Eligible isn't the same as winning. And keep in mind that Duluth Grill started as an Embers.

Again, I'd like to point out that being listed as an option is not the same as winning. If a chain wins, then it deserves to win; but if it is so inherently inferior in your mind then you should realize it will not win. 

The nomination process was a little different for the breakfast poll, in that the initial post didn't throw out any options. There were many places that were never brought up as options, which was fine on the theory that if no one even wanted to mention those places as options then those places weren't going to get many votes. So it's not like Perkins was disqualified, it just wasn't mentioned.

In this case I started from the perspective of listing as many new places as I could think of, knowing I'd probably miss a few, but that there probably weren't enough new restaurants that we'd need to get too picky about what to exclude.

In the case of Gannucci's Italian Market, I think its many years of history as the Italian Village kind of take away from its newness, but it could certainly qualify for Most Improved Restaurant. 

I thought about the Wine Exchange, but with the food menu being so limited it's hard to imagine it winning a restaurant award.

I suppose if there is a popular push to include either I'd be open to it. If they were to get votes it would pretty much mean people think they qualify.

The best thing about this process is that three places across the bridge that have been heretofore ignored on PDD have been brought to light.

I'm not sure when the Kounty Quarthouse opened, but its Facebook page goes back to May 2011.

I first heard rave reviews about the Quarthouse last night, when I picked up food at Shorty's for the first time. And I haven't been to Citys 58th Street Diner yet. 

Another day of hashing out our list and we should be able to start voting tomorrow.

Ultimately the voting will sort it out, but it's nice to bicker about these little issues on the front end rather than in the aftermath. 

I think a two-year-old restaurant is still new in the sense that it is just old enough for most people to have eaten there multiple times. Of the list we have so far, I still haven't been to three of them, and there are six of them that I have only dined at one time. I think the average person voting will tend to be less adventurous than me, yet I would hope people will pick a winner based on more than one visit.

Take the oldest one on the list for example, Vitta Pizza. I have eaten there one time. I liked it, but I haven't been back yet. How many of you have been there five or more times? Some of you have, I'm sure, but the vast majority of Duluthians have been there zero to two times. It's new.

Is a restaurant suddenly new if it changes chefs or owners or moves across the street? No. It has changed, but it is not new. What if it just changes its name and leaves everything else the same? Sadly, yeah, I'd have to say that probably qualifies it, but no one is going to give out an award for that. It sounds a little backward that the simple cosmetic change of name could be considered more of a difference than real changes in leadership, cooking or atmosphere -- heck, I'm second-guessing myself in the middle of this sentence -- but I certainly think it would be laughable to call some 30-year-old restaurant "new" because the chef died and was replaced.

So there will be inclusions and omissions on ballot that can be argued, but ultimately the voters will decide what they like most and believe fits the category. And I can say with confidence that whatever ends up omitted never had a chance of winning. This is a pretty broadly cast net.

I was tempted to include those two -- Gannucci's more so than Z's -- because the arguments are indeed compelling, but there's a certain Occam's razorish sense I get that they don't belong and people would be confused by their inclusion, so it would have to be explained on the poll like ...

* Gannucci's Italian Market (because the name and ownership changed and the place was remodeled)
 
* Z's Deli (because it closed and reopened somewhere else)

But it seems important to include chains because either 1) a chain might win and that says something, or 2) a chain might lose and that says something. If we left them out, as Barrett noted earlier, it would tarnish the victory of the eventual winner.