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Eat Drink Vote


The alarm went off while I was in REM sleep and I feel like I just washed my brain and I can’t do a thing with it. It’s a Monday. This can be forgiven.

Voting is open for Howard County Magazine’s “Howard County’s Best Restaurants 2023 contest.” You may vote daily through April 27th. You do not have to be a subscriber but you will have to give an email address. That email address will then be connected to a dedicated link which you will use each time you vote.

This is what I have called in the past a “click fest” - - it relies on the enthusiasm of voters to come back again and again for the duration of the voting period to click their favorites one more time. I exhorted you to submit nominations and it looks like you did. In fact, there are so many nominations in each category that I found it rather overwhelming to get through each one.

I’m wondering if in earlier years the staff at Howard Magazine received nominations and then winnowed them down to a certain number of ones that had been submitted the most. This feels different to me. On the other hand, maybe the restaurant scene in Columbia/HoCo is just exploding. 

I go to restaurants so seldom these days that most of my votes stem from long-time association rather than, say, just last week. And some categories I skipped over because I have no personal knowledge: best Happy Hour, for instance, or best sushi. And, of course: desserts. You are not obligated to vote in every category. 

Some personal favorites of mine, in no particular order:

Althea’s Almost Famous (Black-owned restaurant, Food Truck)

Applecore Bakes (Black-owned restaurant, Bakery)

Café Columbia (Breakfast)

Maiwand Kabab (Carry-out)

Pizzaman (Best Value)

Flavors of India (Indian Food)

I’m pretty sure you have favorites of your own. 

It means a lot to the businesses themselves to win and be able to share that honor in their promotional materials. Working in the food service industry is hard work with long hours. Have some favorites? Show them some click love.

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