It’s March Madness time, baby!  The Wandering Foodie, the guy who ate at 93 NYC restaurants in one month and who went to 24 restaurants and bars in 24 hours, is at it again, and this time he has replicated the 64-team NCAA bracket-style tournament using NYC-area restaurants.  And it’s up to you to decide the restaurant champ of NYC.  He asked four NYC food writers, including us, to select restaurants in four different categories.  We were responsible for choosing the 16 restaurants that form the Michelin Manhattan bracket.  NYC Food Guy picked the Manhattan Cheap Eats bracket, Edible Brooklyn came up with the Brooklyn bracket and Joe DiStefano of Edible’s World Fare blog picked the Queens bracket.  The full restaurant bracket is now set and you can go here to to fill one out for a chance to win prizes and to vote for your favorite spots.  Grand prize is $250 from Groupon and there are several other prizes from places like Burger Joint, 15 East, Toqueville and more.  Your votes will determine the winners of each round.  Picks are due on March 20 and are limited to the first 500 participants, and 1st Round votes will be tallied on March 22.  Our analysis of the 1st Round Michelin Manhattan match-ups follow…

A Look at the Michelin Manhattan First Round Match-Ups:

The Spotted Pig (it may be March Madness, but the Championship Game is played in April) vs. Marc Forgione (they’re on the Marc from beyond the arc)

Momofuku Ko (strong team, though very few people on the bench) vs. Jean-Georges (Coach not always there, but team usually stays composed)

Marea (Coach White’s team has lots of raw talent) vs. Minetta Tavern (very strong defense, tough for anyone to get inside)

WD-50 (if you don’t watch out, they can quickly go molecular on you) vs. Corton (Nieporent and Liebrandt pack a pretty strong 1-2 punch)

Eleven Madison Park (best team from the strongest conference) vs. SHO Shaun Hergatt (get to the rim with flashy moves, including a great SHO fake)

Daniel (4 stars in the starting lineup) vs.  Jewel Bako (underrated, but has lots of depth)

Blue Hill (most home-grown talent in the field) vs. Le Bernardin (a boat-load of talent on the hardwood)

Per Se (games often go into overtime, but they usually come out on top) vs.  Casa Mono (Pau Gasol has shown that the Spaniards can play some ball)

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