Downtown Sioux Falls’ annual Burger Battle began 9 years in the past with simply seven eating places.
Since then, it grew to 24 competing downtown eating places within the 2021 promotion promoting over 31,000 burgers mixed.
From “burger brawlers” consuming each burger within the competitors, to Burger Battle nail designs, burger cupcakes and worldwide recognition, the annual Burger Battle has labored itself into the financial, cultural and group material of town in lower than 10 years. The competitors has even unfold to cities surrounding Sioux Falls similar to Hartford, Vermillion and Dell Rapids.
“You possibly can’t go on Fb or have an off-the-cuff dialog in Sioux Falls within the month of January with out listening to concerning the Burger Battle,” mentioned Sadie Swier, DTSF group outreach supervisor. “It is grow to be a phenomenon that is thrilling to plan and be a part of but in addition see so many individuals fall in love with and get entangled in.
Extra:Let the battle begin: Take a look at the 2022 Burger Battle competitors
This yr’s competitors is gearing as much as be even greater than final yr with 27 eating places competing for the title beginning Jan. 1. Swier hopes than an additional 4,000 burgers can be bought within the 2022 competitors.
However how did it get to be so profitable so shortly?
The promotion was thrown out as a last-minute concept at a DTSF assembly in 2013, mentioned Brienne Maner, government director of Startup Sioux Falls and the DTSF communications and membership supervisor when the Burger Battle started.
Companies and DTSF organizers had been “determined” for a January 2014 First Friday promotion that may encourage individuals to “trot out into the chilly” throughout a traditionally sluggish month for eating places and shops as a result of aren’t inclined to exit because of climate and up to date holidays.
But when DTSF satisfied one individual to go to downtown — for an artwork present, assembly mates for a drink or consuming a burger — that individual is anticipated to spend $35 every time they arrive downtown, Swier mentioned referencing a latest research.
“We all know that if somebody goes to go downtown to eat a burger, they’re greater than prone to cease at one other retailer and get dessert, a drink or exit procuring,” Maner mentioned.
Final yr’s competitors generated $436,606 and resulted in an estimated $940,850 economic impact for the Sioux Falls group. For somebody who ate in any respect 24 eating places final yr, it might price about $500 together with taxes and ideas.
The burgers and the Battle retains rising
Within the first 5 years of the Burger Battle, the competitors did not even break 10 collaborating eating places till 2019. Maner mentioned it is as a result of burgers weren’t usually on the menu at a number of downtown eating places and homeowners weren’t keen to take an opportunity on the promotion.
“Like promoting any new concept, you have no historical past or metrics. They’re simply occurring religion,” Maner mentioned. “We had been pleasantly shocked with how many individuals participated that first yr and we did our greatest to create as a lot excitements as we might.”
Within the second yr of the competitors, 1,500 burger tasters ate and submitted their burger scores. The quantity doubled by 2018. By 2019, The Market, which gained the competitors towards a discipline of 12 rivals, bought 8,100 burgers.
The competitors has spurred extra downtown exercise in its practically 10-year run, Maner recalled, together with the DTSF Winter Carnival and a pop up ice skating rink.
“Folks had been gaining confidence that it wasn’t only a fluke. It wasn’t only a one-time factor,” Maner mentioned. “It isn’t shock to me {that a} meals promotion would achieve this nicely in a metropolis that likes to eat.”
Annually, the rising checklist of restauranteurs plan months forward of the competitors and craft their own specialty burger to flaunt their creativity and taste. The checklist has grown to incorporate nontraditional eating places that do not normally concentrate on burgers, similar to Papa Woody’s Wooden Hearth Pizza and Boki European Road Meals.
The promotion is a fun-spirited occasion, however it’s important to holding downtown wholesome and alive, Maner mentioned, particularly contemplating final yr’s promotion on the top of the coronavirus pandemic. Greater than 1,000 burgers had been bought on a regular basis in the course of the 2021 competitors.
“That is a make or break in some sense for these eating places,” Maner mentioned. “Going by with this in the course of the pandemic may need saved some companies. It sounds foolish to say a burger battle is such a giant deal however it actually saved companies.”
Whereas Swier expects January 2022 to be one other red-meat-filled month, she’s planning to broaden the competitors additional and grow to be a tourism driver for Sioux Falls in the course of the winter.
“At its core, the Burger Battle brings individuals collectively,” Swier mentioned. “We would like the Downtown Burger Battle to not solely be a group occasion, however a regional and statewide must-attend occasion.”
