At first there were 16, and then there were four, and now there is one: Santos Party House, you are the grand champion of the new-bars "bracketology" tournament that we modeled (so loosely) on the March Madness basketball brackets. Let's take a look at the path of your victory.
Round 1: Up against formidable opponent The Bell House in the "Best new venue for live music" category, Santos managed a decisive 78% to 22% win.
Round 2: Up against the Bowery Electric in the "Best new party bar" category, Santos won in a 95% to 5% landslide.
Round 3: In its toughest battle, in the "Best new rowdy bar" category, Santos went head to head with the Village Pourhouse Upper West Side, against which it managed a 62% to 38% victory.
Round 4: In the finals, Santos pulled off one of its most decisive victories, crushing pretty little Raines Law Room 85% to 15%.
Toasts to the winner, to all the Santos fans who were spurred by Andrew WK's blog posts linking to our polls, and especially to all the 15 runners up (because we tried to pick the 16 most notable bar openings of the past year).
See you next year.
Photo by Sam Horine, from the Dre Day photogallery taken at Santos on Feb. 18
