March Madness is kicking off across Iowa. Sixteen Iowa restaurants are now in the brackets for a full-on competition to find Iowa’s best pulled pork sandwich. The month-long contest sponsored by the Iowa Pork Producers Association mimics the March Madness college basketball tournament craze and will follow the same narrowing process that gets restaurants to the “Elite 8” and “Final Four.”

However, in this case, it will be fans who determine the winner as Iowans vote on the restaurant in the competition which they think serves the best pulled pork sandwich. Voting deadlines will be March 18, March 21, March 25 and March 28. The winner will be announced March 29.

Restaurants in the Sweet 16 are:

IPPA Consumer Outreach director Kelsey Byrnes initially invited the organization’s Facebook followers during the first week of March to nominate the Iowa restaurant they feel has the best pulled pork sandwich and 1,150 people responded. Pork fans nominated 80 restaurants and Byrnes then selected the top two vote-getters in each of IPPA’s eight districts to fill out the “Sweet 16” bracket.

Fans will be able to vote on both IPPA’s website and by following the organization’s Facebook page.

“We hold this social media contest to attract new pork fans and remind people that there are restaurants in all parts of Iowa that offer really great barbecue pork,” Byrnes says.

Along with bragging rights, the winning restaurant will receive $250 and a “Pulled Pork Madness” plaque.

The inaugural winner of Pulled Pork Madness in 2018 was Moo’s BBQ in Newton.

Source: Iowa Pork Producers Association, which is solely responsible for the information provided, and wholly owns the information. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.