Best of Northern Nevada 2015

Every year when summer rolls around, the staffers of the RN&R look around the room, calculate the hours we're not going to spend with family and friends, contrast our levels of serotonin and caffeine, and ask, “Should we maybe scale back this year?”

No, never. This year's readers' poll is big as ever: 88,484 votes in 345 categories.

Congratulations to all you winners. Your achievement makes all our sleepless nights seem irrelevant. Your work, art and passions enhance our lives and the lives of everyone who lives in Northern Nevada. You've earned not only our congratulations but our gratitude.

This year, we chose to highlight the impact bicycles and the people who ride them have on our community. One of the great things about this popularity poll is that it doesn't just reiterate the things we already know about our community—after all, we've been doing the Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada for a couple of decades—but it introduces us to new stars, the up-and-comers who not only strive to be the best, but also work to make sure everyone knows it.

As has become our tradition, the illustrative art is the cornerstone of the presentation of our winners. This year, that honor went to local sculptor Anthony Arevalo, who created an original piece to represent each of our categories and one for the cover. We had never used sculptures to show off the best Reno has to offer, and we won't really know how they render in print until, like you, we're holding this newspaper in our hands, but we're excited to find out. Arevalo's work is amazing—read more about it in our 15 Minutes interview on page 67—and will be exhibited at our annual, invitation-only Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada party.

Finally, we would like to thank everyone who participated. Technical difficulties and the enormous bulk of categories weren't enough to discourage you. You went the distance to get the word out about your friends and favorites, to proudly proclaim this person or that enterprise the best of its kind in Northern Nevada, and the staff and winners would like to give each of you a plaque to honor your contribution. (But then we'd have to add a few more categories.)

—RN&R staff