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What's your favorite burger in Portland?
The answer probably says as much about you as it does about the burger—whether your head jumped straight to the drive-thru, the bar by your house, the brewery that makes your favorite IPA, or an upscale bistro.
No American food is more universal and egalitarian in spirit than the hamburger. It's a perfect harmony of meat, bun and toppings equally attainable to someone with a budget of $5 or $15.
But screw all that crap: Which burger is the best?
As NCAA March Madness turns every office in America into an illegal gambling parlor betting on kids who can't even drink yet, we've set up our own 64-deep tournament of Portland hamburgers.
It's burger against burger in a big, beefy, winner-take-all battle to pick the best burger in Portland.
Burger Madness pits 64 patties against each other in four regional brackets: Brewpub Burger, Burger Burger, Bar Burger and Bistro Burger. We seeded the burgers based on their reputations, just like in the NCAA Tournament. Then we ate them to see how they'd perform on the day in question, just like in the NCAA Tournament.
Each of our four writers ate his or her way through one regional bracket. We will reveal their picks round by round in the coming weeks until the best burger in Portland is crowned.
When it hits the Final Four, our critics' top picks face off against each other—and all four writers eat together. At the championship, we'll eat the top burgers again to make sure the best burger is actually the best.
Here's where you come in: We want you to complete your own brackets here or fill out the brackets in our paper, and email pictures of them to burger@wweek.com. You have until midnight Friday, March 3, to turn in your bracket. After that, we will start to reveal our writers' picks.
Whoever matches our bracket the closest will get $150 to spend on drinks and burgers at Bar Bar on North Mississippi Avenue. Everyone else will get a chance to show who they think should have won.
Like we said, that says as much about you as the burger.
Burger Madness Calendar
March 3:
Brackets due by midnight. Complete online at wweek.com/madness or send to burger@wweek.com.
March 4-5:
Round of 64. Results of regional faceoffs revealed Saturday and Sunday.
March 6-9:
Round of 32. Results of matchups revealed each day Monday through Thursday.
March 11-12:
The Sweet 16.
March 13-16:
The Elite Eight.
March 18-19:
The Final Four.
March 20:
Championship Monday.
Here's Where You Can Fill Out Your Burger Madness Bracket
The 16 Best Brewery Burgers in Portland
The 16 Best Classic Burgers in Portland