Downtown Burger Battle 2020: Wiley’s The South Dakotan

January means it is Burger Battle season!

This year there are a whopping 16 burgers to try and I am trying to get through them all.

This year, voting is done via Downtown Sioux Falls' new app! It is called the DTSF Passport. It is so slick, smooth, and user-friendly. You can find out more about the Burger Battle and the app here.

So far I've had burgers from The Market, Mackenzie River, Parker's Bistro, and Pave.

Time to head to Wiley's!

Wiley's burger is called The South Dakotan and is described as, "A half-pound Certified Black Angus all-beef burger, seasoned with our own South Dakotan Dry Rub with house-made bacon jam, topped with thick slab smoked maple bourbon bacon, Stensland Family Farm white cheddar cheese curds, and covered in a gooey American cheese sauce, held together by a delicious artisan egg bun."

Honestly, I thought I would like this burger more. Keep in mind, I still ate the whole things and it was good. I just thought from the description that I would be all about it. Also, the picture I posted on my personal social media got the most attention, but honestly, I liked some of the other burgers better. With all that in mind, here are my thoughts.

• The thick slab of bourbon bacon was so thick that I actually thought it was a piece of rib meat or something. So the bacon was good!
• The bacon jam/sauce was a little weird with the cheese sauce.
• Cheese curds on a burger I had not seen before, so creativity points for sure!

For me, I think the problem was that it was just a really heavy burger. It had a lot of rich ingredients. It could also have been the fact that this was my fifth burger in two days.

Ok, time to let that one settle and on to the next one. 5 down 11 to go!