According to locals

Editorial | May 21st, 2015

According to locals, what restaurant serves the best pizza in town? And who’s the best tattoo artist, best drag queen, best stylist and best chef? Who makes the finest crafts, the best hit music or tastiest Mexican cuisine?

Thousands voted and on Thursday HPR will reveal the businesses and individuals, nominated in 50 different categories, that received the popular vote in HPR’s Best of the Best contest.

Everyone is welcome to come to our award show at The Avalon West, the former location of The Hub. Erik Block, last year’s Best Comedian winner, will host and The Carluster Crumplee Orchestra will provide swinging gypsy tunes. HPR’s Best of the Best Awards night is truly an exceptional opportunity to network with some of the finest people in the community. These nominees, more than 200 of them, are popular within our local community for a reason: They are great at what they do. And one of the many reasons we put on this contest is to have a community celebration of sorts. It’s an opportunity for camaraderie, for honoring people’s hard work -- and for passing out hugs and high fives, of course.

The new venue for the awards show will be ideal for presentation viewing, music listening, cocktail drinking and socializing. The Avalon West, formerly known as The Hub, is an absolutely stunning new facility. We think attendees will feel right at home.

Yes, in some cases, the winners of the Best of the Best awards may not be the absolute best. This is the nature of popularity contests and we accept and acknowledge that. Popularity is not the “be all end all” indicator of success or exceptionalism. Also, some folks know how to campaign harder than others. So on Thursday, as cliche as it sounds, everyone’s a winner. Nominees are winners and supporting attendees are winners. And we thank you in advance for your presence, your sportsmanship and your support.

Finally, thank you to everyone who voted! And an even bigger thank you to everyone who wrote out suggestions in our ballot -- yes, we’ll be reading all of them.

We’ll see you at The Avalon!

Congrats, graduates!

Big kudos to all 2015 grads and upcoming grads from all our high schools and colleges, including M-State, Concordia, North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Davies High School, South High School and North High School. We wish you all the very best!

As a newspaper editor, I have some sage advice for those looking for jobs: Be persistent. If you don’t hear back the first time, try again. And again and again and again.

Congrats, graduates!

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