Best of Phoenix: How Voting Works & How to Win

Phoenix runs two very different 'best of' programs, and mixing them up wastes a campaign

AZ Big Media asks Arizona businesses one question statewide: who would you recommend? Phoenix New Times asks something else entirely, city by city, category by category: what's the best taco truck, tattoo shop, dispensary, or divorce lawyer in Phoenix this year? Best of Phoenix is the reader-facing, consumer-category version, not the B2B survey.

A taco truck and a wealth management firm both technically operate in Phoenix. Only one of them belongs on this reader-facing ballot in a category people actually browse for. Confusing the two costs a campaign its whole nomination window; see the Ranking Arizona guide if the business in question is B2B rather than consumer-facing.

Roughly 100 categories, six sections — where a nomination actually lands

Arts. Entertainment. Food & Drink. Shopping. Services. Cannabis. Those are the confirmed section groupings Phoenix New Times runs its readers' poll across, and each holds a long list of specific categories underneath. Food & Drink alone can span a dozen or more slots, tacos, happy hour, brunch, brewery, before a nominee even reaches the ballot.

The category label is the whole game

A cocktail bar that also does small-plates food can plausibly enter under Food & Drink or under a bar-specific slot, and the wrong guess sends nominations to a category readers weren't searching. Match the label to how a regular customer already describes the business, not how the owner would pitch it in a meeting.

For a general primer on matching an entry to the right ballot slot, see getting more votes online. Restaurants specifically have their own playbook worth a look at restaurant vote campaigns.

The calendar: nominate first, then vote August 1 to September 9

Plan around the close date, not the open date. The recent cycle ran public voting from August 1 through September 9,with results out in late September, and the nomination round that feeds the ballot happens earlier in the year.

A business used to a single-day local vote can badly underestimate a six-week voting window. Six weeks means the reminder cadence matters more than the initial push. One announcement in week one, a nudge mid-window, and a closing push in the final days beats one loud post and silence.

A metro-wide ballot still gets won by neighborhood networks

Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Mesa, Chandler, Glendale, Tucson, Flagstaff. Its categories run largely metro-wide, meaning a Scottsdale boutique and a south Phoenix boutique land in the same Shopping category by default. But the customer base behind each nomination is anything but uniform.

An entertainment venue in Tempe should not run the same reminder as a services firm in Chandler. One leans on a Friday-night crowd already scrolling; the other needs a quieter, list-based nudge to people who already trust the business. For award-style campaigns generally, award vote campaigns covers ground that overlaps here, and for categories outside food specifically, fan-poll vote campaigns and giveaway and contest promotion both apply depending on the category shape.

Nomination, finalist, winner: three different claims on roughly 100 category ballots

Phoenix New Times doesn't release per-nominee tallies at any stage of this poll. It narrows open nominations down to a finalist field, then names one winner per category once the ballot closes, and that's the extent of what gets made public across all roughly 100 slots in Arts, Entertainment, Food & Drink, Shopping, Services, and Cannabis. Screenshots and reseller claims promising "guaranteed placement" circulate every cycle regardless; none of it changes what the organizer actually publishes.

A nomination is not a win. A finalist spot is not a win. The only claim that holds up is a specific category-and-year result Phoenix New Times has published, "Best of Phoenix 2026, Best Taco" being the defensible version against a bare "Phoenix's best." No promotion service can manufacture a placement across these categories that the organizer hasn't confirmed in that exact form. What a campaign can control is putting an accurate reminder, correct category, correct business name, correct link, in front of people in Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, or wherever the customer base actually sits, during the six-week window the poll runs each year. See how online contest votes work for the general mechanics a metro readers' poll like this one builds on. The full Arizona contest hub lists every other statewide and local program tracked here.