

Thirty years of magic at The Black Market
The Black Market Boutique claims its own corner of the city boldly. The rainbow paint outside the Grafton Street shop can be seen from afar, drawing curious eyes to its doorstep. Inside, the boutique overflows with jewellery, incense, home decor and funky clothing sourced from around the world. It’s a downtown icon for shoppers of…
Halifax is not Canada’s Black Mecca
Growing up in Toronto we all thought of Nova Scotia as Canada’s Black Mecca. My parents, like so many others, were Black immigrants born either in Africa or the Caribbean. They moved to Canada during the first Trudeau era—moving to Canada’s largest city promised economic prosperity, safety and inclusion. However, our elders had no idea…
Mary’s African Cuisine is making moves
Mary’s African Cuisine 1701 Barrington Street Two months ago Mary Nkrumah, the entrepreneur behind Seaport Farmers’ Market staple Mary’s African Cuisine, took over ownership of Baba Ghanouj Cafe. Those who’ve eaten there since then might not have noticed—falafel, shawarma and eggs benny are still served. It was only two weeks ago that the green Baba…
Season ticket drive begins for Halifax’s non-existent CFL team
Atlantic Canadians who want to vote for the name of Halifax’s new CFL team will first need to fork over a $50 deposit on season tickets for a team that may never exist. Maritime Football Limited Partnership and CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie held a news conference Wednesday at Saint Mary’s University announcing the ticket drive and…
SCIENCE MATTERS: Human behaviour is at the root of orca plight
News about orca mother Tahlequah carrying her dead newborn for 17 days through the Salish Sea this summer was heartbreaking, and rightfully captured the world’s attention. It highlighted the plight of one of Canada’s most endangered marine mammals. The southern resident killer whale (orca) population has dropped by 25 percent in two decades. Just 74…
25 for 25: episode 2013
Former finance minister Graham Steele is with us as we dissect the NDP government’s collapse back in the 2013 provincial election. Then, award-winning journalist Selena Ross chronicles the story of Rehtaeh Parsons and her time working with a dream team of reporters and editors at the Herald. All this plus Halifax baristas unionize, Joachim Stroink celebrates…
To the white guy who yelled at me from his BMW near Dal
Go back to Oakville.—Tired of entitled men
Check yourself out of there
To all Halifax dum-dums: The self check-out is not for people who have a full cart of groceries. It is not for people who take five minutes to scan a single carton of milk. Yes, I know the other lines are long, but there’s a reason self check out exists: It’s for people who have…
Dear left-turning drivers at Windsor and Young Streets
When inching ever forward in attempts to sneak through traffic to turn left onto Young Street, try not to take up the whole intersection. There are other people trying to turn left through here onto Bayers Road, and you’re blocking our lanes. Stay on your side of the yellow line!—Left-turning drivers at Windsor Street and…
The scent of a man is not a fabricated man-fume
You men smell like fools with your cologne/perfume sprayed all over you. Insted of smelling like girly boys, try taking a shower or washing your clothes. Over the past year, we’ve been getting an influx of female perfume wearers. I can smell your dirty clothes along with your stinky perfume. You smell like prostitutes. I…
Shout out to m’lady and her noble steed
Shout out to the woman who, while driving on the Bedford highway Wednesday morning around 8:20am, saw me running to my bus stop and asked if I was going downtown and offered me a drive. I so appreciate the offer as it seemed so genuine and kind. I wanted to say yes, but my instinct…
Stoke’s back in
Wanted to send a warm-and-fuzzy this week to my local skateboard shop. I was inclined to write this before, but my latest call-in decided it. Thanks for bringing back the love, good tips and buzz to the shop. And to think I was about to boycott you!—sliding and gliding into snow season all happy ‘n’…
The Hate U Give
To the four older white ladies who not only talked through the movie The Hate U Give, but laughed during the final emotional climax: You suck. This is a movie about an (all too farmiliar) police shooting of an unarmed black teenager. Yes, the movie falls into some teen drama tropes, but the stressful scenes…
Dear home wrecker
Yes, I saw the texts you sent him. You didn’t care that he is a father of three with the youngest being a month old. You just wanted my husband and you didn’t care about the family you were trying to destroy for your own pleasure. You messed with the wrong girl because I’m not…
The friendless ‘city’
After years away, I knew Halifax would’ve barely changed, with the exception that every great (and driven) friend of mine left, too. Outside of university clubs, there are no friendly socials in this city (unless you like book clubs, gaming or have an interest in local art). Who has ever seen such a bare meet-up…
Move with the times, men!
To all you guys out there who follow in daddy’s footsteps when going to get your hair cut: Aren’t you tired of the same old barber style your dad once wore? Move with the times and find a stylist that knows how to make you look good. It’s even worse when women feel they have…
Transit bitch
I have a job interview on Friday. If I owned a car, I would be able to get there in nine minutes, because it’s only five and a half kilometres away. If I walked, it’d take an hour and one minute. If—or when—I have to rely on Halifax Transit, I’m looking at 35 to 52…
Here are your 2018 Music Nova Scotia Award winners
Couldn’t be more excited to win our first @musicnovascotia award for Group Recording of the Year! Hillsburn has always been very much a group effort, so even though Paul couldn’t make it in person to accept the award tonight, he was there in this awkward photo. ♥️ Thanks, everyone! A post shared by HILLSBURN (@hillsburn)…
WE Day Atlantic not happening
For the first time since 2013, there will be no WE Day in Halifax. The Canadian non-profit confirms it has no plans to host a WE Day Atlantic this year, even with $65,000 in public funding available from the city. “Thank you for reaching out,” said WE Day’s press team via email. “WE Day Atlantic…
Police launch investigation into mishandling of evidence
Halifax Regional Police have launched an internal investigation into four of their own employees over the mishandling of evidence. A release from HRP says the investigation comes in response to information that materials in HRP’s Exhibit and Property department were improperly handled. Chief Jean-Michel Blais said an investigation was immediately initiated after the allegations were…
Have simply the best weekend with these Sure Things
From the annual Best of Halifax Ball to Kamp’s continued run at Neptune to Julie Nesrallah’s dramatic spin on classical music, there’s lots to gold-worthy weekend ideas below! Best of Halifax Ball Thursday It’s the creme de la creme of celebrations as the winners from our annual Best of Halifax Reader’s Choice Awards (which you’ll…
Best Hairstylist
Gold Winner Lindsay Algee, Tidal Hair Lounge Silver Winner Ashley Cornelius, The Head Shop Bronze Winner Malyssa Burns, Kara’s Urban Day Spa, Portland Street “There’s so much talent in this city when it comes to hair,” Lindsay Algee says when she answers the phone. “I know this from referring people to clients when I’m too…
Best Cocktails
Gold Winner Lot Six Bar & Restaurant Silver Winner The Watch That Ends the Night Bronze Winner Antojo Tacos + Tequila The theory at Lot Six is that if the staff is excited about the drinks they’re making, the customers will probably be excited too, which is why Sarah Amyotte says the interactive component of…
Best Member Of The Provincial Legislature
Gold Winner Gary Burrill Silver Winner Brendan Maguire Bronze Winner Lenore Zann Last year when he won this award, Gary Burrill had just barely met the cutoff. A late-spring provincial election finally earned the NDP leader at seat at Province House. A repeat win now, after an actual year carrying his own weight for the…
Best Theatre Production
Gold Winner Mamma Mia, Neptune Theatre Silver Winner Alice in Wonderland, Shakespeare by the Sea Bronze Winner Heritage Minutes Live, Scum Squad Productions You made Mamma Mia!—the ABBA musical about a paternity scandal—the biggest success in Neptune Theatre’s history, which goes back to 1963, by the way. “Thirty-seven thousand people saw that show,” says Neptune’s…
Best Cover Artist / Band
Gold Winner The Mellotones Silver Winner Signal Hill Bronze Winner Shameless “We get a lot of great opportunities to make a living as a professional band in Halifax,” says Jeffrey Mosher, singer and saxophonist in The Mellotones. “That keeps us motivated, as do our levels of traditional R&B and funk music. The players in the…
Best Pop Artist / Band
Gold Winner Neon Dreams Silver Winner Port Cities Bronze Winner Rich Aucoin “We draw from so much,” says Adrian Morris, drummer for Top 40 juggernaut Neon Dreams. “At one point we were a hip hop group. Frank [Kadillac] draws from his father with reggae and dancehall. Me and Matt [Gats] draw from punk and rock.…
Best Wine List
Gold Winner Obladee, A Wine Bar Silver Winner Little Oak Bronze Winner The Watch That Ends The Night Heather Rankin may have a stack of these awards praising her wine list, but this win isn’t lost on the owner of the ambient downtown bar, Obladee. “I think anybody who’s in hospitality and service are naturally…
Best Gym
Gold Winner Evolve Fitness Silver Winner ProEdge Sports Conditioning Bronze Winner 360 Fit This year Evolve moved from its cramped north end home to a huge new space on Strawberry Hill Street, plus opened a second location in Bedford. Co-owner Matt Benvie didn’t envision this kind of growth when he started the gym nine years…
Best Fish & Chips
Gold Winner John’s Lunch Silver Winner Fredie’s Fantastic Fish House Bronze Winner Evan’s Fresh Seafoods The deep-fried goodness of John’s Lunch has won this award since 2011, and while co-owner Kathy Hilchey is proud to brag about what makes the fish and chips so damn good, she swears it’s the experience that makes this spot…
Best Breakfast
Gold Winner Ardmore Tea Room Silver Winner The Coastal Bronze Winner Mary’s Place What makes a good breakfast? Salty or sweet? Should pancakes come served with syrups or meats? Do you like your eggs scrambled, poached, fried or over-easy? Is it gonna be bacon, ham or bologna? These waffles and omelettes are anything but routine.…
Best Indian Restaurant
Gold Winner Dhaba Casual Fine Dining Silver Winner Curry Village Bronze Winner A Taste of India The truest sign that Dhaba Casual Fine Dining is killing it up in Bayers Lake is that there’s always something new happening. From opening a rapidly expanding sweets and spices shop next-door, to celebrating seven years in business this…
Best Tailor
Gold Winner Mic Mac Tailors Silver Winner Sherzad’s Tailoring Shop Bronze Winner Clayton Park Tailor Mufit Halef, owner of Mic Mac Tailors, is ecstatic when he hears the news. Even though this is his shop’s sixth gold win, Halef says it’s something you never get tired of hearing. Plaques from past triumphs hang proudly in…
Best Pet Supply Store
Gold Winner Pet Valu, Halifax Silver Winner Jollytails Inc. Bronze Winner Planet Paws You may have heard of Tone the greyhound–AKA Best Dog Ever. Tone has no concept of what Pet Valu is, but if he did, he would surely love it. It’s where we buy his sweet potato treats, which help keep him from…
Best Staycation Spot
Gold Winner Lunenburg Silver Winner White Point Beach Resort Bronze Winner Peggys Cove Mayor Rachel Bailey isn’t exactly shocked to hear people love staycationing in her town. All the time she has people telling her about the special feeling they have visiting Halifax’s south shore neighbour. “They feel immediately connected to the community,” she says.…
Best Manicure / Pedicure
Gold Winner Spirit Spa, downtown Silver Winner Remedy Facial Bar & Spa Bronze Winner The Ten Spot “We’re known for our nail services,” Jocelyn Melanson, director of human resources and talent development at Spirit Spa says. “We have very deluxe pedicures that are thorough and use luxe products. The service runs for 75 minutes.” That…
Best Place To Play Pool
Gold Winner Dooly’s, Portland Street Silver Winner Locas Billiards Bronze Winner Oasis The first Dooly’s opened in Moncton in 1993, just a couple of months before this newspaper began publishing. Since then, the New Brunswick billiards juggernaut has opened 59 locations across seven provinces. So happy joint 25th anniversary to you and us, Dooly’s! What…
Best New Business
Gold Winner Vandal Doughnuts Silver Winner Glitter Bean Cafe Bronze Winner Apartment 3 Espresso Bar Nicole Tufts had a dream. A dream about opening up a doughnut shop, to be exact. “I woke up and told my partner about it. Three months later, Vandal was open,” says the co-owner of the sweet little bakery you’ve…
Best Pizza Slice
Gold Winner Salvatore’s Pizzaiolo Trattoria Silver Winner Yeah Yeahs Pizza Bronze Winner Pizza Girls, downtown “The team here really knocks me off my feet and the customers are obviously amazing. I’m sort of just a bystander between the two watching it happen,” says Salvatore’s owner Chris Cuddihy. He says the slices are so amazing for…
Best DJ
Gold Winner DJ IV Silver Winner Zora the Sultan Bronze Winner Pineo & loeb DJ IV AKA Brian Pelrine calls in from the London, Ontario stop of Classified’s national tour. While he waits to get on a new band bus, he discusses the things he thinks contributed to his nearly annual win as Halifax’s Best…
Best Producer
Gold Winner Joel Plaskett Silver Winner Classified Bronze Winner Erin Costello Joel Plaskett opened The New Scotland Yard in Dartmouth in 2013, and the likes of Christina Martin, Old Man Luedecke and Gypsophilia have made magic there. The man himself has been making his own records since the late ’90s, including his latest with his…
Best Fashion Designer
Gold Winner Katrina Tuttle Silver Winner Lisa Drader Murphy Bronze Winner Maggie MacCormick Since shopping for a wedding dress is one of those big milestone moments, Katrina Tuttle wants every aspect of the experience to be beautiful: “The dress starts to come alive with a watercolour sketch, so it makes memories—the bride can remember when…
Best Massage Therapist
Gold Winner Courtney Nickerson, Agricola Holistic Health Silver Winner Lisa McNeil, Ironstone Strength & Conditioning Bronze Winner Kelly Wadden, East Coast Wellness Clinic When Courtney Nickerson manages to squeeze a call back to The Coast amidst back-to-back appointments, she already has answers at the ready for why she’s nabbed gold, yet again. “I’m able to…
Best Food Delivery
Gold Winner Salvatore’s Pizzaiolo Trattoria Silver Winner Cha Baa Thai Restaurant, downtown Bronze Winner Freeman’s Little New York, Quinpool The best piece of advice Chris Cuddihy can offer hungry people ordering delivery from Salvatore’s is call early and book it in advance. “It’s not that we’re slow, it’s that we’re busy,” says the restaurant’s owner…
Best Brunch
Gold Winner Mic Mac Bar & Grill Silver Winner EDNA Bronze Winner The Coastal Joël Chiasson estimates that on any given Saturday upwards of 1,500 people have a bite to eat at Waverley’s Mic Mac Bar & Grill—a huge chunk of whom are stopping by for its classic breakfast-lunch hybrid menu, where filet mignon and…
Best Italian Restaurant
Gold Winner Ristorante a Mano Silver Winner Rinaldo’s Italian American Specialities Bronze Winner Il Mercato Ristorante a Mano has a good thing going, says GM Patrick Gaetz. “We offer great traditional pastas, a cozy atmosphere—it’s probably the whole package, the consistency. We don’t make a lot changes because we know why change something that isn’t…
Best Tattoo / Piercing Joint
Gold Winner Adept Tattoos & Body Piercing Studio, Halifax Silver Winner Heirloom Tattoo Bronze Winner Oceanic Art You want to have a good impression of the people who are going to pierce or permanently ink your body. And for the seventh year in a row, readers chose Adept’s Halifax location as their go-to tattoo/piercing spot.…
Best Record Store
Gold Winner Taz Records, Halifax Silver Winner Taz Records, Dartmouth Bronze Winner Obsolete Records “You can’t come into a record store and leave unhappy,” says Taz Records co-owner Jimmy Donnelly. “You walk in, and you’re in awe.” Donnelly thinks it’s a quality record, book and comics shops share—something about the magnetism of a media collection—not…
Best Bar
Gold Winner Good Robot Brewing Co. Silver Winner Durty Nelly’s Authentic Irish Pub Bronze Winner Stillwell Beer Bar Good Robot Brewing Co. has shot up from last year’s bronze to take gold in this category. “It’s obviously humbling,” says co-owner Josh Counsil. “We never set out to be the best bar in Halifax.” With movie…
Best Spa
Gold Winner Spirit Spa, downtown Silver Winner Spirit Spa, Hydrostone Bronze Winner Interlude Spa, Halifax “We like to think we serve happiness,” Jocelyn Melanson, director of human resources and talent development at Spirit Spa says. She adds that high-end products and cutting-edge treatments, like LED lightwave treatments and osteopathy, are always being added to the…
Best Place To Volunteer
Gold Winner Nova Scotia SPCA Silver Winner IWK Health Centre Bronze Winner Halifax Sexual Health Centre There really isn’t a bad place to volunteer when it comes to these finalists. Unsurprisingly, though, Nova Scotia SPCA holds a special place in the heart of its fund development coordinator, Taylor Mundy. “I think it’s just a very…
Best Thing To Happen In Halifax In The Past Year
Gold Winner Argyle Street Silver Winner Removal of Cornwallis Statue Bronze Winner The Agave Plant The removal of Edward Cornwallis’ statue from the south end park that still bears his name was a momentous day for a town still grappling with reconciliation and its colonial history. Sure, technically Edward and his legacy of imperialism, broken…
Best Poutine
Gold Winner Willy’s Fresh Cut Fries & Burgers Silver Winner Cheese Curds Gourmet Burgers + Poutinerie, Pleasant Street Bronze Winner Smoke’s Poutinerie While it’s hard to mess up a poutine, it’s also not easy to master one. Unless you’re Willy’s. Staffer Jean-Michel Beaudoin says that’s because his boss is all about food quality and top…
Best Electronic Artist / Band
Gold Winner Neon Dreams Silver Winner Rich Aucoin Bronze Winner Scientists of Sound Neon Dreams nabbed Best Electronic and Best Pop Band this year, and the trio is happy to be slotted in either or both. “We’ve transitioned a lot from EDM but we’re still very much electronic,” says drummer Adrian Morris, ahead of a…
Best Promoter
Gold Winner Sonic Entertainment Group Silver Winner Jeff Pineau at the Seahorse/Marquee Bronze Winner Kayla Borden Concert promotion is not something the average person might think about: See an ad for a show, buy ticket to show, go to show. You might think the venue brought the artist in, and sometimes they do. But Sonic…
Best Mall
Gold Winner Halifax Shopping Centre Silver Winner Mic Mac Mall Bronze Winner Sunnyside Mall The sleek Halifax Shopping Centre takes home the gold for Best Mall for the third year in a row, and the hypotheses as to why are many: The building’s sleek design, the crop of high-end shops offering everything from designer fashion…
Best Personal Trainer
Gold Winner Mitch Benvie, Evolve Fitness Silver Winner Shea Lenehan, ProEdge Sports Conditioning Bronze Winner Devin Sherrington, 360fit Mitch Benvie has an awful lot in common with his brother, Matt. They’re identical twins who are both personal trainers and they co-own their gym—Evolve Fitness, Halifax’s gold-winning Best Gym. “We grew up brothers in a small…
Best Fish Cakes
Gold Winner Mic Mac Bar & Grill Silver Winner Evan’s Fresh Seafoods Bronze Winner Gahan House The story behind these generously sized fishcakes is a winner in itself. They come courtesy of the late-wife of Mic Mac owner Terry Legoffic, Marilyn, and the restaurant’s kitchen staff busts ass to make sure they do them justice…
Best Campus Eats
Gold Winner Coburg Coffee Silver Winner The Gorsebrook Lounge Bronze Winner Tart & Soul Formerly called Coburg Coffee, Coburg Social has since taken a step up from coffeehouse status. It still has all the factors that have made it a go-to spot for years: Open mic nights, great caffeinated bevs, study space and avocado toast.…
Best Late-night Food
Gold Winner Willy’s Fresh Cut Fries & Burgers Silver Winner Freeman’s Little New York, Quinpool Bronze Winner Mezza Lebanese Kitchen, downtown According to a lot of Haligonians—Jean Michel Beaudoin included—a stop at Willy’s is an integral part of the nightlife experience.”It’s a fun part of when you go out, and the lineup’s long so you…
Best Tattoo Artist
Gold Winner Rebecca O’Quinn, Heirloom Tattoo Silver Winner Helena Darling, Darling Tattoos Bronze Winner Amber Thorpe, Adept Tattoos & Body Piercing Studio It’s been four years since Rebecca O’Quinn went out on her own and opened Heirloom Tattoo. Clearly, Halifax loves her style—this is O’Quinn’s third year topping the podium. “It’s such an honour,” says…
Best Retail Sign
Gold Winner Freak Lunchbox, Halifax Silver Winner Biscuit General Store Bronze Winner Highwayman Signs are very much part of the downtown scene. And no, we’re not talking about “Sidewalk closed: use other side.” Take a walk down Barrington and Argyle and you’ll see a bunch of cool storefronts enticing you to go inside. There’s Highwayman’s…
Best Bartender
Gold Winner Lindsay Jones, The Middle Spoon Desserterie & Bar Silver Winner Shane Beehan, Lot Six Bar & Restaurant Bronze Winner Nicki Brown, Good Robot Brewing Co. After a year of slinging creative cocktails on the drink competition scene, Lindsay Jones knows a thing or two about what it takes to win over a panel…
Best Activist
Gold Winner El Jones Silver Winner Carly Sutherland Bronze Winner Rana Zaman There really are no losers in the Best Activist category. A single individual calling for change; a single act of resistance means just as much, can have just as much impact, is just as brave as all those fighting the good fight. Which…
Best Place To Walk Your Dog
Gold Winner Point Pleasant Park Silver Winner Shubie Park Bronze Winner Long Lake Dachshunds, dalmatians, maltese and mutts, poodles and doodles, huskies and retrievers. Point Pleasant Park has got ’em all, baby! The PPP has been, is now, will always be the spot to go for dog-walking and also has the best dog-watching in town.…
Best University / College
Gold Winner Dalhousie University Silver Winner Nova Scotia Community College Bronze Winner Saint Mary’s University Sheer size usually makes Dalhousie a perennial champion in this category. Still, it’s nice to see the school once again take home gold as Best University/College just as it wraps up its 200th anniversary celebration. This time last year, Dal…
Best Pub Food
Gold Winner Mic Mac Bar & Grill Silver Winner Henry House Bronze Winner Your Father’s Moustache Mic Mac Bar & Grill’s GM Joël Chiasson spits honesty when asked about what makes the institution a fan favourite: “We’re not about doing fancy dishes or crazy culinary design. We skip to the basics, meat and potatoes.” And like…
Best Experimental Artist / Band
Gold Winner The Brood Silver Winner Moonwake Bronze Winner Norc The psych-weirdo-rockers and very nice kids The Brood released Transistor, 11 hook-filled tracks that get into your head, a year ago last month. Leader Seamus Erskine, however, can’t quite put his finger on the “experimental” part: “I’m not sure, it’s different?” he says. “We’re trying…
Best Punk Artist / Band
Gold Winner Like a Motorcycle Silver Winner Sleepshaker Bronze Winner Chebucto The proudly loud rock quartet Like a Motorcycle can’t talk right now, because it’s all the way across the country making the follow-up to the award-winning High Hopes. And not just with any old producer—the band has teamed up with Howard Redekopp, the big-time…
Best Men’s Clothing Store
Gold Winner Biscuit General Store Silver Winner Pro Skateboards & Snowboards Bronze Winner RCHMND Hall of fame Duggers “It’s funny because I still feel like I’m this little scrappy entrepreneur,” Wendy Friedman, owner of Biscuit General Store says, her slight Southern accent rolling through the phone line. She and the Argyle Street emporium have come…
Best Yoga Instructor
Gold Winner Stefanie Winters Silver Winner Kelly Wadden Bronze Winner Estelle Thomson “I’m pretty authentic in class,” Stefanie Winters says. “I try to relate to people. I have the capacity to empower them and help them move beyond limits because I believe in them.” The Shanti Hot Yoga-based teacher is a full-time yoga instructor who…
Best Fries
Gold Winner Bud The Spud Silver Winner Stillwell Beer Bar Bronze Winner Willy’s Fresh Cut Fries & Burgers Speaking of food truck survival (see above), Bud is the oldest one in town thanks to the popularity of these paper bags of French fries. For 41 years this unforgettable white chip wagon has been pulling practically…
Best Chinese Restaurant
Gold Winner Jean’s Chinese Restaurant Silver Winner Fan’s Chinese Restaurant Bronze Winner Look Ho Ho Restaurant Hall of Fame The Great Wall Restaurant Another year and another win for Jean’s Chinese Restaurant as Halifax’s best Chinese food. Cue the trolls. No other category seems to provoke more heated debate online. Everyone has their favourite location,…
Best Middle Eastern / Persian Restaurant
Gold Winner Mezza Lebanese Kitchen, downtown Silver Winner Tarek’s Cafe Bronze Winner Ray’s Lebanese, Bayers Lake Tony and Peter Nahas’ growing chain of quick and healthy Middle Eastern eats encourages diners to “eat like you’re family”, and if this is how the Nahas family eats—we want in. Mezza gets its crown back after a slight…
Best Bike Store
Gold Winner Cyclesmith Silver Winner The Bike Pedaler Bronze Winner Halifax Cycle Some things you never forget: how to ride a bike is one of them, and according to voters, your most dependable bike store is another. Andrew Feenstra, owner of Cyclesmith, attributes the store’s longtime winning streak to the business making thoughtful choices. “Whether…
Best Sporting Goods Store
Gold Winner Mountain Equipment Co-op Silver Winner Aerobics First Bronze Winner Sport Chek, Halifax Shopping Centre Kent Walsh credits Mountain Equipment Co-op’s repeat success in this category to a “focus on service.” The manager of MEC’s Halifax store, he says the ability to focus comes from having a clear corporate mission to encourage and enable…
Best Comedy Night
Gold Winner Yuk Yuks Silver Winner Hello City Bronze Winner Goofy Moose at the Toothy Moose Yuk Yuk’s retains its golden crown as the city’s Best Comedy Night. We could go on and on about the consistent big laughs and big names that Halifax’s dedicated comedy club brings to this town, but on behalf of…
Best Activist Organization
Gold Winner Youth Project Silver Winner Autism Nova Scotia Bronze Winner YWCA Halifax Hall of Fame Ecology Action Centre Update: Around late October 2018, when the Best of Halifax issue was going to press, the Youth Project was dealing with personnel issues—including a workplace harassment complaint—and its programming was in flux. This uncertain situation became…
Best Public Space
Gold Winner Halifax waterfront Silver Winner Halifax Central Library Bronze Winner Public Gardens For decades, forward-thinking rebels and people who don’t understand transit have advocated for a third bridge across the harbour. Those wishful thinkers finally had their dreams come true, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. Much love to you, Sea Bridge—you conveyor of…
Most Important Local Issue
Gold WinnerHealthcare Silver Winner Affordable housing Bronze Winner Homelessness Raise your hand if you have a family doctor. Oh, sorry, did that hurt? Well, we can’t go to the emergency room since it’s closed for some reason. But first thing in the morning we’ll head down to the Scotiabank-Clearwater Hospital to get it checked out.…
Best Ribs
Gold Winner Boneheads BBQ Silver Winner Mic Mac Bar & Grill Bronze Winner Studio East Give it up for the south end’s premiere barbecue spot as it celebrates its ninth straight win for Best Ribs in Halifax. Even though a call from The Coast this time of year is almost expected, Boneheads proprietor Cindy Wheatley…
Best Folk Artist / Band
Gold Winner Port Cities Silver Winner Ben Caplan Bronze Winner Rose Cousins It’s the week of Port Cities’ pair of shows with Symphony Nova Scotia, and “we’re just trying on clothes right now to make sure we don’t look stupid,” says singer/guitarist/dimples Carleton Stone. “Not my favourite part.” Port Cities’ self-titled debut album came out…
Best R&B Artist / Band
Gold Winner Reeny Smith Silver Winner Aquakultre Bronze Winner Alfie It feels like every year we say “it’s been a big year for Reeny Smith” but it’s always true. This particular year Smith finally, finally released her long-awaited LP WWIII: Strength. Courage. Love. Her hometown has always been on board. “Most musicians don’t have that…
Best Second-hand Clothing Store
Gold Winner Lost & Found Silver Winner Elsie’s Used Clothing Bronze Winner Room 152 “Holy fucking shit! No way, no we didn’t!” Anya Nordeen’s excitement spills through the phone as she learns her second-hand clothing shop has won the gold. Offering a mix of things that are decidedly wearable yet still fun—and putting a focus…
Best Yoga Studio
Gold Winner Moksha Yoga, Halifax Silver Winner Shanti Hot Yoga, Halifax Bronze Winner Halifax Yoga It’s been a busy year at Moksha: A name rebrand (the studio will be known as Modo Yoga starting November 1), new diversified class offerings like barre and resistance band training and the Dresden Row spot’s 10th anniversary have kept…
Best Ice Cream / Gelato / Frozen Yogurt
Gold Winner Dee Dee’s Ice Cream Silver Winner Cows Bronze Winner Dairy Bar Hark! The north end’s pint-sized place for cones lands gold status after last year’s tumble into silver. The return is as welcome as a waffle cone of spicy Mexican chocolate ice cream, the frozen dessert spot’s specialty flavour. With an ever-changing rotation…
Best Clayton Park Area Restaurant
Gold Winner Mezza Lebanese Kitchen Silver Winner Tako Sushi & Ramen Bronze Winner The Anchor This well (olive) oiled machine takes home the Clayton Park “and area” (that includes Fairview and Bayers Lake, for those neighbourhood purists who’ve been calling out our invisible borders) yet again, for its quick service, heaping portions and addictive, craving-inducing…
Best New Restaurant
Gold Winner Antojo Tacos + Tequila Silver Winner Vandal Doughnuts Bronze Winner CHKN CHOP When the folks at Legendary Restaurant Group love something—they want to share it with you, beautiful readers. “The owners love Mexico. They were so in love with the flavours they decided to bring them to Halifax. We work with every recipe…
Best Car Dealership
Gold Winner Portland Street Honda Silver Winner Hillcrest Volkswagen Bronze Winner Colonial Honda Despite being surrounded by three other dealerships, Portland Street Honda stands out as unique. In effort to do so, it’s making serious waves. Portland Street Honda has just opened a brand-new spa to their customers, which will offer everything from manicures to…
Free Will Astrology
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCORPIO (October 23-November 21) “Penetralia” is a word that means the innermost or most private parts, the most secret and mysterious places. It’s derived from the same Latin term that evolved into the word “penetrate.” You Scorpios are of course the zodiac’s masters of penetralia. More than any other sign, you’re likely to…
Best Karaoke Night
Gold Winner Laurie the Guy at Lion’s Head Tavern Silver Winner Dave Smith at Oasis Bronze Winner DJ Master and DJ Bear 777 at Menz & Mollyz Bar The next time you go see Laurie The Guy (AKA Laurie Goulding), bring him a box of cookies, would ya? This is the sixth consecutive time the…
Best Athlete
Gold Winner Ellie Black Silver Winner Jill Saulnier Bronze Winner Courtney Baker Canada’s greatest gymnast vaults to another first-place finish atop a podium of all-female candidates in this year’s competition for Best Athlete. Black’s accomplishments are too many to name, but nonetheless worth noting. This year, she was honoured as the youngest inclusion in the…
Best Sports League
Gold Winner Anchor City Rollers Silver Winner HSSC: Halifax Sport & Social Club Bronze Winner Metro Senior Women’s Soccer League Pardon the pun, but Anchor City has been on a roll this past year. The derby league started a junior program for young athletes ages eight to 18, doubled its home teams from two to…
Best Book
Gold Winner If I Had An Old House On The East Coast, Kat Frick Miller and Wanda Baxter Silver Winner The Long Way Home, John Demont Bronze Winner The Mill, Joan Baxter The Nimbus publication If I Had An Old House On The East Coast clearly struck a nerve with you—some of whom definitely do…
Best Salad
Gold Winner Pete’s Frootique & Fine Foods, Halifax Silver Winner The Canteen Bronze Winner enVie a vegan kitchen The Pete’s salad contains multitudes. It is a math problem: How many different combinations can you make from the 30 plus ingredients? It is a clown car, the normal-sized takeout box managing to hold an extraordinary amount…
Best Hip Hop Artist / Band
Gold Winner Classified Silver Winner Quake Matthews Bronze Winner Ghettosocks Two thousand eighteen has been another busy year for Enfield’s main man Classified, AKA Luke Boyd. In between producing tracks at his studio for a wide variety of artists—Hillsburn, Jody Upshaw, Elijah Will—he performed his MMIW anthem “Powerless” at the East Coast Music Awards show…
Best Record Label
Gold Winner Sonic Records Silver Winner Groundswell Music Bronze Winner HalfLife Records The big project at Sonic Records this year has been releasing Matt Mays’ back catalogue on vinyl, including Matt Mays and El Torpedo, When the Angels Make Contact and the original self-titled debut. “People love the vinyl, they do,” says Sonic Records’ Mike…
Best Shoe Store
Gold Winner John David Shoes Silver Winner Courtside Sneakers Bronze Winner Aerobics First There’s a reason why shoes can spark an obsession in people like no other item of clothing or accessory. (What would be the purse equivalent to a sneaker head? A bag lady? Hard pass). Shoes are the bookend the rest of an…
Best Breakfast Sandwich
Gold Winner The Coastal Cafe Silver Winner The Canteen Bronze Winner The Ardmore Tea Room We added this new category to the roster in 2018, but it’s an old favourite who takes home the honours. After 11 years of serving “breakfast, brunch, whatever” the itty-bitty Coastal Cafe—known for its eternal packedness and incredible, creative brunch…
Best Lunch Specials
Gold Winner Cha Baa Thai Restaurant, downtown Silver Winner Mic Mac Bar & Grill Bronze Winner Ko-Doraku At Cha Baa, co-owner Wen Dao approaches the lunch special strategically. The choices on offer are a selection from the gold-winning Best Thai Restaurant’s full menu—“We take all the best-sellers,” says Dao—served in a less expensive, lunch-sized portion.…
Best Restaurant
Gold Winner The Bicycle Thief Silver Winner The Canteen Bronze Winner EDNA The Bicycle Thief steals our readers’ hearts for the second consecutive time here. The big dog in the Bertossi Group family of restaurants has maintained its position as a place people like to go for a fancy night out since opening to the…
Best Comics Store
Gold Winner Strange Adventures, Dartmouth Silver Winner Cape & Cowl Comics & Collectibles Bronze Winner Giant Robot Comics Hall of Fame Strange Adventures, Halifax The folks at Strange Adventures refer to the Dartmouth location as a sidekick, or as owner Cal Johnston likes to say, “the plucky younger sibling” to Strange Adventures Halifax, which was…
Letters to the editor, November 1, 2018
A CFL stadium?! Just say NO! to the city paying for a stadium for a local Canadian Football League team (“Halifax tackles funding options for $200-million CFL stadium,” Reality Bites story by Jacob Boon, posted October 26 at thecoast.ca). It’s unclear who will own the stadium and who will pay for the cost of building…
Best New Bar
Gold Winner Antojo Tacos + Tequila Silver Winner The Watch That Ends the Night Bronze Winner Bar Kismet “When we opened our door there was a lineup outside waiting for us. Expectations were high,” says Antojo’s manager Abhi Bawa of the first year at the instantly popular Argyle Street spot. “The team puts a lot…
Best Bus Driver
Gold Winner Brenda Giffin Silver Winner Stephen O’Quinn Bronze Winner Jill Webb Three decades ago, Brenda Giffin was a truck driver in the military with a two-year-old and no desire to be posted away from her baby. “Family was more important to me,” she says. “The only thing I could do was drive, so I…
Best Student Hang
Gold Winner Halifax Central Library Silver Winner Coburg Coffee Bronze Winner Gorsebrook Lounge Halifax Central Library’s manager Sharon Haley-Mancini says that when the planning began for the jewel in Halifax Library’s crown began, every detail was thought of. “There are so many things that make this place remarkable: It’s a beautiful, architectural space, there’s light…
Best Choreographer
Gold Winner Monique Ryan Silver Winner Brittany Todd Bronze Winner Alexis Cormier Serpentine Studios celebrated a full-on decade in business last fall, and the bellydance and fitness club’s co-founder Monique Ryan has left her movement mark on you. “I genuinely love choreographing dances and sharing them through performance and teaching,” says Ryan. “Over the past…
Best Sandwich
Gold Winner The Canteen Silver Winner Pete’s Frootique & Fine Foods, Halifax Bronze Winner Italian Market Beef brisket. Tandoori chicken. The hangover. Meatball sub. A classic tuna melt. The Canteen and its take-out sibling, Little C, are known for the sandwiches and Reneé Lavallée says its the house-made bread that makes the difference. With a…
Best Jazz Artist / Band
Gold Winner Willem Paynter Silver Winner Mike Cowie Bronze Winner Elise Besler Willem Paynter has a busy schedule on the jazz scene, posting up at Lox Six on Thursdays and at Obladee every other Wednesday, not to mention events, festivals and corporate gigs. “These two gigs have been instrumental to my growth as a musician,”…
Best Rock Artist / Band
Gold Winner Adam Baldwin Silver Winner The Town Heroes Bronze Winner Alert The Medic “A stunning surprise. I haven’t done anything for two years,” says Adam Baldwin of his win. Then he thinks about this obvious untruth. “I don’t know, I’ve played a couple times at The Marquee. I play piano at bars a lot…
Best Women’s Clothing Store
Gold Winner Sweet Pea Boutique Silver Winner Biscuit General Store Bronze Winner Vivacious Vixen Apparel This marks year four of Spring Garden-area’s Sweet Pea nabbing the crown for Best Women’s Clothing Store and it’s not hard to see why voters keep flocking back to the frock-focused shop: Business owner Johanna Galipeau can be found within…
Best Burger
Gold Winner Darrell’s Restaurant Silver Winner Ace Burger Co. at Battery Park Beerbar & Eatery Bronze Winner Cheese Curds Gourmet Burgers and Poutinerie This year, Dan Joseph and his staff at Darrell’s conducted a sort of experiment: They didn’t ask their customers and loved ones to vote for them. “Normally, we really put a push…
Best Pasta
Gold Winner Ristorante a Mano Silver Winner Il Mercato Bronze Winner The Bicycle Thief “I would eat it every day for the rest of my life,” says Patrick Gaetz about Ristorante aMano’s spaghettini con polpette, and he’s not alone. That’s the fan-favourite dish on the eatery’s expansive pasta menu, thanks to its spicy meatballs, bocconcini,…
Your Best of Halifax 2018 Readers’ Choice Awards winners
Participation ribbons all around! Our 24th annual readers’ poll attracted the most-ever entrants. An unfathomable 35,817 of you nominated and voted for your favourites, resulting in tight races, new faces and, of course, those repeat-winners who don’t even have to try. Pull up a seat, pour yourself a coffee and feast your eyes on the…
Best Sackville Restaurant
Gold Winner Beaver Bank Station Silver Winner Kaiser’s Sub & Sandwich Shoppes Bronze Winner Tom’s Family Restaurant Just over a year ago Chris Davis and his bestie Brad Farquhar bought the already established Beaver Bank Station, a neighbourhood pub operating out of the character-filled former train station hotel, built way way back in 1872. “Pub…
Best Computer Store
Gold Winner The Apple Store Silver Winner Mac East Bronze Winner MysteryByte Computers Anyone who owns an Apple product knows the horror of when their dependable machine stops working. Whether you get too many cookie crumbs in your keyboard or dropped your laptop on its face, the Apple Store has a way of swooping in…
Best Party Venue
Gold Winner Seahorse Tavern Silver Winner Lower Deck, Halifax Bronze Winner The Marquee Ballroom We can dance if we want to, you can leave your friends behind, cause your friends don’t dance and if they don’t dance, well they’re are no friends of Jeff Pineau’s. He’s the man responsible for booking the talent at your…
Best Community Project
Gold Winner Hope Blooms Silver Winner Feed Nova Scotia Bronze Winner Common Roots Urban Farm There’s a riot of giggling noises as Jessie Jollymore answers the phone, struggling to be heard over the din. The executive director at Hope Blooms is in the midst of a product launch planning meeting with some of the organization’s…
Best Festival
Gold Winner Halifax Pride Silver Winner Halifax Jazz Festival Bronze Winner Halifax Busker Festival “I think the difference with Pride is the community,” says Adam Reid, speaking about why the LGBTQ+ focused event has won gold. Reid says the fest’s openness to feedback and the monthly, open-door planning sessions where community members can get involved…
Best Comedian
Gold Winner Mark Critch Silver Winner Megan McDowell Bronze Winner Dan Hendricken This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ veteran anchor nabs your funny vote for another year, one in which he is splitting his time between the show and touring in support of his new memoir, Son of a Critch. “I am once again shocked and…
Best Seafood
Gold Winner John’s Lunch Silver Winner The Five Fishermen Bronze Winner Evan’s Fresh Seafoods “I’m pretty sure there are some seafood chefs in downtown Halifax that roll their eyes at this,” says John’s Lunch co-owner, and longtime employee Kathy Hilchey, of her restaurants repeated gold win for Best Seafood, bestowing credit upon the kitchen staff…
Best Live Music Venue
Gold Winner The Marquee Ballroom Silver Winner The Seahorse Tavern Bronze Winner The Carleton One of the city’s larger standing venues (capacity 750), The Marquee is also one of the hardest to fill. Touring acts—Thrice, Protest the Hero and Stars have been through this year, with The Trews, Stiff Little Fingers and Barr Brothers on…
Best Social Media Presence By An Artist / Band
Gold Winner Neon Dreams Silver Winner The Town Heroes Bronze Winner Like a Motorcycle Neon Dreams used to have someone on their team whose job it was to document the trio for social media. That’s shifted recently. “This past year we’ve been wanting to make our social media look raw with less thought behind it,”…
Best Chef
Gold Winner Renée Lavallée, The Canteen Silver Winner Annie Brace-Lavoie, Bar Kismet Bronze Winner Andy Hay, Andy’s East Coast Kitchen It was a pretty incredible nominees list for this year’s Best Chef category, with six of seven standouts being women—an unfortunate rarity in this readers’ survey—and five first-time noms. It’s a repeat win for Reneé…
Best Burrito
Gold Winner Burrito Jax, downtown Silver Winner Habaneros Modern Taco Bar, Pleasant Street Bronze Winner Dee Dee’s Ice Cream Since this category was born, back in 2011, this burrito heavyweight (literally, these stuffed-full wraps don’t skimp) has been holding down the top spot. The original location of the now franchised, spreading like wildfire, Burrito Jax…
Best Pizza Pie
Gold Winner Morris East, Halifax Silver Winner Yeah Yeahs PIzza Bronze Winner Mother’s PIzza Hall of fame Salvatore’s Pizzaiolo Trattoria “I think people just enjoy eating at Morris East.” Sure, Jennie Dobbs agrees that the pizza itself is bragworthy, but she’s quick to chalk her second Best of Halifax win up to the entire experience…
Best Antiques Store
Gold Winner ReFound Shop Silver Winner Plan B Merchants’ Co-op (now closed) Bronze Winner Urban Cottage Antiques & Collectibles The search for a second-hand gem is much like a treasure hunt, whether it be patiently sifting through the digital depths of Kijiji or strolling the endless aisles at Value Village. ReFound Shop, a destination for…
Best Sushi Restaurant
Gold Winner Wasabi House Silver Winner Sushi Nami Royale Bronze Winner Tako Sushi & Ramen The fans who nominated Wasabi House for Best Sushi know why they like the restaurant. “Their sushi is always fresh and delicious,” was one comment left during the online nominations process. “Such friendly staff, great food and variety,” was another.…
Best Corner Store
Gold Winner Atlantic News Silver Winner Jubilee Junction Convenience and Takeout Bronze Winner Triple A Convenience & Pizzeria Atlantic News might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of corner stores in Halifax, however it is a store on a corner and it sells a surprisingly huge variety of convenient…
Best Patio
Gold Winner Stillwell Beergarden Silver Winner Stubborn Goat Beer Garden Bronze Winner Gahan House Hall of fame Your Father’s Moustache “The beer garden is for everybody,” says Stillwell co-owner Chris Reynolds, “everybody and their dog.” Spring Garden Road’s cool factor went way up when Stillwell Beergarden, the outdoor craft beer heaven, opened there in 2016.…
Best Visual Artist
Gold Winner Ursula Johnson Silver Winner Caitlin McGuire Bronze Winner Liz Mac The 2017 Sobey Art Award winner, Ursula Johnson, has spent the year since doing what artists do: Working. She also moved from Dartmouth to the south shore, but no matter where she is you’re keeping an eye on her vital, intense installations. “This…
Best Hotel
Gold Winner The Prince George Hotel Silver Winner The Lord Nelson Bronze Winner The Westin Nova Scotian When asked why he thinks The Prince George snagged gold in this year’s Best of Halifax Readers’ Choice Awards, general manager Scott Travis has an answer at the ready: “That’s easy, it’s our staff. We have a team…
Best Crafter
Gold Winner Nicole McInnis, Oh Dina! Silver Winner Holly Nauss, Promise of a Pearl Bronze Winner Amy Chandler, Friday55 “I’m honestly so surprised I won again. I just am,” says Nicole McInnis, who creates modern bridal headpieces with a vintage vibe under the moniker Oh Dina! “We live in this place where there’s so many…
Best Smoothie
Gold Winner Pete’s Frootique & Fine Foods Silver Winner Mr. Smooth Bronze Winner Wild Leek Let’s be honest—if you have a blender, it’s not hard to make a passable smoothie. But a great smoothie? The stuff of legend, consistently popular day in and day out, year after year, winning gold awards for a decade? That’s…
Best Live Show In The Past Year
Gold Winner Ria Mae with Symphony NS Silver Winner The Mellotones 20th Anniversary at The Marquee Bronze Winner Feist at the Cohen For all of the awe and wonder hearing pop songs interpreted by an orchestra can serve up—and Symphony Nova Scotia has been offering those experiences for years—there was something particularly spectacular about concertmaster…
Best Solo Artist
Gold Winner Joel Plasket Silver Winner Mo Kenney Bronze Winner Reeny Smith A familiar name in this category, Dartmouth mascot Joel Plaskett is once again your favourite solo artist. “The ongoing support and recognition this community—and The Coast!—has given me from year to year is incredible,” says Plaskett, Hall of Famer for Humblest Local Famous…
Best Food Blogger
Gold Winner Lindsay Nelson, Eat This Town Silver Winner Arthur Gaudreau, Halifax ReTales Bronze Winner Adam Rosenbaum and Colin McParland, The Starving Sailor Founder of Eat This Town, Lindsay Nelson, credits this very readers’ survey for inspiring her blog’s popular series of food quests, where she samples as many of the same dish—say, nachos—across the city with…
Best Chicken Wings
Gold Winner Bubba Ray’s Sports Bar Too Silver Winner Your Fathers Moustache Bronze Winner Boneheads BBQ Nick Vadeboncoeur evokes Bubba Rays’ plethora of sauces with his sugary response to the news about winning Best Chicken Wings in Halifax. “Sweet!” exclaims the managing bartender. “That’s awesome.” The secret to award-winning wings? Well, those sauces help. Bubba…
Best Blogger
Gold Winner Arthur Gaudreau, Halifax ReTales Silver Winner Kate Ross, Halifax Noise Bronze Winner Kayla Short, Short Presents Gaudreau—the brains behind the ubiquitous Halifax ReTales brand—and not just because he’s picked up a repeat win as Best Blogger. Earlier this fall, ReTales also made the transition to print media. Gaudreau has partnered with the Chronicle…
Floored
Q I’m a 40-year-old married straight woman. I gave birth to our first kid in 2015 and our second earlier this year. My perineum tore and was stitched both times. I have not been able to have sex with penetration since having our second child. My OB/GYN said I’m “a little tighter now” due to…
Best Thai Restaurant
Gold Winner Cha Baa Thai Restaurant, downtown Silver Winner Talay Thai, Halifax Bronze Winner Thai Ivory, Bedford “Most people, when they eat it they feel comfortable.” Wen Dao is explaining Thai’s appeal. “If the food makes them comfortable, they come back. That’s how the customer feels about Thai food. Dao would know: He and his…
Best Craft Show
Gold Winner Christmas At The Forum Silver Winner Halifax Crafters Society Winter Market Bronze Winner The Dartmouth Makers Just like it’s never too early to start blasting Michael Buble’s Christmas album; the time is always right for perusing holiday crafts, hot cocoa in hand. That’s where Christmas at the Forum comes in! It’s the longest-running…
Best Place to Dance
Gold Winner The Seahorse Tavern Silver Winner Boomers Bronze Winner Pacifico There’s never a weekend you can’t dance at the Seahorse, and that’s just the way the bar’s promoter/booker Jeff Pineau envisioned it. “There’s a consistency of awesome parties between Home Bass, The Mellotones, The Jam, Retro Night and ’90s night,” he says of the…
Best Barista
Gold Winner Jeremy Waterman, Low Point Coffee Silver Winner Dan Weir, Weird Harbour Espresso Bar Bronze Winner Laura Arsenault, Java Blend Coffee Roasters It’s been eight years since Jeremy Waterman started his career in coffee at Starbucks, and he’s come a long way, baby. When he’s not pulling drinks at Dilly Dally, the winning barista…
Best Museum
Gold Winner Discovery Centre Silver Winner Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History Bronze Winner Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 “I’m so glad we’ve repeated our win, it means we’re staying relevant to families in Nova Scotia,” Jennifer Punch, director of marketing and sales, says about this second consecutive win. The past year has…
Best Dance Company / Group
Gold Winner Maritime Bhangra Group Silver Winner Halifax Dance Bronze Winner Serpentine Studios The five men of the Maritime Bhangra Group have continued their happiness journey across the country, raising money for charity (over $300K so far) and being ambassadors for Nova Scotia. This included an appearance on The Rick Mercer Report in March—Mercer wore…
Best Artist / Band Most Likely To Make It Big
Gold Winner Makayla Lynn Silver Winner Aquakultre Bronze Winner Owen Meany’s Batting Stance Makayla Lynn is only 17 but she’s putting all the pieces in place with regards to this making it big business. First of all, she got high school out of the way a year early with the help of correspondence courses. “I…
Best MC
Gold Winner Classified Silver Winner Quake Matthews Bronze Winner Ghettosocks The rapper/producer has just released a new album, Tomorrow Could Be The Day Things Change—his fifth major-label release, but his catalogue is way into the double digits nowadays—13 tracks for you to get stuck in your brain. It covers the usual range of subjects—“Legal Marijuana,”…
Best Songwriter
Gold Winner Joel Plaskett Silver Winner Mo Kenney Bronze Winner Makayla Lynn This is Plaskett’s second songwriting award this year—he nabbed an ECMA in May. “The Songwriter award is a special honour and in my heart I share it with my friend, Matthew Grimson, who we lost this year,” says Plaskett. “Matthew was the most…
Best Server
Gold Winner Marcus Manzoni, Mic Mac Bar and Grill Silver Winner Kristin Vokes, enVie a vegan kitchen Bronze Winner Leah O’Brien, Brooklyn Warehouse “I only have a few minutes total of interaction time, so for me to be able to create any kind of experience for somebody and have them come back? That’s the greatest…
Best Chowder
Gold Winner The Canteen Silver Winner Esquire Restaurant Bronze Winner Fredie’s Fantastic Fish House Lovers of The Canteen’s chowder, rest easy—this dish and all of its smoked haddock and smoked bacon can not, will not, ever go away. “There are three things that will never leave the menu and it’s one of them. It’s the…
Best Podcast
Gold Winner Sickboy Silver Winner Turn Me On Bronze Winner Dog Island Jeremie Saunders has created a podcast empire. The co-host and co-creator of Sickboy and Turn Me On walks away this year with both gold and silver in our Best Podcast category. “We’ll have to come up with a third one, I guess,” says…
Best Place To Go Running
Gold Winner Point Pleasant Park Silver Winner Shubie Park Bronze Winner Lake Banook Point Pleasant Park is full of wide, winding paths and the potential for a new route every time you go. Why would you bother taking to the boring ol’ sidewalk or jumping on a treadmill for your cardio fix? Here, you can…
Best Use Of Local Ingredients
Gold Winner The Canteen Silver Winner The Wooden Monkey, Halifax Bronze Winner 2 Doors Down Seasons change and with them so does the menu at downtown Dartmouth’s family-run family restaurant, The Canteen. That’s because pretty much everything is laced together with something grown, caught, brewed or butchered here at home. Each dish is a sum…
Best Flower Shop
Gold Winner My Mother’s Bloomers Silver Winner The Flower Shop Bronze Winner Pilcher’s Flowers “There’s always an occasion for flowers,” says Sarah Archer, supervisor at My Mother’s Bloomers. She loves the comfort that flowers can bring people. It’s this kind of zest for blossoms that has My Mother’s Bloomers crowned gold for the second year…
Best Place To Watch The Game
Gold Winner HFX Sports Bar Silver Winner Niche Lounge Bronze Winner The Pint Public House Live sporting events are one of the few televised broadcasts that—so far—are holding strong against plummeting ratings. Scripted content is more easily consumed via streaming service and illegal downloads. But there’s just something unmissable about gathering with your friends in…
Best Beer Selection
Gold Winner Stillwell Beer Bar Silver Winner Battery Park Beerbar & Eatery Bronze Winner Good Robot Brewing Co. It’s been nearly five years since this Barrington Street beer bar opened its doors and wowed beer nerds and curious drinkers alike with their wide array of options. And co-owner Chris Reynolds says thanks to that maturity,…
Best Councillor
Gold Winner Lindell Smith Silver Winner Waye Mason Bronze Winner Sam Austin The councillor disputes these rankings, for the record. Smith assumed the winners would go Sam Austin in first place, Waye Mason for silver and then, maybe, himself. Don’t get him wrong. He’s “100 percent grateful and thankful” to all the people who voted…
Best Dancer
Gold Winner Kunwardeep Singh Silver Winner Monique Ryan Bronze Winner Maria Osende During the Maritime Bhangra Group’s appearance on The Rick Mercer Report in the spring, Mercer said to Kunwardeep Singh on air, “You’re living up in Toronto now, right?” “Did someone pay you to say that?” Singh responded, dodging the question. Whether Singh is…
Best Artist / Band To Dance To
Gold Winner The Mellotones Silver Winner Roxy and the Underground Soul Sound Bronze Winner Asia & NuGruv The Mellotones have moved around a lot—hopping between three regular venues this year; they’ve just set up camp Thursdays on The Marquee stage and the band’s many fans always find it. “The community supports us—we don’t have to…
Best Metal Artist / Band
Gold Winner Black Moor Silver Winner Dumpster Mummy Bronze Winner Orchid’s Curse “Black Moor plays pure, unapologetic heavy metal. Think bullet belts, air guitar solos, denim and leather and you’re on the right track,” declares the band’s bio. Which is great, but where’s the followup to Brave to the Grave we talked about this time…
Best Tour You Wish Came To Halifax
Gold Winner Beyonce and Jay Z: OTR II Silver Winner Kendrick Lamar Bronze Winner Paul Simon’s Farewell Tour The Carters’ second On the Run tour together ran from March to October—with Everything is Love dropping just about dead centre—and you can bet it did not stop in Halifax or anywhere near here. (This may be…
Best Bakery
Gold Winner Vandal Doughnuts Silver Winner The Old Apothecary Bronze Winner LF Bakery “Twenty-eighteen blew our minds,” says Nicole Tufts, who opened Vandal Doughnuts with partner Sonia Gillies-da Mota just about a year ago. Little did they know that their little dessert-focussed counter inside no-frills north end institution Gus’ Pub would take the city (and…
Best Cookie / Cupcake / Doughnut
Gold Winner Vandal Doughnuts Silver Winner Layers Cakes Bronze Winner Ol’ School Donuts Homer’s odyssey. Purple rain. Vegan Boston cream. Oscar the grouch. Footy loops. Sensual seduction. These greasy little numbers, and lots more, make up the roster of creations coming out of the fryer at winner-supreme, Vandal Doughnuts (also your Best Bakery and Best…
Best Radio Show
Gold Winner Information Morning, CBC 90.5 FM Silver Winner BJ and the Q Morning Crew, Q104, 104.3 FM Bronze Winner Weekend Mornings, CBC 90.5 FM It’s a big win for the morning show, which saw a historic turnover this year as longtime host Don Connolly retired and Portia Clark flew back into town as his…
Best Local Character
Gold Winner Gus the tortoise Silver Winner Agave Plant Bronze Winner Fat Apollo The Museum of Natural History’s beloved mascot didn’t walk away with an Order of Nova Scotia award this year, despite our best efforts advocating on his behalf in a cover story back in March. The adored gopher tortoise will instead have to…
Best Vegetarian-friendly
Gold Winner enVie – A Vegan Kitchen Silver Winner Wild Leek Bronze Winner Heartwood, Quinpool Road “It’s our staff. I know that’s cliche but it’s just the truth,” says Cory Urquhart, explaining why the Agricola Street eatery has once again nabbed gold in the realm of meat-free eats. “A lot of them are friends outside…
Best Furniture Store
Gold Winner Retrospekt Silver Winner KEW Bronze Winner 31 Westgate Hall of fame Attica Furnishings Take one scroll through Retrospetkt’s Instagram and you’ll see how specialized its business is: The shop sells a finely curated collection of mid-century modern furniture, objects and light fixtures. Co-owners Mark Schaay and Val Palvan have been in the biz…
Best Trivia Night
Gold Winner The Board Room Game Cafe Silver Winner The Old Triangle Irish Alehouse Bronze Winner T-Room Thank you Board Room, for acknowledging all types of genius and reassuring those who spent a little too much time absorbing random facts in front of a glowing screen that it wasn’t all for naught. For the third…
Best Brew Pub
Gold Winner Good Robot Brewing Co. Silver Winner Chain Yard Cider Bronze Winner Battery Park Beerbar & Eatery In the last year, Good Robot’s beer has become more accessible outside its location on Robie Street—craft-lovers can find cans of a few Good Robot fixtures at other storefronts. But folks continue to flock to Good Robot…
Best Drag Performer
Gold Winner Elle Noir Silver Winner Bridget Von Snaps Bronze Winner Farrah Moan Hall of fame Rouge Fatale When, after days of trying to connect for an interview, Chris Cochrane’s intense schedule finally allows a phone call, the makeup artist, actor and drag performer is understandably exhausted. Fresh off the set from Stage Mother—a Thom…
Best Film / TV Actor
Gold Winner Jonathan Torrens Silver Winner Susan Kent Bronze Winner Koumbie Jonathan Torrens’ biggest gigs in the past year weren’t actually televised, unless you had a particular Eastlink subscription: A sharp and funny return to hosting the East Coast Music Awards, which he’ll do again in his home province of Prince Edward Island next year;…
Best Artist / Band To Enjoy Quietly
Gold Winner Rose Cousins Silver Winner Kim Harris Bronze Winner Quiet Parade “Maybe you can feel all the feelings in the songs when it’s quieter, you can feel them to the fullest—my songs have a lot of feelings,” Cousins muses about her second-year-in-a-row gold win for Best Artist To Enjoy Quietly. She’s “avoiding packing for…
Best Dartmouth Restaurant
Gold Winner The Canteen Silver Winner Mic Mac Bar and Grill Bronze Winner The Wooden Monkey “It’s been a big a year on the darkside, particularly on Portland Street, it’s amazing to see the changes since we’ve moved to Portland Street,” says Canteen co-owner Doug Townsend, who’s also chef Reneé Lavallée’s husband. “The quality and…
Best Coffee
Gold Winner Java Blend Coffee Roasters Silver Winner Two If By Sea Cafe Bronze Winner Weird Harbour Espresso Bar If you had to pour a mug of Halifax it would be a piping hot cup of coffee from Java Blend. It’s been 80 years since the idea behind the North Street roastery and cafe was…
Best Butcher Shop
Gold Winner Gateway Meat Market Silver Winner Getaway Farm, Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market Bronze Winner Getaway Farm, Hydrostone Tamara Selig cannot say enough about her staff at Gateway Meat Market. According to the co-owner of the beloved, no-frills grocery and butcher all 40 of them get just as pumped for the shop’s sales as the customers…
Best Diner
Gold Winner The Armview Restaurant & Lounge Silver Winner Ardmore Tea Room Bronze Winner John’s Lunch When your restaurant has been in business since 1951, you don’t just have fans—you have generations of fans. “We’re a long running establishment so we’ve got a lot of history,” says co-owner George Kapetanakis. This year was a busy…
Best Radio Station
Gold Winner CBC 90.5 FM Silver Winner Virgin Radio 101.3 FM Bronze Winner Q104, 104.3 FM Sad news today for the people of Canada. Once again, Haligonians have turned up their elite noses and spat upon the real news. Apparently being spoon-fed propaganda and drowned in, quote-unquote, “popular” music by the totalitarian leftist mafia of…
Tokyo Roll opens on Argyle Street
The Suzuki family is back in the sushi game after selling Dresden Row’s Suzuki Sushi just about two years ago. Tokyo Roll has opened its doors at 1598 Argyle Street (next to World Tea House), serving up basic rolls, fusion rolls, bento boxes and teriyaki. “We always wanted to keep the restaurant, just the hours…
Best Dog Groomer
Gold Winner Dapper Dogs Silver Winner Jollytails Inc. Bronze Winner Adorable Dogs Grooming Spa Let’s be honest, one of the best parts of having a dog is looking at it. Why have a dog if not to appreciate how freakin’ cute it is? Luckily groomers like Dapper Dogs help our pups look their best. This…
Best Home Decor Store
Gold Winner Kept Silver Winner Black Market Boutique Bronze Winner The Independent Mercantile Co. Kept is all about “pride of place,” says owner Charlotte Jewer. Both she and her husband have lived in Ontario temporarily and missed the seaside deeply while away. When they moved back to Halifax, the two considered the question “How can…
Best Barber
Gold Winner Phat Luong, Phat’s Barbershop Silver Winner Jeremy Naugler, Oddfellows Barbershop Bronze Winner Ashley Hawkes, Lucky Cat Barbershop Try to avoid a conversation once you walk into Phat Luong’s barbershop. You’re in for a fight if you don’t like talking. Luong dances a fine line between hairstylist, stand-up comic, therapist and life coach. His…
Best Caesar
Gold Winner Stubborn Goat Gastropub Silver Winner Black Sheep Restaurant Bronze Winner Durty Nelly’s Authentic Irish Pub The Goat keeps it simple when it comes to this clammy cure all because when the ingredients are solid gold, bells and whistles aren’t necessary. For this winning cocktail, head bartender David Casey says Nova Scotia Blue Lobster…
Best Halifamous Person
Gold Winner Agave Plant Silver Winner Jeremie Saunders Bronze Winner Rouge Fatale Understandably, a once-in-a-lifetime blooming of a tropical plant was a fun little story in the slow summer news season. The agave’s apparent demise due to a colder-than-expected weather and its miraculous resurrection was an amusing bit of melodrama. Then some asshole started a…
Best Filmmaker
Gold Winner Andrea Dorfman Silver Winner Koumbie Bronze Winner Josh Owen It’s been a busy year for Andrea Dorfman: Her searing NFB documentary The Girls of Meru, about child defilement in Africa, debuted at the Atlantic International Film Festival just as her latest feature, Spinster—the reason for all those Chelsea Peretti sightings—wrapped shooting. “I love…
Best Artist / Band To Turn Up Loud
Gold Winner Jessie Brown Silver Winner Black Moor Bronze Winner Dumpster Mummy Jessie Brown wound down (up?) last year with the release of her Jon Epworth-produced album, Keeping Appearances, which won an East Coast Music Award and is up for three at Nova Scotia Music Week this weekend. “I was honestly shocked. It meant a…
Best Music Festival
Gold Winner Halifax Jazz Festival Silver Winner Halifax Pop Explosion Bronze Winner In the Dead Of Winter Halifax Jazz Festival continues to sock dingers year after year, following up last year’s Anderson.Paak blowout with the likes of Chaka Khan, The War on Drugs and Daniel Caesar. “We strive to offer a genre-diverse lineup that is…
Best Craft Brewery
Gold Winner Nine Locks Brewing Company Silver Winner Good Robot Brewing Co. Bronze Winner Garrison Brewing Co. Considering the sheer amount of new and exciting folks making moves on the local brewing scene, this category doesn’t get shuffled around this much. But this year, voters must have spent a lot of time lugging cans of…
Best Farmers’ Market Stall
Gold Winner Noggins Corner, Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market Silver Winner Off Beet Farms Bronze Winner Getaway Farm, Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market Willem Dafoe agrees, the piles of fruit and veggies at Noggins Corner are the cream of the crop. (This Saturday morning paparazzi saw him shopping there with their own eyes). With locations at the…
Best Desserts
Gold Winner Sweet Hereafter Cheesecakery Silver Winner The Middle Spoon Desserterie & Bar Bronze Winner Vandal Doughnuts “It’s humbling to see how a little guy can compete in this world of big box stores,” says Sweet Hereafter’s Colin MacDougall. He’s been running the Quinpool cheesecakery with his wife Joanne for seven years now and says…
Best Radio Station For Local Music
Gold Winner CKDU 88.1 Silver Winner CBC Radio One Bronze Winner CBC Radio 2 It shouldn’t come as a surprise that CKDU once again earns the gold for Best Radio Station For Local Music. After all, the longtime college radio station is a veritable institution in this town. It’s where bands get their first play,…
Best Food Truck
Gold Winner Ol’ School Donuts Silver Winner Gecko Bus Bronze Winner Bud the Spud The food truck scene tapered off a little in 2018, but the strong survived and then some. The seemingly always lined-up Ol’ School—a family-run business, with Noah Connolly, who started on his doughnut journey as a grade 11 student back in…
Best Mechanic Shop
Gold Winner Todd’s Southend Car Care Silver Winner Tom McDonnell’s Service Centre Bronze Winner Revolution Automotive There are few feelings more soul crushing than hearing your car make a strange sound. Whether you bring your whip to a shop right away or ignore the problem for months, it eventually comes down to seeking professional help.…
Best Independent Bookstore
Gold Winner Woozles Silver Winner Venus Envy Bronze Winner Bookmark “I get to work in a place that my parents dreamed of years ago,” says Suzy MacLean of Woozles. “The two of them started this store, when my oldest sister was just one year old, and there was nowhere in town to buy children’s books.…
Best Barbershop
Gold Winner Phat’s Barbershop Silver Winner Sailor Bup’s Barbershop, downtown Bronze Winner Lucky Cat Barbershop Even with the rise of trendy old-school barber shops, the kind that wrings together straight-razor nostalgia with iPad payment options, it’s Phat Luong who once again reigns supreme over Halifax’s clipper competition. There’s nothing inauthentic about Phat’s Barbershop on Windsor…
Best Place For A First Date
Gold Winner Halifax waterfront Silver Winner Stillwell Beergarden Bronze Winner The Board Room Game Cafe OK Halifax, when you finally decide to swipe right on someone, it seems the best spot to meet up and gauge if there’s any IRL chemistry is the super-scenic waterfront. It’s a foolproof plan: If things go well, you can…
Best Instagram Account
Gold Winner @halifaxnoise Silver Winner @allieandsam Bronze Winner @dave.culligan For as long as there’s been a Best Instagram category (ahem, three years) Kate Ross’ @halifaxnoise has been snagging the gold. For 2018, the tradition continues as Ross’ gathering and re-sharing of shots ranging from cute pups to local scenery to happenings about town sees her…
Best Gallery
Gold Winner Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Silver Winner Argyle Fine Art Bronze Winner The Dart Gallery After a banner visitor year following the release of the Maud Lewis biopic Maudie, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia has not rested on its movie-fuelled laurels. The usual interesting and innovative array of exhibitions has abounded since…
Best Blues Artist / Band
Gold Winner Garrett Mason Silver Winner Charlie A’court Bronze Winner Shirley Jackson and her Good Rockin’ Daddies Garrett Mason keeps a low profile—no website or social media; his last Facebook post is from 2014—yet you manage to find him. Perhaps it’s the siren song of his guitar, or maybe you were a fan of his…
Best Music Video
Gold Winner Classified, “Powerless” Silver Winner Quake Matthews & Neon Dreams, “Confessions” Bronze Winner The Town Heroes, “Poets” The emo-indie rock quartet Kids Losing Sleep has just one recorded song to its name, “In Love No More,” three-and-a-half minutes of guitar-driven youthful turmoil. And it’s definitely grabbed your attention—KLS has won Best New Artist over…
Best Milkshake
Gold Winner Darrell’s Restaurant Silver Winner The Chickenburger Bronze Winner Ardmore Tea Room Your love is better than ice cream, according to Darrell’s boss man Dan Joseph, who’s been perfecting those thicker-than-all-get-out shakes for a quarter century and change. He says hearing positive feedback from customers is what he works for even 26 years in.…
Best International Grocer
Gold Winner Pete’s Frootique & Fine Foods, Halifax Silver Winner Italian Market Bronze Winner Tian Phat Shopping at Pete’s Frootique doesn’t offer the same depth of products, shockingly low prices and small-business support that comes from patronizing Tian Phat, the Italian Market or any number of the tiny storefront grocers popping up (to our delight)…
Best Family Restaurant
Gold Winner Mic Mac Bar & Grill Silver Winner The Armview Restaurant & Lounge Bronze Winner Palladium Family Restaurant Tradition is the centrepiece at most families’ tables, and the same goes for ye olde Mic Mac Bar & Grill. While the reasons this classic spot is good for the whole family are plenty—unpretentious atmosphere, crowd-pleasing…
Best Twitterer
Gold Winner @HalifaxReTales Silver Winner @halifaxnoise Bronze Winner @evilpez4 Once more does @HalifaxReTales (Arthur Gaudreau, to his friends) walk away with gold in perhaps the most coveted Best of Halifax award of them all. Certainly, it’s the most publicly contested. ReTales channels local business news and combines it with on-the-pulse commentary and localized meme-making—giving him…
Best Gluten-free Friendly
Gold Winner The Wooden Monkey, Halifax Silver Winner enVie a vegan kitchen Bronze Winner The Foggy Goggle When the diners speak, The Wooden Monkey listens. That’s why manager Adam Savelle says the long-loved, uber-local restaurant takes the flourless cake in this category yet again. “We started 14 years ago we had one or two gluten-free…
Best Moving Company
Gold Winner Two Men and a Truck Silver Winner Munden’s Moving & Storage Bronze Winner Able Movers What’s to like about moving? Heavy boxes, packing, cleaning and probably an argument with your mom. Two Men and a Truck know the stress that moving can put on a person. Tammy Downey is the head of customer…
Best Indie Gift Shop
Gold Winner Black Market Boutique Silver Winner Made in the Maritimes Artisan Boutique, Bedford Bronze Winner Kept Gifts & Housewares The Black Market Boutique’s colourful exterior (and interior) is as recognizable to the average Haligonian as Pizza Corner nearby. Black Market is cozy and welcoming the moment you step inside, with the scent of unlit…
Best Esthetician
Gold Winner Natalie MacDonald, WAXON Laser + Waxbar Silver Winner Katherine Hanlon, Dime Salon Bronze Winner Jennifer MacAskill, Zig Zag Hair Salon “I’m sort of surprised to have won this award because I’m still rather new to the industry,” Natalie MacDonald of WAXON starts off. “I’ve been doing this work for three-and-a half-years.” She attributes…
Best Cafe
Gold Winner Two If By Sea Silver Winner Dilly Dally Coffee Cafe Bronze Winner The Nook on Gottingen “This has been a year of growth and reflection for the TIBS crew,” says Tara MacDonald upon hearing of the downtown Dartmouth institution’s repeat gold win for Best Cafe. After allegations of sexual misconduct, Two If By…
Best Library
Gold Winner Halifax Central Library Silver Winner Keshan Goodman Bronze Winner Alderney Gate Public Library “If you haven’t visited a library lately, it’s not your library of yesterday,” Central Library manager Sharon Haley-Mancini. Nowhere is this more plainly true than at the iconic Central branch, where Haley-Mancini lists “concerts, social engagement speakers, a media studio,…
Best Photographer
Gold Winner Stoo Metz Silver Winner Chillin’ With Bernie Bronze Winner Meghan Tansey Whitton It’s a threepeat for Metz, a photographic fixture around town. Big gigs this past year include Halifax Pride, the city’s Canada Day concert at Alderney Landing and becoming Neptune Theatre’s production photographer. Despite the sweet assignments, Metz doesn’t slack off. “I…
Best Classical Artist / Group
Gold Winner Symphony Nova Scotia Silver Winner Halifax Music Co-op Bronze Winner Maureen Batt “We’re so honoured to win Best of Halifax again this year. Thanks to our community’s enthusiastic support, we had an amazing year,” says Symphony Nova Scotia’s gold-gilded CEO Chris Wilkinson, adding two-thirds of the season was sold out. “It’s such a…
Best New Artist / Band
Gold Winner Kids Losing Sleep Silver Winner Elijah Will Bronze Winner No, It’s Fine. The emo-indie rock quartet Kids Losing Sleep has just one recorded song to its name, “In Love No More,” three-and-a-half minutes of guitar-driven youthful turmoil. And it’s definitely grabbed your attention—KLS has won Best New Artist over the Classified-backed Elijah Will.…
Best Specialty Coffee
Gold Winner Two If By Sea Cafe Silver Winner Java Blend Coffee Roasters Bronze Winner Weird Harbour Espresso Bar “Eat butter, drink drip” is a sort of slogan for downtown Dartmouth cafe Two If By Sea, but this award is shouting out the espresso-based delights. (Sorry, drip.) Using transparently sourced beans from roastery-next-door’s Anchored Coffee,…
Best Liquor / Wine Store
Gold Winner Bishop’s Cellar Silver Winner Rockhead Wine + Beer Bronze Winner The Port by NSLC The folks at Bishop’s Cellar were a little bit ahead of their time when the boutique liquor store opened back in 2003, stocking its shelves with not just hard-to-find beer and wine from around the world, but locally made…
Best Donair
Gold Winner Tony’s Famous Donairs & Pizza Silver Winner Johnny K’s Authentic Donairs Bronze Winner Alexandra’s Pizza Hall of fame King of Donair, Quinpool Road “There are so many great options but to be chosen number one is definitely humbling, it shows you you’re doing something right,” says Leo Salloum, whose family has been running…
Best Atmosphere
Gold Winner Lot Six Bar & Restaurant Silver Winner The Bicycle Thief Bronze Winner EDNA When people think of the vibe at Lot Six, it’s always all about the atrium says manager Sarah Amyotte. “When we first opened everyone was in awe of the glass roof, but as we grew out of the terrible twos…
Best Greek Restaurant
Gold Winner Ela! Greek Taverna, Bayers Lake Silver Winner Athens Restaurant Bronze Winner The Blue Olive Greek Taverna “Doesn’t Athens always win?” asks manager Tanya Wilkinson. Depends on how well you know your history. While Quinpool Road’s Athens Restaurant has dominated the highly contested category of Best Greek Restaurant for the past five years, Ela!…
Best Plumber
Gold Winner Tammy Buchanan, Small Jobs Plumbing Silver Winner Bremner’s Plumbing Bronze Winner Brian Clarke Plumbing and Heating Tammy Buchanan’s 12-hour days keep her pretty occupied. When Buchanan finally gets a chance, she steps out of a job for a quick five minute chat with The Coast regarding her third gold win. Business is booming…
Best Jewellery Store
Gold Winner Fireworks Gallery Silver Winner Black Market Boutique Bronze Winner Earth Goddess Shop “Oh my gosh, we’ve started a trend here!” says Shannon Snelgrove, sales manager at Fireworks Gallery when we call to deliver the good news. Fireworks has won gold so consistently that they are making room for a plaque specific wall in…
Best Hair Salon
Gold Winner Bowtique Hair & Makeup, downtown Silver Winner Tidal Hair Lounge Bronze Winner Spirit Spa, downtown When asked why Bowtique routinely places in the top three salons in town, Meg Ryan comes back with a simple response: “The staff are awesome and the vibes are chill,” she says. “There are a lot of good…
Best Place To Go Swimming
Gold Winner Rainbow Haven Provincial Park Silver Winner Conrad’s Beach Bronze Winner Martinique Beach Summer was an unending wave of humidity, so colour us shocked that once again beach-bum Haligonians spent those precious few hot months kicking back by the water. Another non-shock to the system is that once again readers have voted Rainbow Haven…
Best Member Of Parliament
Gold Winner Andy Fillmore Silver Winner Darren Fisher Bronze Winner Geoff Regan Andy Fillmore was too busy meeting with Irving Shipyard workers to get back to us about his repeat win for Best Member of Parliament, but it’s understandable. Right now, he has a lot on his plate. Unionized shipbuilders and the Irvings are striking…
Best Theatre Actor
Gold Winner Kathryn McCormack Silver Winner Ben Stone Bronze Winner Mary Fay Coady After a few years out of the running following a hat trick, Kat McCormack has come roaring back with a gold win, though she’s a little sad her victory comes at the expense of her Zuppa Theatre co-workers Ben Stone and Mary…
Best Country Artist / Band
Gold Winner Makayla Lynn Silver Winner Brooklyn Blackmore Bronze Winner Samantha Power Makayla Lynn is so country she’s calling from Nashville, where she’s been on a writing trip. “I’m here for the next couple weeks, hanging out and writing music,” says the East Hants native. Writing music means co-writing two songs a day, with different…
Best Open Mic Night
Gold Winner $Rockin’ 4 Dollar$ Silver Winner Oasis Open Mic Bronze Winner Rockbottom Open Mic with Noah Tye “This was the biggest, most exciting and certainly most chaotic year of our existence,” says Craig Hamlin, who runs R4D with Adrian Bruhm. “In just the past 12 months we were at Reflections, The Seahorse and The…
Best Tea
Gold Winner World Tea House Silver Winner David’s Tea Bronze Winner Sense and SensibiliTea Being the sole tea lover among your coffee-drinking friends is tough.“Can I get a matcha latte?” you ask innocently, while the barista looks at you as if you have three heads. It might feel as though some cafes only sell jet-black…
Best Fitness Instructor
Gold Winner Alan Dalton, Evolve Fitness Silver Winner Janessa Klatt, ProEdge Sports Conditioning Bronze Winner Amber Allan, Canada Games Centre There is a distinction to be made between personal training and fitness instruction, but it doesn’t really matter in this case. Alan Dalton, your gold-winning Best Fitness Instructor, works with your gold-certified Best Personal Trainer,…
Best Fine Dining
Gold Winner The Bicycle Thief Silver Winner Chives Canadian Bistro Bronze Winner EDNA Fine dining spots have a lot more than the food itself to take into consideration. When has anyone chowing down at a lunch counter or greasy spoon ever been concerned with lighting, music or how comfo-rtable their chair was, for instance? (Answer:…
Best Bedford Restaurant
Gold Winner il Mercato Trattoria Silver Winner The Chickenburger Bronze Winner Finbar’s Irish Pub The Bedford iteration of il Mercato has been treating local lovers of Italian cuisine to big-ass pasta dishes, full-bodied glasses of wine and towering desserts for 15 years, putting mall restaurants around the municipality to shame with its very un-mall atmosphere.…
Best Hotel Restaurant
Gold Winner Gio, The Prince George Hotel Silver Winner TEMPO Food + Drink, Delta Barrington Bronze Winner Redwood Grill, Future Inns Halifax Unlike Montreal or New York, hotel dining can be a daunting choice for Halifax’s young urbanites—especially given the boom in this city’s restaurant scene over the past few years. Gio perseveres. After over…
Best Real Estate Agent
Gold Winner James Dwyer Silver Winner Robert Scanlan Bronze Winner Rosie Porter James Dwyer got into the real estate business six years ago, at a time when he says the industry was at a crossroads. “Who better to shape and define a community in a positive way than a real estate agent?” he asked himself.…
Best Musical Instrument Store
Gold Winner Long & McQuade, Halifax Silver Winner Halifax Folklore Centre Bronze Winner Gig Street There are three Long & McQuade stores in the municipality, and all of them are working hard to be the best. “Bedford and Dartmouth both recently renovated,” says Halifax store manager John Parker. “At some point they might eat my…
Trump’s words have weaponized terror
Words cannot adequately express my outrage at the attempted bombings against one of the most reliable sources of journalism in America and on this planet. It is heartbreaking to imagine what CNN workers and their families went through as these attempted bombings unfolded. Likewise for the families of the Democratic politicians, liberal supporters and Trump critics…


