The votes have been cast and the champs in The Herald News bracket to crown Fall River's favorite restaurant has been decided.
FALL RIVER — The votes have been cast and the champs in The Herald News bracket to crown Fall River's favorite restaurant has been decided.
With over 8,000 bracket votes cast, voters have selected Mesa 21 as the city's favorite restaurant, beating out Sagres by a 560-481 margin.
It was a slightly ironic match up considering both restaurants came back from devastating fires that caused the restaurants to be shut down for various amounts of time. Both reopened in 2015.
So how did we get here?
Mesa 21 emerged from the Grinders region and blazed a path that included defeating all Portuguese restaurants.
In the first round Mesa 21 defeated the Fall River Grill by a 233 to 153 margin.
They followed up that win with a 28-17 win over the TA restaurant and a third round victory over Calderas Restaurant by a 113-89 margin.
In the final four, Mesa 21 took on another Portuguese restaurant challenger in the form of Caravela, winning by a 254 to 102 margin.
For Sagres, coming out of the Coney Island Hot Dog region, the path included defeating both bakeries known for their Bedford Street grinder rivalry.
In the first round, Sagres trounced Marisqueira Azores Restaurant 308 to 62. The second round gave Sagres a 26 to 16 victory over the St. James.
Then came the grinders. A 92-65 third round victory came against Marzilli's. That was followed up by a 124-78 win over Marcucci's in the final four match up.
So for now Mesa 21 holds the bragging rights, but really with the great restaurants across Fall River the diners are the real winners.
View the full bracket below to see how your favorite restaurant fared.
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