Andy Tullis / The BulletinThe Mirror Pond Burger and Garlic Fries at Bend Burger Company.

April is the month for sports tournaments. College basketball crowned a new champion to climax its Final Four early this month. Playoffs are underway for pro basketball and hockey.

So I set up my own food critic’s competition — my playoff, as it were — to determine what might be Bend’s best hamburger.

There was an expansive field to consider. But as I ferreted out the pretenders, moving through my Sweet 16 to my Final Four, a clear pattern emerged: The best burgers are at neither traditional fast-food restaurants nor at upscale, gourmet establishments.

Two of my finalists are Bend classics. Dandy’s Drive-In opened on NE Third Street in 1968; the Pilot Butte Drive-In Restaurant has been a fixture on Greenwood Avenue since 1983. Their inclusion comes as no surprise to long-time Central Oregon residents.

The other two Final Four choices are much more recent additions to town. The Bend Burger Company opened downtown in 2008, and added a second location on NE Third Street a little over a year ago. Five Guys Burgers and Fries, meanwhile — the only one of the quartet that is not locally owned — rolled out its carpet in Bend barely three months ago.

The classic drive-ins

To start, I matched Pilot Butte versus Dandy’s. The Butte offers 17 different styles of burgers on its regular menu, including the frighteningly oversized Pilot Butte Burgers — 18 ounces of ground chuck that requires a custom-made bun and four slices of cheese just to cover it. That much meat and cheese carries a price tag of $23.95.

But my tastes are a little less cholesterol-driven. I chose a mushroom cheeseburger ($9.45) with Swiss cheese and grilled onions, a choice that I intended to duplicate at the other three restaurants.

Dandy’s, however, didn’t have mushrooms.

Nor did it have indoor seating, unlike Pilot Butte. Carhops in roller skates, a throwback to a past era, took orders at car windows and delivered the burgers. I ordered a Double Dandy ($6.75) with cheese and onions.

Burgers from both establishments were served with shredded lettuce and tomato. But Dandy’s required two patties to equal a single Pilot Butte patty, whose greater thickness helped it to be a little juicier. Pilot Butte wins.

New kids on the block

Founded in Virginia in 1986 and still based there, Five Guys has grown to more than 1,500 restaurants across the country. When it opened in Bend in early 2016, it beat the popular, California-based In-n-Out chain to Central Oregon; and frankly, I prefer Five Guys burgers to that other group.

At Five Guys, as many as 15 toppings are free with choice of burger. I ordered a cheeseburger ($6.75) with grilled onions and mushrooms, along with ketchup and mayonnaise, lettuce and tomatoes. Swiss cheese wasn’t an option, but I was pleased with cheddar. The meat was a juicy double patty on a thin sesame bun.

It was a good burger, but it didn’t quite measure up to Bend Burger Company’s Mirror Pond burger. One of 12 burgers on the north-side restaurant’s menu, it was served on a toasted bun dressed with mayo and ketchup-based “Bend Burger Sauce.” As that menu promised, it came with Swiss cheese, grilled mushrooms and grilled onions — but no lettuce or tomato, as I have come to expect of most burgers. In a close competition, Bend Burger won the nod.

Championship round

On to the championship game, a matchup of two excellent single-patty, 6-ounce burgers, the Pilot Butte mushroom cheeseburger and the Bend Burger Mirror Pond burger.

I came armed with a measuring stick. The Butte’s entry was 3¼-inches thick, a ¼ inch greater than the Mirror Pond burger. The bun might have been grilled a little longer, but it was dressed with mayo and filled with lettuce, a ripe tomato slice and additional slices of juicy dill pickle that no doubt expanded its size. None of these condiments were presented by Bend Burger Company.

But the Mirror Pond burger’s meat was decidedly juicier and its grilled, buttered bun softer to the bite. As both burgers were served with generous portions of freshly sautéed button mushrooms and grilled, almost caramelized, red onions, there was little to choose between them.

So I went to overtime! The competition was decided by a fry. Bend Burger’s skin-on fries, served with a spicy ghost-pepper fry sauce, were superior to Pilot Butte’s more standard variety. My favorite Bend burger is made, appropriately, by the Bend Burger Company.

— Reporter: janderson@bendbulletin.com.