Every summer, we conduct our annual Best of Arlington reader survey. Thousands of you vote and name your favorite people, places and businesses in Arlington, McLean and Falls Church—across 60+ categories. This year’s winners and top vote getters span a wide range, from the best new restaurant and best place for craft cocktails to the best orthopedic surgeon and best architect. Our story includes a few of our editors’ favorites, too.
One of the upsides of the survey results is that you can see who won, as well as the runners-up in each category. You don’t have to wade through conflicting online reviews and ratings that often end up being more confusing than helpful. Instead, we are proud to provide you with a useful list of our communities’ favorites. I hope you will hold on to the issue and use it as a resource throughout the year.
Shifting from a celebratory topic to a sad and alarming one, our editorial staff decided, after reading news reports of local teen drug overdoses, to examine the dangers of opioids—fentanyl in particular—in a comprehensive way. In “Deadliest Dose,” Helen Partridge interviews the experts, sifts through the data and shares the stories of families blindsided by tragedy. According to the DEA, fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin, and a tiny amount (2 milligrams) is enough to kill a person. When I was in high school, the pot we tried was like smoking mulch—basically harmless. Today, a counterfeit pill that looks exactly like a prescription drug may contain enough fentanyl to end a life. As a father of three daughters (ages 20, 18 and 16), I am terrified that typical teenage boundary testing could kill them. Please read the story and have candid conversations with your kids.
It’s fun to see people you know in the magazine. Which is why I was delighted to read about chef David Guas and his new restaurant venture in Familiar Faces (p. 22), and to get meteorologist Ryan Miller’s insights on why snow days are endangered in Big Picture (p. 20). If you don’t know David, he’s the owner of the popular Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar & Eatery in Courthouse. I saw him most recently at a fundraising event where we both rappelled down the side of a hotel for charity. (Check that one off the bucket list.) Ryan is an IB science teacher at Washington-Liberty and moonlights as a member of NBC Storm Team4. Our oldest daughter, Caroline, took Ryan’s class and decided to study environmental science in college as a result. He’s a terrific teacher. I hope you enjoy reading about David and Ryan.
From all of us at Arlington Magazine, we wish you a joyous holiday season and a happy, healthy 2024. Thank you for reading the magazine and bringing it into your home. We hope you enjoy our stories and find them useful. And don’t forget to visit ArlingtonMagazine.com for new stories throughout the week.
As always, we welcome your feedback. Please send your story ideas and letters to the editor to jenny.sullivan@arlingtonmagazine.com. I can be reached at greg.hamilton@arlingtonmagazine.com. We’d love to hear from you.