For years, the Issaquah Reporter staff conducted an online Best of Issaquah reader poll on the most favorite businesses, restaurants, nonprofits, services, public officials, venues and many other categories that feature in a resident of Issaquah’s day to day living.

The annual poll was one of the more popular contests we ran — and for a good reason. Best of Issaquah engaged local residents to pick their favorite business, venue, nonprofit or person in the contest/poll’s nearly 70 categories. It became a fun showdown among local businesses and movers and shakers for annual bragging rights. In an ergonomic way, the Best of Issaquah results were and are a quick snapshot of our diverse, vibrant and growing community. It got huge audience engagement. And the business community loved it.

The coveted contest results were also a good way to gauge grass-roots buzz for the best non-profit, the best school, bakery, senior living facility, grocery, bank, the best in healthcare, elected officials, just about every category of cuisine, the best tattoo parlor and more. Public servants and business people with a lot of friends, family and local connections typically get a good showing, but newcomers and surprise entrants can often shine too.

While many businesses are still coping with the economic and staffing fallout from these challenging COVID times, I took my own informal poll about renewing the Best of Issaquah contest.

As I connected with local readers and Issaquah business leaders and retailers, I was inspired by their great feedback and comments to keep the positive event going.

And so, the people have spoken — and by popular demand, Best of Issaquah is back. We’ll have diverse categories within our groupings of Best Community Service, Health and Fitness, Everything Pets, Professional Services, Restaurants/Food, venues for great Shopping and many more.

Who will be nominated? Who will be picked by Issaquah residents? And who will win? You be the judge!

This year we will have a fun and competitive “nominations round” through Aug. 27 and then the open “voting round” through Oct. 15. The Best of Issaquah Winners and Finalists will be announced Oct. 22.

Watch for the Best of Issaquah nominations to go live on Aug. 2 at https://vote.issaquahreporter.com.

If you are a local business, nonprofit or group interested in learning more about the Best of Issaquah, please contact me via email.

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William Shaw is General Manager of Sound Publishing’s Eastside Media Group and is a longtime Issaquah resident.