Since 1974, Bay Guardian—and now 48 Hills—readers have honored their favorite things about the Bay Area in our famous Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll. VOTE NOW HERE in our 51st Annual Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll and let’s make some noise for the Best Place on Earth! Voting ends OCTOBER 3, so tell all your friends! And join us at our Annual Community Gala on October 22 to party with the winners.
VOTE HERE NOW
After half a century, and in the spirit of collective power, we’ve slimmed down and refreshed the poll’s categories. Rather than pit wonderful individual performers and artists against one another, we decided to focus on local organizations, small businesses, and unique things that remind us how much we love San Francisco and the Bay.
We are hoping to bring back our GOLDIES Arts Awards next year, to give our local artists, musicians, performers, dancers, and other creators their proper due. (If you have won the category before, we crown you Best of the Bay in Perpetuity.)
That means a more shared and celebratory voting experience, and some exciting new categories like Best Night Market and Best Date Restaurant. There’s still the classics like Best Burrito, Best Drag Show, Best Bookstore, and Best Strip Club, too!
We see Best of the Bay as our chance to step back and appreciate al the good things going on here, rather than the mainstream media’s relentless focus on the bad news about the Bay Area. We are a community media organization, and the “community” part is the most important! Please support us and help keep our mission to save local independent media alive.
Check out our cover from 1974! Below is more history of Best of the Bay:
Over the past 51 years, 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!”
