How to Vote in the 2025 Best of Rhode Island Readers’ Poll

You’ve been patiently waiting. And it’s almost here! Our Best of Rhode Island online readers’ poll, which runs April 1 to 30, goes live on Tuesday, April 1.

The annual contest, now in its thirty-second year, touches every corner of the state and, more importantly, it gives the reins to the locals. Whether you love a tiny salon in Burrillville or specialty food shop in Providence, we’re asking you to shout it from the rooftops (or, er, thoughtfully type it into the voting form on RIMonthly.com, live on April 1).

As usual, we’ve assembled a beast of a ballot with scores of categories — restaurant, salon, clam shack, fitness studio — in statewide and regional sections. We’re leaning on you, reader, to name the best of the best, but it needn’t be a big time commitment. You can scroll through and only fill in the categories that spark joy in your heart or fill your belly. For folks with opinions about everything: Welcome home. We can’t wait to see what you choose.

This year’s poll also includes some changes, as it does every year. We updated wording on several categories to be more specific or inclusive. Bar cocktail list is now Cocktail bar, and we added Mobile drink vendor in addition to the Mobile food vendor category. We also now have both Morning radio news show and Morning radio music show, but we eliminated Morning radio talk show host to add this new category and avoid redundancy.

To allow more local influencers a shot, we made categories more specific and added a new one. We now have Rhody-themed influencer and Rhody food influencer. We changed the wording for the category Beauty treatment (non-hair) to Beauty services (non-hair), to give beauty businesses that aren’t hair salons a shot, including nail salons, eyebrow businesses and waxing services. We also added Barber shop in statewide to give barbers a chance to win.

We also eliminated some categories because they didn’t achieve enough votes from year to year or are redundant, so that we could add some new ones.

Cocktail bar: Eligible for any bar business that is more focused on cocktails than food.

Mobile drink vendor: Can be a bar catering service, mobile trailer or cart, mobile bar service or pop-up bartender that serves alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks.

Mobile food vendor: A mobile food vendor can be a food truck, cart or even a pop-up vendor that serves food around the state.

Morning radio news show: A morning radio show focused on news topics and issues.

Morning radio music show: A radio show on a music station that discusses music, lifestyle topics and local events.

Rhody-themed influencer: Any influencer who focuses on Rhode Island topics on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or other social media outlets.

Rhody food influencer: A food influencer who primarily focuses on Rhode Island restaurants and food, or a Rhode Island-based influencer with a larger reach and national audience. Social media platforms can include Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and others.

Beauty services (non-hair): We heard from many lash salons, eyebrow threaders, facial specialists and spray tanning spots about not having a specific category for their businesses. While we cannot add categories for all of these specific treatments, because we already have 396 categories, we are adding a category for all beauty treatments at local businesses to compete. Just add the treatment and business name to nominate a place.

Barber shop: We brought back barber shop to give these small businesses a shot.

Local newspaper/online news source: Since we have categories for TV news anchors, morning TV shows, reporters and radio shows to compete, why not newspapers and other online news outlets?

So give us a little of your time and we’ll hand back a big, juicy Best of Rhode Island issue in August. The team at Rhode Island Monthly, and the state’s small business owners, thank you for your votes.

The official ballot will go live on April 1 on RIMonthly.com!

If you operate a local business and want to rally your fans for the vote, download our free voting widgets for your website or social channels. Plus, consult this tips sheet for answers to your most pressing Best of Rhode Island questions.

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