THURSDAY, MARCH 29: FOUR POACHED EIGHT BREAKFAST BATTLES ON THE DOCKET >>>

The Poached Eight is fully fleshed out: Homestead Restaurant, Moon Rise Cafe, Norma's Burgers, Cicada Restaurant, Alfred's Cafe, Boxcar Grill, Shakabrah Java and Dirty Oscar's Annex. Eight establishments that - according to our readers' poll - serve the best breakfast in the South Sound.

It's all come down to eight. All the signs in the restaurants, the mass emailings to customers and friends, the breakfast phone trees have paid off for these eight egg slingers. It's now crunch (or Cap'n Crunch) time for the breakfast royalty.

On to today's Tournament of Breakfast action and yesterday's results.

Yesterday's Tournament of Breakfast Results

Here were the match-ups:

Alfred's Cafe (Tacoma) vs. Poodle Dog (Fife)

Fife City Bar and Grill (Tacoma) vs. Boxcar Grill (Tacoma) 

Shakabrah Java (Tacoma) vs. Masa (Tacoma)

The Hub (Tacoma) vs. Dirty Oscar's Annex (Tacoma)

Alfred's Cafe, the heavy favorite to win the East Region after perceived contenders such as Johnny's Dock and Buttered Biscuit were dismissed in earlier rounds, cruised to an easy win over the aging Poodle Dog with 70 percent of the votes. Alfred's decorated big dishes, blueberry pancakes and corned beef hash, enjoyed solid days, with the Monte Cristo turning it on late in the game.

Despite an early lead from the heralded Fife City Bar and Grill, Boxcar Grill and its large, devoted Sounder Train-riding fans proved too powerful in yesterday's action, catapulting into the Poached Eight with a resounding victory. Boxcar Grill is known for sausage gravy, with 67 percent of the gravy pure sausage. Strangely, that's exactly the percentage of the vote Boxcar received yesterday. Weird. Today Boxcar will face neighboring Alfred's Cafe.

The way Shakabrah Java has managed to bring it during this year's Tournament of Breakfast has been nothing short of amazing. Yesterday, many already had established competitor Masa penciled in as a winner. Those people, however, were foolish - as Shakabrah Java once again proved its breakfast prowess. The votes don't lie, and when the final buzzer sounded Shakabrah Java had racked up roughly 58 percent of the vote. It was the closest game of the day.

We feel bad for the Stadium District on this one ... especially those denizens who love to mix an amazing chicken fried steak with their Bloody Marys and extreme sports TV watching. But something tells us they'll survive, and they'll do so in tasty style with The Hub breakfast they (and much of the area, it seems) have come to love. Unfortunately for The Hub, the task yesterday of taking down Dirty Oscar's Annex was simply too much - and the votes told the story. When all was said and done, D.O.A. moved on with nearly 67 percent of the votes in the day's most active contest.

Let's take a look at the stack. The following are advancing to the next round:

• Alfred's Cafe
  
• Boxcar Grill
  
• Shakabrah Java
  
• Dirty Oscar's Annex
  

The daily breakfast battles here on Spew are sponsored by Shakabrah Java on Tacoma's Sixth Avenue.

OK, let's check out today's Poached Eight breakfast battles. Vote for one breakfast joint per battle. Voting for today's breakfast battles ends at 11:45 p.m.