It's Ben Franklin vs. Reading Terminal: The Ultimate Philly Thing championship

Voting is now closed

After a late surge of votes, Ben Franklin has been officially crowned the Ultimate Philly Thing. Thanks to all who voted!

We made it. It’s been a long haul since the days of Center Lane Parking and the #LOLSixers, but Philly: You’ve helped us make it to the final round of Billy Penn‘s first bracket created to crown the Ultimate Philly Thing. Cheesesteaks, the Phillies and the Mummers are out. It’s Ben Franklin vs. Reading Terminal Market, and this one is for all the marbles.

Billy Penn‘s pseudoscientific, made-up, but otherwise utterly reliable bracket-tournament-style contest aims to crown 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.

We picked two competitors in each sub-category, and then seeded them. We’re now down to just two. (Disagree with our seeding and selections? Send your angry tweets to @billy_penn; we may or may not argue back.)

Vote early, and vote often. This is the championship, people.

Your competitors:

In one corner, you’ve got Ben Franklin. He’s like, Philadelphia’s dude (even though he wasn’t even born here) and was one of the most well-known Pennsylvanians of the eighteenth century. He’s a founding father, a writer and is pretty famous for that thing with the kite.

Here’s an important and comprehensive Ben Franklin history video for your consideration:

In the other corner, you have Reading Terminal Market — a sleeper, if we might add. This is Philadelphia’s lunch place, the one that’s known for fresh produce, DiNic’s amazing roast pork sandwiches, 4th Street cookies and a bunch of other mouthwatering food choices. Not sure if chocolate-covered onion falls into that category or not. Don’t worry, according to this video it tastes like, “white chocolate and onion.” Phew.