The prognosticating prowess of the Bay area was meager this year, compared to last year's pizza tournament. Very few people put either Pane Rustica or The Kitchen in the finals, but one semi-prescient entrant — Justin P of Venice — managed to nail Pane Rustica as the winner to take the $100 gift certificate and the title Burgermeister of Bracketology.
As for the Readers' Choice Award, well, it was more like a single reader, to tell you the truth. With no cap on the number of entries, we were inundated by ballots in an obvious, but perfectly legal, scheme by fans of just a few burger joints. The winner, thanks to a record 400 entries from a single person in the span of a few minutes one weekday afternoon, was Tank's Taproom. You have some dedicated fans, Tank's.
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2008.