143 Best of the Best winners receive their awards

DULUTH — The Best of the Best 2024 winners have been awarded. The winners of the annual community contest gathered at Bent Paddle Brewing Co. on Friday evening to receive their awards, an Engwall Flowers bouquet, an awards bag and certificate. KQDS provided a live broadcast of the Afternoon Trainwreck show, while Footprint Promotional snapped photos of all the winners with their awards.

"The celebration is an opportunity for our local community to gather and celebrate with each other," said Ali Carlson, director of advertising with the News Tribune. "It's a community-driven contest where people have the opportunity to nominate local businesses across 143 categories."

The top five businesses in each category with the most nominations move on to the voting round. According to Carlson, over 45,000 nominations from approximately 4,000 people were submitted during the nomination period of June 24-July 12. Then 108,000 votes were cast for the various categories by 5,800 people during the three-week voting period.

For some winners such as Allie Tibbetts, the award was a complete surprise. Tibbetts won best local author for her recently published pair of children's books which share stories from her Fond du Lac band's cultural history.

"It's exciting to see a lot of people from my community receiving awards here today," Tibbetts said. "I think it's great for my daughter to see it. She's my muse and appears in both books, so I wanted to bring her along today."

Tibbetts's 4-year-old daughter, Zaagi, accompanied her on stage to receive the award and flower bouquet.

"It's really humbling to be recognized, especially when I'm a newer known writer in the community," Tibbetts said. "But I'm grateful for the people who cast a vote for me."

Still in the world of literature, Zenith Bookstore received its seventh award for best bookstore. The store has received an award every year since it opened, something which owner Bob Dobrow credits to their "loyal customers, great staff, good neighbors and enthusiastic community."

"We try to create a friendly and community space," said Sarah Brown, Zenith's general manager. "It's a place people feel welcome to gather and discover some new books or old gems thanks to our staff recommendations."

Dobrow called the award a validation, a sentiment echoed by Best Coffee Shop award winners Evan Meyer and Aryana Buck of Empire Coffee.

"We've put in a lot of hard work over the last six years," Meyer said. "We received second place a few years back and we were delighted by that, but to move up to first is fantastic. We have to thank our community and customers for that."

Another award winner who felt validated by their award is Kendi Stroede of Stroede Travel, which received the best travel agency award. Stroede has been open for a little over a year ago and said the award helped her feel like she was "making the right move."

"I started my career in travel, working for Northwest Airlines before and during 9/11," Stroede said. "I wanted to get back to travel after working in insurance for several years. I already planned travel for my friends and family, it made sense to pursue it. The award just helps confirm it."

Best customer service winner Pat Malley of Duluthian Networks said he strives to provide excellent customer service in his work providing telephone and internet connection for businesses.

"I work in an industry that is devoid of customer service," Malley said. "I'm a kind of a one-man-band business, so it's cool to be recognized among the big boys. It's a low bar, but I made it."