Our first annual Best Of Fairfield poll ended at midnight on New Year’s Eve.  Over 6,000 votes were cast by our readers and we are happy to announce the following winners.

Best Coffee – Cafe Paradiso

Java artisan Cafe Paradiso won our poll with 48% of the votes. In second place was Revelations with 24% and apparently a fair amount of our readers perform their morning coffee ritual at McDonalds, which received 7% of the votes. Check out Cafe Paradiso’s new location on the square, just west of George’s.

Best Musical Act – Porno Galactica

For two months The Jefferson County Green Band was running away with Best Musical Act in Fairfield Iowa. But a few days before polls closed on New Year’s Eve, brothers Philip Rabalais and Dominic Rabalais, also know as local electronic band Porno Galactica, launched a campaign on Facebook to get enough votes (35%) to take the lead from The Jefferson County Green Band (25%). If you don’t start dancing by the time Porno Galactica’s song Sea Best Released is over; then you just might be dead.

Best Restaurant – Revelations

How far they have come! Revelations, once a tiny book store serving coffee, is now considered by 39% of voters in our poll to be the best restaurant in Fairfield. In second place was Top of the Rock Grill with 20% of the vote.  Did you know you can order online at Revelations?

Best Civic Leader – Ed Malloy

Ed Malloy handily won our reader’s choice for Best Civic Leader with 52% of the vote. Those are some shoes to fill! Dave Neff came in second with 20% of the vote.

Best Entrepeneur – Francis Thicke

Francis Thicke of Radiance Dairy and candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, narrowly won with 35% of the votes, over Eric Schwartz of Cambridge (33%). Francis Thicke shows through the power of example how to build and operate a successful, sustainable agriculture business and his next step is to take that example to the capitol of Iowa.

Best Lunchtime Buffet – Noodle House

More votes were cast for this category than any other. With the lead changing daily between Noodle House (25%) and Arandas Mexican Buffet (23%). It makes sense to me – if I were to look back at the hundreds of buffet lunches I’ve eaten out since moving to Fairfield it would probably come down to a toss up between the Coconut Chicken at Noodle House and the Taco bar at Arandas. FYI – you can get Noodle House’s coconut chicken on Thursday’s.

Best Teacher – Kevin Hosbond

Fairfield High School’s English teacher Kevin Hosbond received 30% of the votes in this category. I don’t have the pleasure of knowing Kevin personally, but I’ve seen him recently dressed as the Mad Hatter and have had the pleasure of working with former students of his who give him the highest praise.

Best Art Gallery – Icon Gallery

The Icon Gallery ran away with this award by receiving 55% of the votes. The Icon Gallery continues to bring the quality and presentation of a big city art gallery to Fairfield. I often feel like I am transported to a space in Chicago or New York when I walk through their doors.

Best Spot for a Playdate – Chautauqua Park

My daughter agrees with the our readers response (31%) that Chautauqua Park is the best spot for a playdate. With multiple playgrounds, lots of room to run and trees to climb; it’s hard to beat Chautauqua Park whether your 4 or 40 years old.

Most notable “other” vote – Pizza Ranch

Pizza Ranch received several hundred votes between several categories, including Best Spot for Playdate, Best Lunchtime Buffet, Best Restaurant and Best Art Gallery.

Congratulations to the winners of our Best of Fairfield 2009 awards.  We’ll be featuring each of the winners on Fairfield Voice and providing them with plaques or store window stickers to show off their award.  If you have any feedback on how we can run our 2010 awards, please let us know.