TUESDAY, APRIL 3: WE HAVE A WINNER >>>
After three weeks of voting the Weekly Volcano readers have picked the most popular breakfast in the South Sound.
The Tournament of Breakfast Championship match pitted the Moon Rise Cafe in Lakewood against the new kid on the block, Dirty Oscar's Annex in Tacoma.
Yesterday's championship battle saw the most online voting before dinnertime (5 p.m.) of the tournament, topping out at just over 7,000 votes. The Moon Rise Cafe had a commanding lead by the time the voting switched to the live ballot voting at 6 p.m. during the Tournament of Breakfast Party inside Meconi's Tacoma Pub and Eatery in downtown Tacoma. At the party, folks filled out breakfast voting/raffle ballots when they weren't tossing back $5 martinis and screaming at the NCAA Men's Championship hoop game on the tube.
As promised, we tallied the on-location votes during halftime of the hoop game, which Dirty Oscar's owned. The Sixth Avenue bar that serves awesome food won the on-site voting by six votes.
A large representation from the Moon Rise Cafe and Dirty Oscar's Annex were in the house. The Moon Rise arrived early with their black and purple Moon Rise T-shirts. Supporting the Lakewood Cafe and wearing the same T-shirts were The Villa Caffe and Imbibery owners Robyn and Jason.
"Jason and I invented the Villa Caffe over breakfast at the Moon Rise. We have a soft place for it in our hearts," said Robyn.
The Dirty Oscar's Annex also arrived in black T-shirts, but that's just how they roll.
Team Moon Rise Cafe / Photo credit: Winter Teems
Team Dirty Oscar's Annex / Photo credit: Winter Temms
Dirty Oscar's Annex owner Jake Barth and Moon Rise Cafe owner Christine Curren / Photo credit: Winter Teems
It was a breakfast love fest. The two competing restaurants hugged it out, complementing each other on their talents. Old Milwaukee Cafe owners Pat and Chad attended the party to give props to both resturants. The Moon Rise had nothing but kind words for number two seed Old Milwaukee. The Moon Rise beat the popular Sixth Avenue restaurants in second round action.
At halftime of the basketball game, Pappi Swarner jumped behind the mic, grabbed the house PA, and gave away six or so raffle prizes, most to the lucky employees of Dirty Oscar's Annex.
The Weekly Volcano staff quickly downed their drinks and tallied the ballots. After combining the ballots with its 77 percent vote lead accumulated online, the winner of the 2012 Tournament of Breakfast was announced:
Moon Rise Cafe.
Both South Sound breakfast joints will be receiving Tournament of Breakfast trophies after completion of the engraving. Also, look for an upcoming feature on the Moon Rise Cafe in the Weekly Volcano.
So it's official: The Moon Rise Cafe is the winner of Weekly Volcano's 2012 Tournament of Breakfast. Eat it up, South Sound.
EDITOR'S NOTE: More photos from last night's Tournament of Breakfast party will be posted soon.
We would like to extend special THANKS! to Shakabrah Java for sponsoring the Tournament of Breakfast. The popular Sixth Avenue breakfast joint made it to the Poached Eight before falling to Dirty Oscar's Annex. It's a damn tasty breakfast.
Also a big thanks to Meconi's Tacoma Pub and Eatery for hosting our Tournament of Breakfast Championship party last night. Good times.
But most of all, thanks to all the awesome folks who voted. You rock.
