SOUTH PORTLAND — The Good Table restaurant in Cape Elizabeth won the Incredible Breakfast Cook-Off for the third year in a row today.

But this time, the restaurant’s mouth-watering creme-brulee French toast just squeaked through, winning by a meager four votes.

The Cook-Off is one of the most popular events of Maine Restaurant Week, which runs through Saturday. It’s a benefit for Preble Street, a nonprofit that provides services to low-income and homeless residents of the Portland area.

The event raised $4,000 and attracted a sell-out crowd of 300 to Sea Dog Brewing Company. Jim Britt of gBritt PR, organizer of the cook-off, said that this year, for the first time, some people offered individual donations on top of the cost of their ticket.

The cook-off is a chance for people to sample breakfast dishes from a variety of Maine restaurants, Nine restaurants participated this year, serving up everything from corned beef hash to a bacon-cheddar biscuit sandwich topped with a sunny-side up quail egg and balsamic tomato-pancetta jam.  People voted for their favorites by passing out Mardi Gras-style beaded necklaces.

There was more suspense than usual in the air this year as Lisa Kostopolous of The Good Table and Reed Gordon, the 15-year-old son of Sea Dog chef Christian Gordon, both racked up an enormous number of beads around their neck.

“Well deserved,” said Ron Bucknam of Seattle, as he gave a string of beads to Reed Gordon. “Best of the whole bunch.”

The Gordons’ entry was Sea Dog Pumpkin Ale Pancakes topped with cinnamon and brown sugar butter, served with maple syrup. The syrup was made by father and son from trees in their backyard in Saco.

Bucknam said he liked The Good Table’s creme brulee French toast as well, but found its sweetness “cloying.”

Tim Seekamp of Portland gave one of his necklaces to Kostopolous and one to Reed, splitting his votes.

“And it’s funny because I’m not really a sweets type of person,” Seekamp said. “I would never go out and order pancakes.”

The gap between first and second place was initially announced as five votes, which made the crowd gasp. Organizers later corrected themselves, saying the Good Table had won by an even narrower margin.

Kostopoulos indicated the close vote would keep her on her toes next year.

“That kid is coming after me,” she joked.