The Ace Annual Best of Lexington issue is hitting stands now. Each section: the best Arts and Entertainment; the best Lexington Food and Drink; Goods; the best Lexington Services and Professionals; Lexington Local Color, People and Places; and Lexington Media/Social Media/New Media will each have their own separate blog post. Additional blogs profiling many of the winners in more depth will continue daily throughout the World Equestrian Games.
WELCOME to the Ace Best of Lexington!
“I myself am finding the whole thing rather intoxicating. Our little town the site of an international sports event like this. You have no idea how much wrangling it took to get them here. I lobbied the coordinators for weeks. It was a lot of ouzo and karaoke.”
Welcome to the annual Ace Best of Lexington Readers’ Poll issue — where you will meet some old favorites and some new faces as well.
It’s been a long time since the upsets of the 2003 Best of Lexington when Applebee’s won best happy hour and Starbucks won best coffee. Most of the categories on the ballot now specify “non-chain,” though Kevin Faris wrote in that year’s welcome, “I cannot badmouth them too much. I have a liberal arts degree and may need a job some day.”
There might be an endless war going on out there between McDonald’s and Wendy’s, or Pizza Hut vs Dominos, we’ll just trust the marketplace to sort that out on its own.
Some “classic” categories are retired this year to make room for new ones to rotate in — best veterinarian and best mechanic always generate a frenzy of votes, for example — but Chevy Chase Small Animal and Lowell’s (respectively) have won so often that it was time to let the readers vote for something new, like a horse, or a cupcake. Or Coach Cal for best…taqueria? OK. That category is retired too. (Though he still swept a few others.)
By the time you read this, The World Equestrian Games will be just one week away. Best Horsemania Horse was the first category in this year’s ballot — a category more heavily contested than almost any other. The winner in the print ballot was Henry, by artist Mary Wathen, a tribute to the late artist Henry Faulkner. Fierce contenders were Brian Endicott’s horse, “Bourbon Barrel” along with “Running Around in Circles” by Blake Eames. Also popular with the Ace Readers was Duane Keaton’s “Digital Horse” at Main and Mill.
This was the first year Ace Readers got to vote in a category checking in on Foursquare, and the winning entry there with the most check-ins was Chris Huestis’s Silver Rose.
(Expect to see a lot of Ace on FourSquare as we tag this year’s winners.)
Because of the World Equestrian Games, Ace will extend Best of Lex this year to an entire month of celebrating two decades of the Best of Lexington with a series of the 17 Best Daily Blogs in Lexington kicking off on September 24.
In these blogs, we’ll highlight some of this year’s winners, past year’s winners, and general favorites of the Ace Readers. One day might be a profile of the late artist Henry Faulkner, another might highlight some of the chefs who are participating in the James Beard Celebrity Chef Series at the World Equestrian Games.
We are enjoying introducing Lexington to natives and visitors alike as we notice the blog traffic increasing every day from Germany to Australia.
For now, enjoy this very special Best of Lex edition. We hope to see you Friday at the Best of Lexington Celebration at the Barrel House, and online, everyday here on the blog, via twitter , and Ace on Facebook.
You might also like:
Ace Best of Lexington: Arts and Entertainment
Ace Best of Lexington: Eat and Drink
Ace Best of Lexington: The Goods
Ace Best of Lexington: Services and Professionals
Ace Best of Lexington: Local Color, People and Places
Ace Best of Lexington: New Media, Media, Social Media
The Ace Best of Lexington Celebration
The 17 Best Daily Blogs in Lexington, Kentucky
The James Beard Celebrity Chef Menus at the World Equestrian Games
UK Professor Erik Reece on Lexington in Garden and Gun Magazine
