Middle Child crowned as the best Breakfast Sandwich in Philly

The results of our bracket are in. How did your favorite fare?

After two weeks of fierce debates and copious bracket submissions, we can confidently say that your favorite breakfast sandwich in Philly is “The Herschel” at Middle Child Clubhouse. Awards aren’t new for this sandwich, which features some of the lightest eggs known to man.

Middle Child ran away with 21.7% of the vote but it would be a mistake to not shout out those who followed. South Philly favorite Artisan Boulanger, Fishtown newcomer Gilda, and K’Far in Rittenhouse all received a respectable 9% or more of the vote.

1st

Middle Child

21.7%

2nd

Artisan Boulanger

11.6%

3rd

Gilda

9.4%

4th

K’Far

9.4%

5th

Shank’s Original

7.5%

Brackets won

Want to see how all 16 sandwiches others fared? Here’s a breakdown.

Tap onHover over a spot to see how far they were voted through each round

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Won of brackets

Paffuto

Mighty Bread

Artisan Boulanger

Cafe y Chocolate

Gilda

Fiore

Middle Child

Forin

The Breakfast Den

Shank’s Original

Rocco’s

K’Far

Cleo Bagels

Darnel’s Cakes

Baby’s Kusina

Baker Street Bread

SouthNorthCentralSouth South

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We received more feedback on this bracket than our previous hoagie and cheesesteak competitions combined.

The majority were over the omission of Rowhome Coffee’s breakfast sandwich in a pretzel. Inquirer reader Devan Spear described the pretzel as “the perfect vessel. Everything a bagel wants to be. And what could be more Philly?”

We will say, on the record, that this sandwich almost made it on the bracket.

We also received many calls to include Christie’s Deli, Bart’s Bagels, and even McDonald’s. In all, we received 28 other recommendations, maybe enough to warrant expanding future brackets to 32? Either way, we’ll consider them when we update our best breakfast sandwich guide later this year.

What is clear: The city is full of amazing breakfast sandwiches. And, though egg prices are high, there are surely more to come. So we beat on, eggs amidst the sandwich, borne back ceaselessly into breakfast.