Italian food is serious business in Central New York, where the options to dine are rivaled only by the level of loyalty and rivalry diners have to their restaurant of choice. We were searching for our Final Four--the four finalists that our judges would visit and rate and you, the reader, would vote on to determine the readers' choice winner.

We tallied all the nominations for 65 Italian restaurants across Onondaga, Oneida, Oswego, Cayuga, Seneca, Cortland, Tompkins and Madison counties and...we have a tie. What's an Italian dinner without leftovers? So our Final Four is now a Fab Five. The five finalists that received the most nominations have advanced to the finals.