Best Cliche yet Transcendent Literary Experience

Reading Robinson Jeffers’ Poetry on Carmel Beach

Best Coffee Alternative for Caffeine fiends

Cafe Guaraní’s Yerba Mate

Best Community Health Effort

VIDA Project

Best Distraction From Highway 1 Traffic

The Power Plant Coffee + Store

Best Dog-With-A-Bone

The Dog Park Four

Best Downtown Revitalization

Oldtown Salinas

Best Enhancement of North Fremont Boulevard

Monterey Cookhouse’s Patio

Best Example of Kicking a Can Down the Road

Monterey County Board of Supervisors’ noise ordinance

Best Excuse To Chat While Waiting For Produce

Big Sur Big Share

Best Food Joint Disguised By An Unassuming Name

Town Burger

Best Grocery Shopping Experience With A View

Pacific Grove Certified Farmers Market

Best Group Project

Homekey housing complex

Best Heroic Effort

Gennica Cochran’s Anti-Racist Intervention at Bernardus

Best Mini-Meal Disguised As Dessert

The Everything Cookie at Coast Big Sur

Best Monochromatic Salad

Crunchy Slaw at Babaloo Cuban Cafe

Best Pandemic Communications Strategy

City of Monterey

Best Pandemic Idea That Proved Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

P.G. Al Fresco

Best Place for a Drink With Sea Level Rise

Monterey Tides

Best Place to Dance With History

Monterey State Historic Park

Best Place to Engage in Fiery Literary Debate

Henry Miller Memorial Library

Best Place to Staycation

Monterey Bay Inn

Best Public Works Project

Point Pinos Coastal Trail

Best Reckoning With Racism

Students Speaking Up at Salinas Union High School District

Best Restaurant Hidden in Plain Sight

Eagle Chinese Restaurant

Best Solution to a Dark Winter’s Pandemic Depression

Poppy Hall Soups and Stews

Best Surge to Fame

Alka Joshi’s Best-Seller

Best Team Spirit

Monterey Bay Football Club

Best Transformation of a Former Parking Lot

Sand City Art Park

Best Way to Shrink Your Fashion Carbon Footprint

slowfiber