It really did come to the final countdown — I promise that will be my only groan-worthy 80’s pun. More than 14,000 people took our final Best of Rochester Readers Poll — our second-highest number of respondents behind 2013’s record-setting turnout — and a few of the contests really came down to the wire.
A sincere thank you to everyone who voted in this year’s Best of Rochester Poll. Each year that it grows, we find that the survey and its responses become more representative of Rochester’s best qualities. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we agree with all of the choices, and we expect that you won’t either. Feel free to fly by rochestercitynewspaper.com and give us feedback on this year’s poll. We take that input seriously when working on the next year’s ballot.
A little bit about our process: City’s annual Best of Rochester Poll is a readers poll, meaning that all of the finalists and winners are chosen by you, our readers. City Newspaper operates solely as a tabulator and gatekeeper. The primary ballot changes every year, constructed from editorial criteria and reader suggestions, and no one outside of City sees the ballot until it goes online. Survey-takers then submit the people, places, and things they think are the best in each category.
City employees then get together to go through and count the thousands of responses to pick out the top 4 — or more, if a tie occurs — vote-getters in each category. We only disqualify votes if they’re for a national chain, don’t fit the category, or if they are clearly the result of ballot stuffing. The top 4 are put on the final ballot, readers vote, and the winners are kept secret until the Best of Rochester issue publishes.
City tells our readers what we think 51 issues out of the year. Our Best of Rochester Poll lets us know what you think is the best of the city.
In addition to the readers’ poll, this Best Of issue also contains a collection of our readers’ funnier answers to the primary ballot, as well as our annual Critics’ Picks. This year, Matt DeTurck, Christine Carrie Fien, Laura Rebecca Kenyon, Trevor Lewis, Adam Lubitow, Nicole Milano, Rebecca Rafferty, David Raymond, and Kate Stathis give their own opinions on some of the people, places, and things that really stand out in Rochester.
If you would like to sound off on our readers’ poll, have a good idea for a category, or have any feedback at all, comment on this article at rochestercitynewspaper.com, email us at themail@rochester-citynews.com or find us on Twitter (@roccitynews) and Facebook (facebook.com/CityNewspaper). — Jake Clapp
NOTE: Runners up listed in alphabetical order
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2014.
I would like to know if the voting for Best of Rochester is rigged, or if the People of Rochester just have low self esteem. The reason I ask is because I have lived here for six years, and for six years, Wegmans has won Best Place to Take an Out-of-Towner.
It is a grocery store.
Rochester is the epicenter of pivotal events that helped shape this country, from the American Revolution to the Underground Railroad to Women’s Suffrage to the Industrial Revolution. Your main cemetery likely has the most iconic historical figures in American History buried in it than anywhere else in Upstate NY. There is a Great Lake less than 10 miles north of us. The RPO is world renown. Rochester’s International Jazz Festival draws in people from all corners of the earth. The Hungerford has some of the best and innovative artists and artisans rotating through it. University of Rochester has the nation’s first educational program focusing exclusively on Optics. Both RIT and U of R are doing research on things and making innovations that cause not just ripples, but waves across the world of academia and science. That is just on Wednesday. Yet you expect me to believe that the readers of an independent newspaper, the residents who should have their fingers on the pulse of what makes Rochester great, think that the best they have to offer an expatriot from Baltimore is a grocery store?
Have you seen High Falls at dawn or dusk? Have you been on the roofs of any buildings on Water Street and been able to see BOTH the Brighton AND the City Independence Day fireworks simultaneously? Have you rode a bicycle up Arnold Park at the dawn of spring, right when all the trees are flowering and the wind is blowing the petals around the Zen Centre. I saw the best roots reggae show at Water Street Music Hall. It was a local(ish) band playing: Mosaic Foundation. Not once did I think, “Man these are all great! But you know what would be REALLY great? A place where I can buy a pound of chicken AND cheese!”
I have heard many defenses regarding my disappointment at Wegmans winning Best Place to Take an Out-of-Towner.
“But it has so much food, and it’s so fresh!”
It has lots of fresh food because it is a grocery store. It is probably the law that they sell fresh food. If it had lots of rotten food, then it would go out of business.
“I have not seen anything like it! I moved away from Rochester, and I have been all over the country, and I must say I miss Wegmans.”
I understand that moving from your home town will make you miss your local stores. That is just homesickness. I miss Superfresh in Baltimore. However, I don’t yearn for it or take my out-of-town friends there claiming it it the best thing about Baltimore.
“There is a bulk food/sushi/sandwiich/pizza/prepared food bar in it. Where else do you see that?”
Yes. In Albertsons (CA), Meijer (MI), Whole Foods (Everywhere), Superfresh (MD), Giant (MD), Kroger (NC)…I could go on. That there are bulk bins and specialty food bars in a place whose business is selling food is not unique or amazing.
“Whenever I bring my friends from [INSERT COUNTRY HERE], they are amazed!”
Your [INSERT COUNTRY HERE] friends are likely either amazed at the grandeur of American extravagance and abundance. Western European countries may have a Tesco or something similar, but not on the scale of US stores. Our stores are more spread out, but they still sell food. In other parts of the world, there simply is not a venue where one can get all types of food in one place. they may have a specific meat market, fish market, produce market, but not all under one roof or run by one entity. They would be just as wowed at an American pharmacy, where one can get both carcinogenic high fructose sodas and cigarettes and the prescribed medicine that are used to treat the effects of those items.
If when I came to town on 2008, someone blindfolded me and said they were going to take me to the best place to take an out-of-towner in the city and they took me to a grocery store, I would likely take a swing at them, and then I would immediately pack my things and move far, far away. Wegmans is a very good place to get food. However, for all reasons stated, I am convinced that either the vote for this category and Best Place to Meet Singles are rigged, or the residents of Rochester have low self esteem, or they are astonishingly oblivious of amazing things are happening in this city.
If Wegmans wins Best Drag Show next Year, I will KNOW that the contest is rigged.
Testify, Chris Thompson!