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Round 2 of voting has ended. Winners are listed below.
Welcome to Round 2 of Billy Penn‘s pseudoscientific, made-up, but otherwise utterly reliable bracket-tournament-style contest crowning The Most Philly Thing Ever. We picked the most Philly things we could think of in four categories: the most Philly person, the most Philly food and drink, the most Philly thing from the outside and the most Philly pastime. You voted in Round 1 — now the stakes are higher, and the competition is stiffer.
We picked two competitors in each sub-category, and then seeded them. Round One had 16 match-ups for a total of 32 Philly things. Welcome to the Sweet 16, people. (Disagree with our seeding and selections? Send your angry tweets to @billy_penn and we may or may not argue back.)
As the Democratic union machine says, vote early and vote often.
Round 1 recap: Most Philly person
Best Founding Father: Ben Franklin and William (Billy) Penn
Chef’s Empire: Jose Garces and Stephen Starr
Most Hollywood: Will Smith and M. Night Shyamalan
Most Political: Chris Matthews and Ed Rendell
The round 2 match-ups:
Will Smith once owned the Philadelphia playgrounds where he chilled out, maxed and relaxed, but Ben Franklin helped bring Philadelphia and America the freedom of choice that is allowing you to choose whether Hitch or democracy is more important.
WINNER: Ben Franklin
Ed Rendell helped remake the city in the ’90s. Ya know, the one that Billy Penn founded.
WINNER: Billy Penn
Most Philly food or drink
The competitors:
Most Philly Snack: TaskyKake and Soft Pretzel
Most Philly Sugary Sweet: Peanut Chews and Water Ice
Most Philly Beer: Yards Brawler and Kenzinger
Sammich-off: Cheesesteak and Roast Pork
The round 2 match-ups:
Philly cheesesteaks are an institution in their own rite, but wooder ice could pull an upset here.
WINNER: Cheesesteak
The Philly Soft Pretzel is up against our fave childhood snacks. TastyKake beat out Roast Pork in Round 1 — can it pull off another upset?
WINNER: Soft pretzel
Most Philly thing from the outside
The competitors:
-Adelphia pun: Filthadelphia and Killadelphia
Most Philly cliche (that’s really true): Rocky’s town and Awful sports fans
Most musical representation: “Summertime” and Motown Philly
Most Philly establishment: Wawa and Reading Terminal Market
The round 2 match-ups:
Wawa is ubiquitous, but Filthadelphia is just plain true.
WINNER: Wawa
Booing Santa Claus, holding cells, batteries, the list goes on for Awful sports fans. DiNic’s pork, Fourth Street Cookies and the Flying Monkey Bakery have Reading Terminal Market putting up a battle in this matchup.
WINNER: Reading Terminal Market
Most Philly pastime or activity
The competitors:
Best Baseball Team: Taney Dragons and Philadelphia Phillies
Best Basketball Team: Temple U. and Philadelphia 76ers
Best Drunken Party: Mummer’s Parade and Fat Tuesday on South Street
Best Parking Practice: Center lane parking and Saving parking spots
The round 2 match-ups:
Our nation’s oldest continuing sports pastime is the Phillies, but saving parking spots is that asshole-y thing we all hate to admit we do.
WINNER: Phillies
A lot of cities park in the center lane, but none like we do here. And no city has anything remotely close to the Mummers.
WINNER: Mummer’s Parade
