Have you ever scrolled through online restaurant reviews and felt a sense of whiplash, followed by total uncertainty about which place to choose? One user review will assign five stars and excitedly proclaim, “We had an amazing experience! You have to go!” The next review will flog the same establishment for its perceived failings—“The waiter was nasty, the food was inedible, I think we saw a rat!”—and award only a sad single star.
This dilemma extends beyond restaurants to many services and service providers, including doctors, dentists, home remodelers and more. How can you, the consumer, make an informed choice when the reviews can be so inconsistent? What if you had a resource that showed your friends’, neighbors’ and fellow community members’ favorite people, places and businesses all in one location?
We have great news for you. This wonderful resource is called Arlington Magazine’s Best of Arlington awards—and you will find the results in this issue! With more than 60 categories at your fingertips, you will discover awesome new restaurants; the best places for tacos, Thai food and pizza; leading doctors and dentists; talented and accomplished architects, remodelers and real estate agents; private schools, tutoring services and summer camps that can enrich your children’s lives; and fun places to experience live music and live theater.
Every August, thousands of you participate in our annual Best of Arlington survey. We change the categories each year to keep things new and interesting and to increase the number of people, places and businesses that are highlighted and recognized. Our editors weigh in with some of their favorites, too! I hope you will turn to the Best of Arlington survey results throughout the year to help inform your decisions about where to eat, shop, relax, learn and more. Each year’s survey results (2013-2022) can be found at arlingtonmagazine.com.
Bucking the great resignation trend, Arlington Magazine has been on a hiring spree the past few months. I would like to welcome and introduce four new colleagues to our team. Julie Rosenbaum joined us in June, and she is responsible for finance and circulation (magazine subscriptions). Danny Ryan started in July. He handles magazine and digital advertising production and operations. Eliza Tebo Berkon came on board in September as our lead digital writer and web producer. Bette Canter, our new assistant editor, joined us in October. She focuses on editing digital content. And we’re not done! In the coming months, we’re hoping to hire an additional advertising sales account executive. The job description can be found at arlingtonmagazine.com/job-openings/. Please check it out.
I hope you enjoy the January/February Best of Arlington issue. If you have story ideas or letters to the editor, please send them to jenny.sullivan@arlingtonmagazine.com. If you have thoughts on how we’re doing or new things you’d like to see from us, email me at greg.hamilton@arlingtonmagazine.com. Have a wonderful holiday and best wishes for a happy, healthy 2022!
Greg Hamilton, Publisher