Best of Boulder County 2016

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Andrew Simpich, assistant general manager for Mountain Sun.

It’s hard to believe, but the magazine you hold in your hands is Boulder Weekly’s 20th edition of Best of Boulder. That’s two decades of dedication from you, our loyal readers, pouring through businesses across Boulder County in our annual survey and choosing the best of the best. It’s tough work because Boulder is chock full of amazing stuff — amazing people, amazing places and amazing things. But year after year our readers have risen to the challenge to help us celebrate all those people, places and things that make Boulder County such a great place to live. You are the reason these great businesses continue to thrive; you are the reason we do Best of Boulder, and you are the reason it succeeds year after year after year. So before we share what you told us is the very best of Boulder this year, we want to take a moment to thank you for all that you do to help keep our community vibrant, whether that’s shopping locally or supporting this alternative weekly with your readership. We wouldn’t be putting out our 20th Best of Boulder if our readers didn’t believe in their community and in Boulder Weekly. Readers, we salute you.

As always, you’ve made great choices this year. Here’s a quick refresher on how the Best of Boulder survey works. First, the survey is open to voters through the month of March. With the exception of boxes marked as “Staff Pics” — which are selected by us, often to highlight great businesses in an area that doesn’t have its own category — all of the winners in all of the categories of this publication have been determined solely by our readers’ votes. Period. Boulder Weekly employees are allowed one vote in each category just like everyone else, and we had no idea what the vote total was until the survey officially closed.

This is exactly why winning Best of Boulder has become the most coveted award in the region. It really is a measure of the quality of a business from the perspective of tens of thousands of members of the community. BW isn’t saying these businesses are great — although we probably think they are — it’s our readers who are saying that they’re great. This is why we list five winners in each category. Making it onto a Best of Boulder winners’ list in any category is an impressive accomplishment of which any business should be proud. Congratulations, winners. Your businesses help to make Boulder County an amazing place to call home. 

Check out each section for this year’s winners: FoodDrinkFitness & HealthEntertainment & Culture and Retail.