Finally, the Chronicle may have gotten the Best Of Austin issue right. This is our fourth Best of Austin; the first two years we ran a ballot, compiled the results, but couldn’t figure out just exactly how to present them. We wanted to offer annotated results, nor just ad copy but serious mini-essays about the things our various writers really loved, and sometimes there was a conflict between our choices and the readers. The third year we simply offered an annotated list authored by the staff without a Readers Poll. Something was still missing. This year, we did both.

READERS CHOICES – presents results in some 214 categories voted on by our readers. Thee awards are printed in list form at the start of each section. Many thanks to Jennifer Hill for doing the bulk of the vote compilation.

CHRONICLE PICKS – the Chronicle staff, editors, and writers created and annotated another 221 categories, operating very independently of the ballot or past polls. … There’s not much overlap between the two lists, but there is some, and there are places where the readers chose one thing and the writers chose another. Don’t think of it as a disagreement, think of it as two separate recommendations.

There are just so many great things out there to choose from that we look upon this whole process as a multi-volume work. This list is to supplement last year’s, to add another few hundred to our list of favorite places, not to supersede it. So if you were in last year’s list and didn’t make it this year, we don’t hate you, we just wanted to give someone else a shot.

Jennifer Scoville again led the organizational charge, but everyone pitched in. Here it is. We know there is much more we could have included. As always, we welcome and look forward to hearing your comments.