The 2017 winner of the "Iowa's Best Burger" contest was a barbecue place in Storm Lake, IA - Smokin' Hereford BBQ. Now, I've been somewhat dubious of a couple previous winners of the annual contest put on by the Iowa Beef Industry Council since 2010. Having a barbecue place be the winner of the Best Burger in Iowa contest last year sort of raised my eyebrows. On a trip between Des Moines and Sioux City earlier this summer, I decided to take backroads through Northwest Iowa with a lunch stop in Storm Lake.
Chad Hustedt and Nathan Jensen grew up together in Galva, IA, a small northwest Iowa town about 15 miles to the south and west of Storm Lake. Chad Hustedt eventually became a coach at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, while Nathan Jensen took a different course in life. He became a funeral director.
After graduation from mortuary school, Jensen came back to NW Iowa and worked in a funeral home in Storm Lake. When the opportunity to own his own funeral home came up a couple three years later, Jensen bought a funeral home in nearby Sac City with smaller operations in three other towns in the area. In 2001, Nathan and his wife, Nancy, merged their funeral homes with Craig Fratzke of Fratzke Funeral Home of Alta, IA. In addition to the Alta location, the new Fratzke and Jensen Funeral Home also had a location in Storm Lake and three other smaller communities in the immediate area. Craig Fratzke eventually retired and Nathan and Nancy Jensen continue to run all the funeral homes with the help of funeral director Tim Smith. And one of their employees at the funeral home is Jennifer Hustedt, the wife of Chad Hustedt.
The Jensen's and Hustedt's had thought about doing something as a side job and they came up with an idea of running a barbecue place. There was a building that originally was an old train depot on the west side of Storm Lake that was available and the couples opened Smokin' Hereford BBQ in October of 2015. At first, Smokin' Hereford offered a limited menu of barbecue. But as their reputation grew, they added more items to the menu and in early 2016 they added a Friday and Saturday night burger special to the menu.
The seasoned and char-grilled burgers made with ground beef from Coon River Farms, a family-owned beef operation south and east of Storm Lake, became such a big hit with the locals that they added the burgers permanently to the menu later in the year. When the annual nominations for the Best Burger in Iowa came up in February 2017, a local campaign was started to alert the Iowa Beef Industry Council of the great burgers at Smokin' Hereford. Judges later visited the restaurant and determined they had the Best Burger in Iowa for 2017.
It was just after 1 p.m. when I pulled into the dusty parking lot at Smokin' Hereford BBQ. A big sign with "Smoky the Bull" mounted underneath greeted me as I drove up. Inside the place, I found a pretty spacious dining room with a small bar area toward the front door. It was decorated with antique agriculture company signs, neon beer signs, old highway and railroad signage, and a number of old license plates tacked to a cross beam in the dining area. Contemporary country music was playing on the restaurant's sound system.
I ended up taking a seat along the wall in what used to be an old church pew. The seating for their "booths" were all made from church pews either cut in half or in thirds depending upon the size of the table. The one I sat in was a 1/3-sized pew. The floor at Smokin' Hereford was repurposed planks from an old high school gymnasium in the area.
The menu was on the table and I was soon greeted by a young soft-spoken lady by the name of Anita. I ordered a cold beer from her while I looked through the menu. The food served at Smokin' Hereford consisted of barbecue items such as beef brisket, baby back ribs, pulled pork and smoked chicken. They also feature a smoked prime rib on Friday and Saturday nights for around $23 bucks. That has to be outstanding.
The menu also featured barbecue meat sandwiches and tacos, as well as some interesting appetizers that included gizzards (don't see that on an appetizer menu at most places), smoked andouille sausage bites (ditto on that), and fried banana peppers (don't know if I've ever seen that on an appetizer menu). But two things jumped out at me on the appetizer part of the menu - the Mississippi Mud Skins and something directly below the appetizers called the BBQ Sundae.
The Mississippi Mud Skins are potato skins topped with either pulled pork or smoked chicken (beef brisket is available for an upcharge), then the meat is topped with cheese and pico de gallo. They encourage you to top them with barbecue sauce at the table. The BBQ Sundae, I think I've seen at a couple other places in my travels over the year. It consisted of a pint-sized Mason jar filled with Smokin' Hereford's spicy baked beans, then those are topped with a layer of cole slaw or their spicy mac & cheese. From there, it's topped off with a choice of brisket, pulled pork, or smoked chicken. It's for those kind of people who don't mind all their food touching one another.
As tempting as the barbecue sounded to me, I was there to try their award-winning burger. I had a choice of either a quarter-pound or a half-pound burger and I went with the half-pound. "Pink or no pink in the middle," Anita asked. Well, pink, of course! I also had a choice of cheese - I went with pepper jack - and for a small upcharge I could get other toppings such as sautéed mushrooms, onion strings, jalapeño peppers, or a fried egg. I went with bacon.
The burger was delivered on a plastic basket with on a sheet of faux newsprint paper. The bun was toasted - not lightly toasted, but toasted enough that there were burnt marks on the edges. Lettuce, a tomato slice, dill pickles and sliced onions came on the side. The bacon was criss-crossed on top of the pepper jack cheese on the burger.
The burger was thick and juicy and was very delicious in taste. The pepper jack cheese didn't overpower the taste of the burger, nor did the bacon or the toppings I placed on the burger patty. The beef had a robust quality taste and it was a very good burger. If there was one quibble with the burger was that there was a little too much bun for my liking. But with all that was going on with the burger - the oozing cheese, the juiciness of the burger patty, and the condiments on top - the bun held together very well. It was definitely a multi-napkin burger.
I've had some very good burgers from past winners of the Best Burger in Iowa contest sponsored by the Iowa Beef Industry Council. But, I've also had a couple burgers that left me scratching my head and questioning the methods and criteria the judges use to determine the best burger in the state. I know that it gets down to a popularity contest to come up with the 10 finalists for the annual contest, and I'm sure that some restaurants stuff the ballot box with help from customers. But if that's what happened with Smokin' Hereford BBQ, they need to be commended for their effort. The burger I had there was very good - outstanding would be somewhat of a stretch because I think the bun was a little too big. But overall, it was juicy and flavorful. The robust taste of the locally-grown beef stood out even with toppings on the burger. While I can't call it the best burger I've ever had, it was good enough where I didn't question the judging for the 2017 Best Burger in Iowa. But if I ever make it back to Storm Lake and Smokin' Hereford, I'm going to try their barbecue.