I'm Jim Pappas from Philadelphia Cheesesteak Adventure. I've eaten over 550 different cheesesteaks in the last 22 months. I am hoping to use my new found Cheesesteak knowledge to help fill the void in our lives left by the canceling of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
Back to Main Page: The Philadelphia Cheesesteak Adventure March Madness
March Cheesesteak Madness Rules and Detail
March Cheesesteak Madness is a bracket-style tournament of cheesesteaks. We have 64 Cheesesteak entries broken into four regions. The regions are; 1. The Philadelphia region. These are cheesesteaks within the city limits of Philadelphia. 2. The Delaware County, Delco, region. These are cheesesteaks within Delaware County. 3. The NJ/DE region. This is a combination of cheesesteaks from the states of New Jersey and Delaware. 4. The remaining Philadelphia area county region. This region is a combination of Chester, Montgomery, Berks and Bucks counties cheesesteaks.
The selection process. The selection process was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I went to my spreadsheet and sorted by cheesesteaks that earned a score of 90 or higher. The regions were divided so that each region would have approximately the same number (36) of cheesesteaks that scored 90 or higher. Then I had to get from approximately 36 to 16. I really could have used Condoleezza Rice’s help. Yes, some well-known and well-deserving cheesesteaks were left out of the tournament. Sorry. You will also see that I moved Angelo's Pizza to the New Jersey region. This was done out of respect for Angelo's cheesesteak. I thought New Jersey needed a heavyweight to beef up their region and Angelo’s started in NJ. If you don't like this move, you can blame it on Condoleezza Rice. If she was here maybe she would have talked me out of it.
True to March Madness. I want people to be involved and filling out brackets. We will have a prize for the top bracket. The prize may only be a cheesesteak (or small gift certificate depending on the winner's location), But we will have a top bracket prize winner.
How will Chuck from Chicago know which cheesesteaks to pick in his bracket? I have, by region, done a bio sheet on all of the cheesesteak contestants including a link to my video from when I reviewed the cheesesteak. It will become obvious which videos were done early in the adventure. With the Bio sheet, Chuck and everyone has some information to use to pick a winner in each match-up. Since a lot of people fill out their NCAA brackets based on colors and/or predatory mascots, we should be fine.
I am still working on exactly how the cheesesteaks will win their match up and move on to the next round and ultimately crown a champion. We will be crowning a champion. I am trying to be inclusive, socially responsible and also help our local businesses. To be inclusive I have, (sorry for the redundancy but with social distancing, this is the best I can do at this time) by region, do a bio sheet on all of the cheesesteak contestants including a link to my video from when I reviewed each cheesesteak. I will also do videos breaking down each matchup. These will be done for each round. To be socially responsible, the first round will be done online. I will update everyone week to week on how winners will be picked. I hope to get a panel of judges out eating cheesesteaks at some point.
To help our local business, voters that include a picture of themselves with one/both of the cheesesteaks in the match-up will have a greater weight. Ie. Chuck from Chicago votes for B&N Market, no picture, 1 vote. Bobby from Ridley votes for B&N Market and attaches a picture of himself with a B&N Market Cheesesteak, 5 votes. Bobby posts a picture of himself with a B&N Market cheesesteak and a Coco’s cheesesteak (B&N Market vs Coco’s 1st round) 15 votes. Exact details are not complete but it will be something like this.
Last talking point and first action items. We have 4 ‘win and you are in’ cheesesteaks. The 1st matchup is in The Philadelphia Region for the 15 seed. Pat's vs. Geno's. What is a good Cheesesteak debate without Pat's vs. Geno's? They may not be in anyone’s top 16 for Philadelphia but they make for a good debate. The 2nd win and you are in is in The Delco Region. I started out with a no exotic Cheesesteak rule. When I got to Delco and saw the Tattoo Pig and without Condoleezza Rice's guidance I thought it would be fun to do a ‘win and you are in’ with the Tattooed Pig vs Wolf Superior sandwiches. They are in the same Shopping Center and Aston Eats is a pretty active Facebook page so I thought it made sense. Really I just wanted to say pig versus wolf.
More details to follow. Let’s have fun and virtually eat cheesesteaks alone together!!
