” he said. “The group as a whole is going to go to most of the locations.”

Sarah Morrison’s group of three or four has made it a one-day “burger hop” or crawl, she said.

“We chart out our No. 1 picks and make a plan for the restaurants we will hit up,” she said. “We order one burger for the table — maybe an appetizer if folks are really hungry — and some drinks, eat a quarter, cash out and on to the next spot. This year was very busy at the locations we stopped at.”

She concluded correctly. With a week left to go, this year’s Burger Battle already has surpassed last year’s vote total.

“It’s absolutely crazier,” said Tenley Schwartz, marketing manager for Downtown Sioux Falls Inc.

Last year’s final vote count was more than 17,000. This year, more than 18,000 votes have been cast with a week left to go.

“We’re hearing a lot of just great sales numbers … so we’re excited to see at the end of the month what that total number is.”

It wasn’t always like this, though. Four years ago, the DTSF team discussed whether to even continue the annual promotion. Then, a little rebrand, a new app and some secret ingredient no one is quite sure how to describe added up to a big increase in burgers.

“It’s wild because I’ve seen other communities do Burger Battle — I think it was something that maybe started in Colorado … but I haven’t seen any other community that’s had it take off like this,” Schwartz said.

“We’re not demanding that anyone try all the burgers. It’s such a commitment. But it’s so fun to see when people do, and we’ve seen so many folks get their group of friends together and go try five burgers in one night, and it’s become this whole social event.”

For instance, Anne Weyer has started a weekly Friday lunch with a co-worker to try burgers. Amanda Stoterau and her husband have been doing Downtown Burger Battle date nights and picking one or two to share. Polz Abi orders three or four burgers for takeout, splits them into quarters and rates them.

“We don’t take off points for temperature or even sogginess since we do takeout,” she said, adding the family wishes all restaurants’ online ordering platforms offered their burgers.

“We’re at 11 so far … 32 is a lot to fit in, especially with some places only open on a few days.”

Chantel Olson’s family might get the award for the best effort to offset the calories that can add up this time of year.

“We make it a family thing by playing racquetball and then going and grabbing burgers,” she said. “Wish it was longer than a month. Quite impossible to get them all in.”

The contest is a way to spend time with friends and get to restaurants they usually don’t visit, many participants agreed.

“(We) always have a good experience, but it has been insane,” said Rachael Tiede, whose approach is to go to two places with friends and split the burgers.

At one business, there wasn’t enough seating, “so we had to stand and eat a $20 burger,” she said.

As with anything drawing broad-based interest, plenty of participants have adjustments they’d like to see to the Downtown Burger Battle.

Valerie Ronning estimates she’ll finish with five burgers and said she’d like to see the contest offered beyond a month or go to sliders to make it easier to sample. Roseann Burkett suggested a bracket-style challenge or top 10 cook-off to help narrow down the best.

DTSF has been inundated with suggestions, including for additional food-related competitions, Schwartz said.

But the Downtown Burger Battle enjoys unique advantages. It’s January, the holidays are over, “and it’s nice to be able to talk about something other than the weather,” she said. “In the summer, it’s easy to say it’s patio season or we’re going to meet and go to a live music event. But the best thing about socializing in the winter is people don’t have crazy travel plans. They aren’t going to a wedding every weekend. So it’s the perfect time to get your group together.”

Bridget Boyden-Myers agrees. She has tried 26 so far.

“I have done some of them twice, so friends could see how amazing some of them were,” she said. “I love it. I have participated for three years, and I love supporting our servers, chefs, cooks and restaurants, and getting business downtown in January. It gets me out of the house and socializing with friends and family.”

And if you think tackling all 32 is just too much, well, meet Scott Millar.

“I ate 27 so far,” he said. “I should have eaten them all by Sunday. This has consumed my January.”

“Consumed” seems like the right word choice.

Voting goes until Jan. 31. For the complete list of burgers, click here.