In the sprit of fun and irreverence, we created a food and drink tournament to celebrate some of the fantastic things C-U has to offer. For the most part, the 32 things that made our tournament are “the thing” to order from their respective establishments, or “the thing” that more or less defines that establishment, but that wasn’t the necessarily true in all cases. Each item is legendary in its own right, each establishment a beloved institution. They are among C-U’s staples of food and drink.
You, dear reader, had plenty of opinions about the items, the seeding, and what didn’t make the cut of 32. We heard you, and will take those things into consideration next year.
Though we chose the seeding, this tournament was ultimately yours. You took (1) Burnt Ends at Black Dog and (5) Apple Cider Donut at Curtis Orchard into the championship. We had hundreds upon hundreds of votes for each round; many of the match ups were quite close. Thank you for bringing this tournament to life. Without further ado…
The inaugural winner of Smile Politely’s C-U Food + Drink Tournament is:
BURNT ENDS at BLACK DOG!
This is probably unsurprising, as Black Dog is an institution so nice they made it twice. Those burnt ends are hard to come by unless you arrive at the very right time (they’re available while supplies last at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.). They’re perfect smoky, juicy, meaty bites. They are fantastic on their own, on/in sandwiches, and on the nachos. It’s not surprising that they were a top seed and ultimately the last thing standing.
We don’t need to go on and on about the delights of burnt ends — you know why they’re so good. You voted them the champ.
To our runner up, Curtis Orchard’s apple cider donut, congrats! This finalist was a little bit of a sleeper. We shouldn’t be all that surprised, though, given C-U’s affinity for all things donut related. The apple cider donut making it to the championship round means that a whole heck of a lot of people know about and stan it. Like the other items that made the tourney, it’s a true staple of C-U. And unfortunately, we have to wait until July 20th to get our fix, as Curtis Orchard is currently closed for the season.
Thank you for participating! We look forward to next year’s tournament.
Revisit each round of the tournament:
Here’s the entire tournament. Right click the image, open in a new tab or window to make it expandable/larger.
