It’s that time! The 50th Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll is open through August 13—VOTE HERE NOW FOR YOUR FAVORITES, and tell us what you love! Best Burrito, Best Drag Performer, Best Dive Bar, Best Politician, Best Plumber… it’s all up to you! View last year’s winners here.
48 Hills + The Bay Guardian are incredibly pleased to announce the return of one of the biggest Bay Area traditions: Best of the Bay is back, baby, for its 50th annual installment, celebrating all that is Best about living in the best place on Earth.
Polls are open now for voting in all categories, with results of the Readers’ Poll announced in mid-August. Additionally, Best of the Bay Editors’ Picks will be announced throughout the summer. More than 20,000 people voted in last year’s poll! We can’t believe it’s been 50 years.
Over the past half-century, Best of the Bay readers and editors have bestowed tens of thousands of awards on superlative and essential Bay Area small businesses, arts and charitable organizations, activists and performers, and everything else imaginable. Each year’s Best of the Bay provides an inimitable snapshot of Bay Area life and a guide to the best it has to offer.
Here’s the origin story in a nutshell: In 1974, Esquire magazine asked the Bay Guardian for ideas for its Best of the USA issue, which led us to publish the original Best of the Bay—the first participatory city guide of its kind in the nation, which let our readers themselves tell us that they love. Made by the people of the Bay Area for the people of the Bay Area, it’s our annual opportunity to celebrate the people and places that make this city great. Fifty years on, we’re still going strong.
As Bay Guardian founder and Publisher Emeritus Bruce Brugmann puts it, “We were the first Best, and we’re still the best Best!”
