Next Dinner Location to be Decided Soon

Hey council members and Tournament enthusiasts, we need to decide what the next location will be. My vote is for someplace in Raleigh. Everyone else, please contact your fellow council members to pick.

Restaurant Inspection Scores

In case anyone is wondering, here are the restaurant ratings for all Durham eateries:
Durham Restaurants

Shiki Sushi is a 95%, down from 96.5%.

It is go time!!!

Shiki Sushi

Tonight is the first night of scoring for the tournament, and up first is one of the council's favorites - Shiki Sushi. But with a few bonus participants involved, how will the scoring shake out? We won't find that out for months, but everyone is excited to get this tournament off the ground.

Voting scandal my Arse!

Voting scandal is hardly the word to describe what occurred tonight when it was decided that Armadillo Grill was unworthy of advancement over Trilusa's. The bi-laws clearly state that the empress of the region shall have the tie braking vote and that actually, non-committee members should not be allow to vote! Voting SCANDAL! Ha!! How about some good old stickin to the rule books? If it weren't for my stringent adherence to the rules this whole tournament would go to hell in a handbasket.

I would also like to remind Mike the red is the new purple!

The Tournament Begins

Today the council (along with a few extraneous participants) gathered to whittle down the Field of 64 to Sweet 16. It was a tough battle at times, but we managed to come away with 16 restaurants. Some of them were real surprises, others were just what we expected. Before we get into the details, here's the Sweet 16:

Durham Region
Bocci
Nikos Taverna
Maggiano's
Shiki Sushi

Chapel Hill/Carrboro Region
Trilusa
Cosmic Cantina
Spanky's
Elmo's

Cary/Apex Region
Mythos Mediterranean Bistro
Red Hot & Blue
Biaggi's
Havana Grill

Raleigh Region
Azitra
Duck & Dumpling
Amedeo's
Lilly's Pizza

Ok, so you look at this list and might think, "Really?" for some of the restaurants, but rest assured, there were 48 restaurants that we picked that didn't make it that far. It all came down to match ups and votes. In the Chapel Hill/Carrboro region, Elmo's beat out Breadman's and Spice Street in an upset to make it to the Sweet 16. And Cosmic Cantina beat out The Loop and barely squeaked by Pepper's Pizza to make it though. The controversial moment came when 16th seed Armadillo Grill nearly beat Trilusa to advance. But a last minute voting scandal left Armadillo in the dust and Trilusa moved on. Trilusa almost lost out again in the next round to the Carolina Brewery. Spanky's barely beat Jujube and The Lantern to advance, but not after a vicious "So's Your Face" attack on Libby. It was enough to convince her to vote Spanky's through.

The first restaurant to be scored will be Shiki Sushi this week. More details to follow from other council members.

Initial Scoring Criteria

Official Scorecard of the Triangle Restaurant Tournament

Please rate on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. Every field must have a rating. Blank fields will disqualify entire scorecard and subject scorer to dousing with super soaker. Decimals accepted, but fractions will be disqualified as they are deemed too risky by the Director of Extraneous Participation and Enforcement and Risk Factors.

Food Quality (taste, texture, and enjoyability):

Presentation of Food:

Comfort of Restaurant (temperature, seat quality, table height, waiting area quality, noise level, random screaming children, etc):

Ambiance (lighting, music, decorations, smell, bathroom quality and cleanliness):

Portion Size:

Nutritional Variety of Menu:

Cost Efficiency:

Service (wait staff, bar staff and host staff):

Parking (Availability, safety of parking lot):

Menu Individuality:

Business Hours:

Wait Time for Food:

Ease of Getting a Table:

Restaurant Individuality


Comments:

Tournament By Laws

Triangle Restaurant Tournament Council

Bylaws

The tournament council will be made up of four members: Libby L., Elio E., Marie S., and Mike S. Each member holds an office with certain responsibilities.

Elio E. – Vice President of Numbers and Stuff (also known as Tournament Statistician) – maintains all records of scores in a detailed Excel spreadsheet, constructs bracket.

Marie S. – Secretary of Secretarial Stuff – writes stuff down, maintains binder of Extraneous participant scorecards in a location protected from local canines

Libby L. – Director of Extraneous Participation and Enforcement and Risk Factors – directs extraneous participants to adhere to bylaws (use of fun noodle force permitted if necessary), ensure minimal random factors

Mike S. – Manager of Secrecy Shrouding and Masterisk – we don’t know what he does because he is shrouded in secrecy.

Matt S. – Chief Extraneous Participant Consultant – is consulted on all matters of extraneous participant stuff

Council members must be present of all super-important, high-priority meetings. Failure to attend the meetings may result in ridicule on the weekly blog.

All counting votes shall be cast by these members. If a member is absent for a vote, a suitable proxy may be designated, if agreed upon by the other three members of the council. Voting is defined as decision making involving structuring rules and regulations of the tournament. It is not to be confused with scoring, in which restaurants are rated on various aspects of the dining experience.

The season shall begin on August 4. A winter break will be taken in December and January between the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8. The tournament will start back up in February.

Prior to the beginning of the tournament, a draft will take place. To this draft, each member of the council will bring 4 restaurant choices from each of 4 Regions: Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Cary/Apex. In addition, each council member will bring 2 alternates from each region in the case of someone else entering one of their primary selections.

Only one national chain restaurant may be chosen per person per region. However, a national chain restaurant in not required from each region. A national chain is defined as a chain of restaurants with the same name that are located across the country. All fast food restaurants are disqualified.

All restaurants from one region will be placed in a 16-restaurant bracket. Each bracket will be narrowed down to the top 4 by vote for match-ups. Each member of the council will be Emperor or Empress of one region. Should there be a tie, the Emperor or Empress of that region is the tie breaker. Ruler of the region is determined by ------

Once the top 4 restaurants from each region are determined, a final bracket will be constructed with 4 regions, each with 4 restaurants. Each week, the members of the council will participate in a council dinner at one of the restaurants in the bracket. After dining, each member will score the restaurant on the Official Triangle Restaurant Tournament Scorecard (See addendum A). All scorecards must be kept in an Official Tournament Binder.

Scoring is open to other participants of the Tournament, however, voting on official Tournament business is restricted to Council members. When an extraneous participant scores a restaurant, their scorecard is to be placed in an envelope, and sealed with a signature over the seal. The envelope will then be placed in the Extraneous Participant Binder.

Once all 16 restaurants have been scored, the council will convene to determine which move on to the Elite 8. Each council member must keep his or her scores secret until the council meeting. At that time, all binders must be turned in to the Tournament Statistician, who will tally the scores and present a final report to the full council at the end of the council meeting.

For each restaurant, the scores for each subcategory of the scorecard will be averaged. The total will be determined and recorded, along with subcategory scores. Total scores will be compared and restaurants with the highest 2 scores in each region will proceed.

The Final Four, Championship 2, and Supreme Restaurant Ruler of the Triangle will be determined in the same way.

During the challenge, council members are required to blog about their dining experience each week. Smack talk is expected. Council members with inadequate smack talk will be disciplined by the Enforcer. Failure to blog will result in beating with a fun noodle by Enforcer

RESTAURANT QUALIFICATIONS

Certain restaurants will require extraneous participants. These restaurants will be agreed upon by the Council and labeled as Asterisk Restaurants and will be under the jurisdiction of the Masterisk. However, the Enforcer has the right to beat the Masterisk with the fun noodle if he is out of line.

Any restaurant that is excessively expensive (all entrees over $20) will be excluded.