I enjoyed running the Best Restaurant/Bar for Burgers contest in May again. Last year’s winner, the Village Green, did not even make it out of the first round. I suspect this year’s winner, The Old Fashioned, will have a tough challenge next year with the new AJ Bombers that will open soon.

I also want to extend congrats to Kristin Wolf, the randomly drawn voter who won a $50 gift certificate to The Old Fashioned and a $10 iTunes gift card.

Here’s the recap:

(MADISON, Wis.)–The Old Fashioned has the best burgers in the city, according to the results of a month-long poll conducted by EatDrinkMadison.com in conjunction with National Hamburger Month in May.

The downtown restaurant won with 57 percent of the vote, topping the two other finalists, Blue Moon Bar and Grill (28 percent) and Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry (15 percent). Last year’s winner, the Village Green, did not make it out of the first round of voting, in which all Madison-area establishments were eligible.

The Old Fashioned will receive a certificate to mark its honor. It carried Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. in the voting process.

The Blue Moon, which also took second place in 2010, earned the majority in Washington, Minnesota, Illinois, Georgia and New York. Dotty Dumpling’s, which won the first round of voting and ended up third last year, captured the hearts of Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

In honor of May serving arbitrarily as National Hamburger Month, I thought I’d delve into the history of the hamburger. As it turns out, I didn’t have to look beyond the state.

Seymour, Wis., about 15 miles west of Green Bay, calls itself the “Home of the Hamburger.” That’s because in 1885, Seymour resident Charlie Nagreen flattened his poor-selling meatballs, put them between two slices of bread and sold them as hamburgers at the Outagamie County Fair, according to What’s Cooking America.

The town recognized the achievements of Hamburger Charlie, who sold burgers until his death in 1951, by building a Hamburger Hall of Fame. In addition, Seymour has a Burger Festival on the first Saturday of every August, complete with a parade, ketchup slide and of course, a hamburger eating contest (this year it’s a Hardee’s Thick Burger eating contest!).

Also worth noting is that in 2007, the State of Wisconsin declared “Seymour, Wisconsin, the Original Home of the Hamburger.”

I’m excited to renew my annual Place with the Best Hamburgers Contest, which the Village Green won last year. Hope you vote!