The Garage's Cinderella Story Continues as Sweet 16 Announced in the 2015 Burger Cup

Shunyi's very own biker bar The Garage continued its storybook romp through the brackets with a victory over heavily-favored Luga's Villa as the Round of 32 in the Beijinger's 2015 Burger Cup came to a close at noon today.

The 12th-seeded Garage is the only Cinderella story left in the bout, as none of the 16 remaining venues are ranked lower than fifth in their bracket. The top three seeds in each bracket remain alive, while each of our number four seeds fell to intense competition in the last round.

Keep your favorite burger place's winning streak alive by casting your ballot in the Sweet 16 here now: www.thebeijinger.com/2015Burgercup – you have until Monday at noon (Sep 7) to vote in this round.

In the closest matches of last round, Frost Coffee, Cocktails & Dining fought off a challenge by six-seed Katchup, squeaking past by a mere handful of votes. Stalwart Great Leap Brewing, a Final Four veteran from last year, also narrowly triumphed over newcomer Jing-A. Meanwhile, two-seed Plan B just barely survived a knockout by another up-and-comer, Yuppie & Yummy, who was seeded 10th.

Sixteen of Beijing's best burgers remain in the competition. Now things are getting personal ... and the choices are getting harder.

Sanlitun neighbors The Local and Q Mex go head-to-head in one of Bracket B's remaining matches; meanwhile, Frost and The Big Smoke, whose front doors are separated by a single alley, go bun-to-bun in Bracket D. These two matches present voters the rare opportunity to visit both in one evening: Bring a friend or two and split your order to try them head-to-head before you vote.

Here are the official matchups in the Sweet 16:

Bracket A
Home Plate BBQ (#1) vs Flamme (#5)
Let's Burger (#2) vs Lily's American Diner (#3)

Bracket B
Blue Frog (#1) vs Tim's Texas Bar-B-Q (#5)
The Local (#2) vs Q Mex (#3)

Bracket C
Slow Boat Brewery (#1) vs 4corners (#5)
Plan B (#2) vs Union Bar and Grille (#3)

Bracket D
Great Leap Brewing (#1) vs The Garage (#12)
The Big Smoke (#2) vs Frost Coffee, Cocktails and Dining (#3)

And here's your updated wall poster (click for a larger version):

For those of you planning ahead, here is the rest of the competition schedule:

The Elite Eight closes at noon, Thu, Sep 10.
The Final Four opens at 4pm, Thu, Sep 10; Closes at noon, Mon, Sep 14.
The Finals open at 4pm, Mon, Sep 14; close at noon, Wed, Sep 16.

The grand champion and final seedings of the 2015 Burger Cup will be announced shortly afterward

Finally, we also asked you to rank the competitors that did not make it into the Round of 32 this year, to serve as initial seedings for next year's Cup. Here's the rankings, #33 to #62:

33. Biteapitta
34. The Filling Station
35. The Cut, Fairmont Beijing
36. Morton's of Chicago
37. Ramo
38. Paddy O'Shea's
39. The Den
40. Pinotage
41. The Bookworm
42. The Irish Volunteer
43. Beer Mania
44. Grandma's Kitchen
45. Domain, East Hotel
46. Hungry Horse
47. Windy City
48. Grinders
49. Bistrot B
50. Jamaica Blue
51. Frank's Place
52. Eudora Station
53. Laker's
54. Peter's Tex-Mex
55. Rumi
56. Waspark
57. The Old Bike Café
58. Sunbake & Brew, V-Continent Beijing Parkview Wuzhou Hotel
59. Burger Me
60. Park Side Bar & Grill
61. The Smokeyard
62. Twilight

Add this to our list generated in the previous round, and we have the full rankings from No. 32 to the end:

63. Burger Break
64. Helen's Café
65. Park Square
66. Burger Counter
67. XL Bar
68. Angry Burger
69. Craft, Crowne Plaza Lido
70. Pebbles Courtyard
71. Food Studio, Renaissance Beijing Wangfujing Hotel
72. The Corner
73. One East
74. The Kitchen Table, W Beijing Chang'an
75. The Golden Era 50's Diner
76. Nasca Café
77. Uncle Sam's
78. Must Guette
79. Little Britain
80. Steak Exchange, InterContinental Hotel
81. Fuel, Langham Place
82. MRL
83. Pentalounge, Penta Hotel

Images: the Beijinger