Downtown Madness food challenge in Elgin for year 2

The second incarnation of the Elgin Downtown Neighborhood Association’s March Madness spinoff is promising to be more competitive than ever.

Downtown Madness: Downtown vs. Crosstown will give not only downtown Elgin restaurants and bars the chance to participate — like last year — but all city eateries.

“The purpose of Downtown Madness is to engage all of Elgin, not just the downtown,” said Jason Pawlowski, DNA promotions coordinator. “We decided we could capitalize on that friendly crosstown rivalry and find a way to put that out to the public.”

Starting March 7, two brackets of eight businesses will start to face off with downtown and crosstown restaurants competing against those in their own category. The championship round will be when the most popular downtown and crosstown establishments compete against each other for the traveling trophy.

Participating restaurants and bars offer up a signature dish or drink to compete and patrons vote online for the favorite in each matchup throughout the monthlong promotion.

New this year will be the Eat 16 ticket, where community members can get their cards punched at participating establishments for buying the signature dish or drink. Everyone who gets all 16 punches wins a T-shirt and a chance at bigger prizes.

People can also compete for $100 in DNA gift certificates by making bracket predictions for the competition.

Greg Shannon, owner of Elgin Public House, had the winning dish last year with pulled pork. He said this year he’ll offer up his turkey avocado BLT and try for a two-year winning streak.

“I hope we smoke everybody again,” Shannon said, laughing.

Pawlowski said the downtown vs. crosstown rivalry is perhaps strongest between Elgin Public House and In the Neighborhood Deli, whose pulled pork duked it out in a similar competition last year — where the deli won — but there is plenty of room for surprise.

“That’s the madness for you,” Pawlowski said. “You just never can tell.”

There is still space for interested establishments to sign up with a signature dish or drink. The deadline to confirm participation is Friday. Visit downtownelgin.com for details on promotions and voting throughout the event, which will wrap up with the trophy presentation April 4.