DeLand Eatery at 442 E. New York Ave. took home a victory in the Athens Theatre’s first best burger contest.

The DeLand theater hosted the Cheeseburger in Paradise competition July 1 through Aug. 6, where local restaurants went head-to-head to see whose featured burgers reign supreme.

The Athens invited the community to try out as many of the featured burgers from the participating restaurants as they could and then vote for their favorite. Among those competing were Chicas Cuban Cafe, Cress, BakeChop, The Parched Oak, and, finally, DeLand Eatery, which took first place in both the best-looking and best-tasting categories.

Owner Ian Carrey couldn’t be more elated.

“It feels pretty great. We have a ton of respect for the other restaurants that competed, so to win both categories feels pretty amazing,” Carrey said.

Their award-winning signature smash burger won them the gold in this competition, which was not a promotional item for the contest, so you can still snag an order of it for yourself to see why it comes so highly rated.

“We hope Athens puts on more events like this in the future. It was a lot of fun,” Carrey said.