Congrats to all the Food & Drink winners

Big congratulations to everyone who secured a Petaluma People's Choice award in this year’s Best Food & Drink category. The list includes Best Dessert, Best Burrito, Best Thai Cuisine – you name it – in a city with an abundance of all those things.

For those who missed the list in last week’s newspaper (it is printed again in this week’s paper), along with the Best Businesses and Best Professionals & Specialists categories, Petaluma’s Food & Drink winners are yet again a who’s who of local culinary marvels.

Keeping in mind that awards are determined based on popular vote, it is always interesting to see what Petalumans are enjoying these days. The most coveted of the awards in the Food & Drink category is Best New Restaurant, as you can only qualify for this once, and this year’s winner is Easy Rider. Another newcomer to the Petaluma food and drink scene this past year was Crooked Goat Brewing, which took home the award for Best Place for Beer.

And right next door to them – and offering their guests food ordering and delivery right to their table – Acme Burger nabbed the Best Burger award, which is quite a feat in a town so in love with burgers. Acme also secured the Best Take-Out Food award. We do have experience with their food as take-out, and along with being great at the restaurant, it also travels well, and even their fried chicken breast sandwich and fish and chips make it home warm and crispy. In fact, if there were fried chicken sandwich and fish and chips awards, Acme might make a run at those too.

Also big fans of Mexican cuisine, Petalumans chose El Roy’s for Best Burrito and Best Cheap Eats, and their El Roy’s Express Mex for Best Food Truck, while Mi Pueblo won the Best Mexican Cuisine award. (It seems like maybe there should be a Best Taco award too, as we’ve got quite a few great choices spread across our city.) Petalumans certainly love our pizzas too and even with all the great choices, my favorite, Old Chicago Pizza, earned the award for Best Pizza, yet again.

I don’t know if anyone is keeping track, but I would imagine that at this point no restaurant has taken home more People’s Choice awards than Seared has, including this year’s awards for Best American/California Cuisine, Best Appetizers, Best Cocktails, and Best Happy Hour.

Sadly, Green String Farms shut down earlier this year and so did not repeat their string of wins for Best Farm, although Tara Firma Farms is certainly a worthy recipient of this year’s award.

For the full list, check your print paper or visit www.petaluma360.com and click the “2023 People’s Choice” link in the “Find it Fast” banner.

Email houston@avantlard.com with questions or comments.