Two diner owners in Boston area, firmly locked in a battle for breakfast dominance, have come to blows, reports the Boston Globe.

The war has been going on since one owner moved to a different space that he used to rent from the other owner. That guy then stole the first guy’s chef and opened another restaurant in the space. The relationship has been hostile ever since, but now it has apparently come to blows.

Not surprisingly, Moccia and Mirza disagree on who instigated the brawl that sent a crowd into the streets prying the two apart. Moccia, 38, of Medford, said he was walking by Mirza’s store one Saturday afternoon earlier this month when his rival, without provocation, threatened to spit at Moccia’s parents.

“He said, I’m [going to] spit on your mother and father,’’ said Moccia, mimicking Mirza’s accent. “I said, ‘Don’t do it. If you do it, [I will] hurt you.’ ’’ He said Mirza then spat on him and lunged at him. Moccia said he fought back.

“I’m a human being,’’ Moccia said, sitting in his cafe in his habitual black shirt. “I don’t deserve to be spat on.’’

Mirza, 47, of Somerville, said Moccia was piping mad that Mirza had pulled out of the Travel Channel’s breakfast wars cook-off program, canceling the show. Mirza said he never said anything about Moccia’s parents and never spat on his rival.

“He just came out of nowhere and beat me up,’’ Mirza said of Moccia. Standing outside his home recently, he showed a blackened right eye, scrapes on his forehead, and lifted his sweater to point to a bruise on his back. “He had no right to punch someone in the face,’’ he said. “You are just not allowed to hit people.

Hmmm.

So, Boston-area-people is the food good?

Commenter RandomHookup says, “In the Boston area, we don’t mess around. Our brunch places aren’t fancy-schmancy. No, they feature the next-door-neighbor restaurant owners getting into fist fights out front

…there are lines out of door for these 2 (and the one neighboring diner that’s remained neutral) every weekend. The animosity is real. ”

A hard-boiled rivalry [Boston]

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