Yet another one-vote finish. Never before have we seen a bracket conclude with the drama America’s Backbone has provided. This country still takes some things seriously, folks. Those things? Heart-stopping foods delivered with heartwarming service.
Culver’s took down Waffle House in the championship, triumphing by a score of 34 votes to 33. On Instagram, the margin was 31–25 in Culver’s favor. With the Google Form, there was an 8–3 lean towards Waffle House. The result? ButterBurgers narrowly take the day.
We’ve already promised America’s Backbone II, coming next year (we left out Perkins, so we have to do this again). To stoke your anticipation, we’ve decided that this year’s People’s Rankings will dictate which chains from the 2023 bracket make the 2024 cut. Chains 1–32 on the rankings below—a measure of the voting margin in each matchup—will automatically qualify for America’s Backbone II. The remaining 32 competitors will either have to take a year off or make the field the old-fashioned way. (One of those two will be the rule. We haven’t decided which yet. We have a whole year to let that keep us up at night. Maybe we’ll say 16 of next year’s entries have to be new to the brackets? Let us think about it.)
Without further ado, then, The People’s Rankings, where Buc-ee’s rises to take the final 1–seed vacated by underperforming Steak ‘n Shake:
| Rank | Chain | Score |
| 1 | Culver’s | 100.0 |
| 2 | Waffle House | 98.5 |
| 3 | Buc-ee’s | 96.7 |
| 4 | In-N-Out | 82.4 |
| 5 | Portillo’s | 77.4 |
| 6 | Casey’s General Store | 71.6 |
| 7 | Whataburger | 67.9 |
| 8 | Publix | 67.5 |
| 9 | Steak ‘n Shake | 65.5 |
| 10 | Caribou Coffee | 63.4 |
| 11 | Jack in the Box | 57.7 |
| 12 | Wawa | 46.1 |
| 13 | QuikTrip | 46.0 |
| 14 | Cook Out | 45.7 |
| 15 | Kum & Go | 43.7 |
| 16 | Godfather’s Pizza | 42.1 |
| 17 | Bojangles | 42.1 |
| 18 | H-E-B | 41.6 |
| 19 | Hy-Vee | 39.0 |
| 20 | Tim Hortons | 38.8 |
| 21 | P. Terry’s | 38.6 |
| 22 | Kohr Bros. | 38.3 |
| 23 | Kwik Trip | 38.2 |
| 24 | Menards | 36.7 |
| 25 | Zaxby’s | 36.2 |
| 26 | Bob Evans | 35.6 |
| 27 | Eat’n Park | 33.4 |
| 28 | Del Taco | 32.1 |
| 29 | Lion’s Den | 31.4 |
| 30 | Scheels | 30.9 |
| 31 | Piggly Wiggly | 30.4 |
| 32 | Big Boy | 28.2 |
| 33 | Sheetz | 27.2 |
| 34 | Taco John’s | 26.2 |
| 35 | Friendly’s | 25.8 |
| 36 | Roy Rogers | 24.2 |
| 37 | Jason’s Deli | 24.1 |
| 38 | Fuddruckers | 23.6 |
| 39 | Village Inn | 23.3 |
| 40 | White Castle | 22.7 |
| 41 | Turkey Hill | 22.5 |
| 42 | Dutch Bros. | 21.7 |
| 43 | Wegmans | 21.3 |
| 44 | Meijer | 20.4 |
| 45 | Kelly’s | 20.3 |
| 46 | Chuy’s | 19.7 |
| 47 | Rita’s | 19.4 |
| 48 | Lion’s Choice | 17.9 |
| 49 | Royal Farms | 16.7 |
| 50 | Skyline Chili | 16.2 |
| 51 | Hattie B’s Hot Chicken | 14.4 |
| 52 | Fazoli’s | 14.2 |
| 53 | Braum’s | 11.0 |
| 54 | Pizza Ranch | 9.9 |
| 55 | Original Tommy’s | 9.5 |
| 56 | Runza | 8.7 |
| 57 | Bertucci’s | 8.2 |
| 58 | Swensons | 7.7 |
| 59 | McMenamins | 6.2 |
| 60 | Xi’an Famous Foods | 6.1 |
| 61 | Luby’s | 4.6 |
| 62 | Biscuitville | 4.6 |
| 63 | D’Angelo | 2.0 |
| 64 | Honey Dew Donuts | 0.0 |
See you next year (just kidding please keep visiting the site I promise we’ll have another bracket soon and really if you like this stuff you’ll probably like the other things we do too please please please keep clicking we need your clicks).
