Ten restaurants are now in the running for the title of “Iowa’s Best Burger.” The contest started with Iowans submitting 3,500 nominations that named 275 restaurants. Michelle Baumhover, with the Iowa Beef Industry Council, says the 10 finalists named this week were the top vote-getters. She says the restaurants vary in size and style.
“One’s a bowling alley, one’s a little higher end (restaurant) and one’s in Ute, Iowa, which a very small town,” Baumhover said. The overall winner of the contest will be named the first week of May as a kickoff to “May Beef Month.”
Baumhover says a panel of judges will secretly visit the top ten restaurants and choose “Iowa’s Best Burger” based on style, taste and proper temperature. The overall winner of the inaugural contest last year was the Sac County Cattle Company in Sac City for their mushroom Swiss burger. The contest is sponsored by the Iowa Beef Industry Council and the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association.
The ten finalists this year (in alphabetical order) are:
Bancroft Drive Inn, Bancroft
Coon Bowl III, Coon Rapids
Dublin’s Food & Spirits, Emmetsburg
The Dugout, Ute
Farmer’s Kitchen, Atlantic
Grinnell Steakhouse, Grinnell
The Irish Shanti, Gunder
Rube’s Steakhouse, Montour
Rusty Duck, Dexter
61 Chop House, Mediapolis