Burger Battle 2022 Is On!

Let the rumble begin!

We do our best every year to get through a reasonable selection of the beef-a-licious burgers on display every January, but as the competition grows, hitting all the spots gets harder every year.

DTSF Burger Battle 2022

That’s a good problem to have right?

Twenty-seven local joints are in the running this year. Imagine that. Twenty-seven! A decade ago there weren’t even twenty-seven respectable restaurants downtown to choose from, let alone twenty-seven creative chefs getting their groove on.

If you want the full rundown, The Argus’s write-up is a great place to start.

However, our early reconnaissance has scoped out three early competitors:

Holiday Inn City Centre:  The ARC

Wagyu Beef, Bison, Elk, and Wild Boar Patty is served on a bed of Romesco sauce and portobello mushrooms sauteed in red wine. The Burger is then topped with provolone cheese, pickled red onions, fried spinach, and garlic crunch dished up on a toasted butter Brioche bun. Perfectly paired with a side fresh Lobster Mac. No substitutions.

Parker’s Bistro: Raja Burger

Ground tenderloin, Mexican melting cheese, Huitacoche, pickled poblano, house bacon, chicharron

The Treasury at Hotel on Phillips: The Grifter

6oz Hand Pattied Dry Aged Black Angus Beef, Tallegio Cheese, Double Smoked Applewood Bacon, Korean Cucumber Salad with Honey & Kimchi Vinaigrette, Gochuchang Mayo. Served on Black Sesame Seed Brioche Bun.

We’ll report back after doing some further gut-busting research. And then it’s back to the gym!

Sioux Fallsian’s got Spotify Wrapped!

Funny how we’re all looking forward to our Spotify Wrapped end-of-the year stats these days. Who cares about the pop-charts when you’ve got your own! While there are some uncomfortable surprises that pop-up every year (what does our Taylor Swift ranking really say about us?) it’s pretty cool to take a look at what you’ve been groovin’ to over the last trip around the sun.

spotfy-wrapped Kiel Mutschelknaus

You might have noticed some extra-swaggy graphics on this years roll-out. And get this: A Brandon kid and Augie Grad by the rad name of Kiel Mutschelknaus had a lot to do with it! Read all about it at the Argus.

‘Til next year, keep streaming whatever floats your boat! This is a no-judgement zone!

New Cooks’ in the Kitchen at Ferson

Ferson's new burger

We’ve noticed that the kitchen’s been pretty dark the last few months at Ferson’s downtown location. But that’s about to change.

According to Facebook:

“We’re so excited to share our taproom with Murph’s Burgers & Fries. They’ll take over our kitchen for awhile, serving up incredibly tasty burgers, loaded up Murph Fries, a plant-based burger, and more!”

Our fingers are crossed. Sure, it will be great to have some hot food to nibble on while knocking back a few Seed Series experimental brews, but the hold-over recipes from the guys that ran Bro’s was a big reason to pick Fernson for the night.

Bottom line: If they can replicate some of that pork-belly, we’ll be ok! Either way, we’re gonna give the new Murph’s crew a shot sometime soon.

Mid-Century Modern Lurks in Sioux Falls

This article from Pigeon605 was pretty interesting to us.

When we landed in Sioux Falls, we noticed snatches of 50s/60s/70s homes around town that had potential. For better or worse, we made a snap decision and settled on a standard-issue, taupe, Sioux Falls multi-level. Why? It was in the budgetary sweet-spot, and we were a little pressed on time with all of the moving logistics.

But driving around the ring of houses between the core and the sprawl, interesting properties always catch our eye. Some are swanky. Some tiny. Either way, there’s plenty of good architectural bones out there looking for a fresh coat of paint and a little love.

midcentury home sioux falls
You know, this kinda thing…

As Pigeon605 reports, there’s an effort under way to designate some of these residential zones as historic neighborhoods. Sounds good to us, but of course the devil is in the details. Are there enough unpsoilt properties in any given area to warrant a designation? What will the requirements be for current and future homeowners?

Whatever happens, it’s good that folks are taking architecture more seriously. An eye to the past is a good start. Maybe then we can start thinking about the endless apartment blocks and carwashes being banged-out around town. How’s that gonna look in 50-years?

No One Wants to Open a MJ Dispensary!

Sioux Falls started taking applications to open a medical marijuana dispensary on October 29th. And so far not one person has turned in the forms. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

So the good news? There’s still time to get yours in to claim one of the five (five! yes, five!) spots! The bad news? Getting your store up-and-running is going to be a real hassle.

With unsettled court challenges lingering and Noem’s icy stare looming, it’s still not a sure thing that the MJ industry (medical or otherwise) will get off the ground.

And then there’s the onerous zoning laws that have boxed in (or out, if you will) most of the good spots. Take a look at the map below and just try to find a cool location to make your herbal dreams come true. Between state-level foot-dragging and the passive-aggressive legislation coming from city council, you’d have to be high to submit a THC-based business plan at the moment.

The green’s where you could make some green selling some green. Dark is a go, light is currently up for (endless) debate.