Best Burger In Iowa Is At The Wood Iron Grille

Matthew Gunn and Michael Glesener of Wood Iron Grille were awarded Best Burger in Iowa. (photo by Ginger Allsup)

Oskaloosa, Iowa – It was an exciting day on Wednesday for the Wood Iron Grille. All eyes in Iowa were turned their way as the Iowa Beef Council announced the Best Burger in Iowa. It was the 10th year for the competition and award.

Matthew Gunn and Michael Glesener were honored with the award by the Iowa Beef Council. Dignitaries such as Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig was in attendance.

“Pretty Exciting,” says Glesener of the award.

The process to become the Best Burger in Iowa started back in February when voting opened for any restaurant in Iowa, with approximately 500 restaurants in the running at that time.

As customers continued voting for their favorites over the month, the field got narrowed down to 10 restaurants, and Wood Iron Grille was among those.

The Iowa Beef Council then sent out a panel of three judges, who, unannounced, sampled each of the ten restaurants. Those judges then selected the Best Burger in Iowa.

The judging for the best burger is based upon the beef patty. “So all of the toppings and the bun and that stuff, they’re not as worried about that,” explained Glesener. “They based it just upon the patty. How it was prepared, how it tasted and presented.”

“Our most popular burger is the Wood Iron Original, so to us, that’s the one everyone should come and try,” Glesener said.

As a thank you to customers for their support, and voting for them, the Wood Iron Grille invited local musical talent Journey’s End in to perform.

The Wood Iron Grille hasn’t yet been open a year, and they’ve taken one of the biggest awards in the state for restaurants. Looking towards the future, Gunn said, “From here, try to be even better on our burgers. Get more entrees out there that you can be wowed about, not just our burgers.”

Gunn said they would like to be more of a destination for Oskaloosa. “Bring more people into our hometown that we love.”

“We just want to thank everyone that voted for us,” Glesener added. “It was a real honor because we weren’t even on their list originally, and so people had to add us in after scrolling through 500 restaurants.”

Gunn and Glesener thanked their team for everything they had done to help in the process. “They really got us here too. We’re really proud of them.”