BROOKINGS — Twenty-eight started, and then there was one: The Merc, in Flandreau, walked away with a traveling plaque, bragging rights and a box of Black Angus beef (gifted by Performance Foodservice) in the 2025 Brookings Area Burger Clash.

Its entry, billed as “The Berry Big Dill,” had piled up on a 1/3-pound burger a collection of palate pleasers that included dill pickle cream cheese, cheddar and Swiss cheeses, raspberry bacon and special seasoning.

Very close in place (second) and show (third) were a pair of Brookings restaurateurs, respectively: Pheasant Restaurant and Lounge and Rub ‘N Tug BBQ.

Shane Andersen, brainchild of the clash and a real estate agent with Brookings Home Team, powered by Century 21 Krogman & Co., noted that during the duration of the contest, the first two months of the year, a total of more than 1,200 votes were cast.

For Carleen and Casey Wilson, owners of The Merc, it was the first time they’ve entered the burger clash competition. Earlier this week, the couple talked with Andersen about the clash and their win when he came to Flandreau to congratulate the couple and award their prizes.

“I think it that was absolutely generous of you and anyone that has ever been involved in this to expand it beyond the borders of Brookings to include other places like ours, especially the more rural or small towns,” Carleen told Andersen. “It was amazing and we were so grateful to have new faces come through the door.”

“We just kind of did this for fun,” she added. “We knew what we were going to do; we just didn’t know what to call it.”

“The dill pickle, cream cheese was my concoction,” Casey explained, of his contribution to the name of their burger. Credit Carleen with the addition of raspberry bacon.

“We’ve mostly been a pizza place and we just started doing burgers a month prior to the Burger Clash,” Casey added, referencing the uptick in the burger business for The Merc. “We did 50 to 60 burgers a night when we were used to doing 10.” Customers came from well outside the Flandreau area.

“We have a very dedicated mighty, but small staff,” he noted as to how they handled the much bigger numbers. Meanwhile, they found time to taste the burgers of some of the other competitors — and “found them amazing.”

And the Wilsons will be back next year. “I think it’s good fun,” Carleen said. “I hope the other businesses had as much fun and success with it as we did. I hope consumers understand that foot traffic really is needed for local places keeping their doors open — and not just restaurants. If you want nice things in in your communities, you’ve got to get out and support them.”

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.