The Sad City Ballot

It's election time across the U.S. on Sad City, and in Harford as the Advocate Best Of voting is underway. Last year, our first in existence, we didn't win, place or show in the Best Local Blog category that was won by a cooking blog. Colin McEnroe's To Wit was the only Hartford blog represented finishing third after winning two years in a row. Sad City did finish second to CT News Junkie (of whose network we are now a member of, if you can't beat em....) in the Best Hyper Local News Site, a pretty good achievement for a six-month old blog that doesn't even try and bill itself as a news site. We thank you very much.

Sad City has now been cranking out posts for a whole year and a half (seems like longer than that doesn't it?) and it's time to vote again. We could simply just ask you to vote for us in a few categories and post the link, but what fun is that? Seeing as how we are the silver medalists in "Best Hyper Local New Site" we thought we would give a look at our ballot before you went to CTNow.com and cast your vote for Sad City. Without any further ado presenting the always unbiased, Fair And Balanced Sad City Best Of 2012 ballot.

BARS & CLUBS

BEST ADULT ENTERTAINMENT CLUB: 

We'd love to support Hartford and vote for the Gold Club but as ardent supporters of worker's rights and having read the Advocate's cover story on the Gold Club using questionable methods to get dancers to sign a very Club friendly employment contract, we just can't cast that vote. Good job by The Advocate covering an underreported story on workers' and women's rights. Exploiting a vulnerable class is not what Sad City supports. 

ABSTAIN

BEST BAR: 

Easy choice. Great beer, great prices, great bartender, no live music, lots of tv's, baseball cards, old sports memorabilia and Golden Tee. A no-brainer.

The Spigot Cafe.

BEST BARTENDER: 

Another no-brainer. Cancels out liking Yankees by liking NASCAR. Some points deducted for supporting the 88 car, but then again that's become akin to liking the Mets. He didn't make "Hot In Hartford 2012" by not being the best bartender in town.

Johnny Spigot.

BEST BATHROOM: 

This is as much as "most improved" vote as a best vote. Once Hartford's Most Awkward Bathroom, the Sad City good deed team was on the case and will take credit for the dividers being put in. Just another example of Sad City getting things done. 

Great job Half Door!

BEST BEER SELECTION IN BOTTLES: 

Another easy win. You can stand there, look at the bottles and space out for as long as you want before you select one of the wide and varied options. What more could you want? (Watermelon Ale)

The Spigot Cafe

BEST BEER SELECTION ON TAP: 

This one took a lot of thinking. The Spigot is good, Half Door is good. City Steam is cool and has their own thing going. We have to give it up to a West Hartford spot on this one.

Plan B

BEST BREW PUB:

No competition here.

City Steam

BEST CHEAP BEER:

Excuse me sirs, but I think you meant to say "Old Time Classic" beer.

The Spigot Cafe

BEST COLLEGE BAR & BEST PLACE TO GO AFTER THE BARS CLOSE:

We are in our 30's and don't feel qualified to vote. How depressing is that?

Abstain

BEST PLACE TO HOOK UP:

We've been through this before. We aren't qualified for this one. 

Abstain

BEST HAPPY HOUR:

Lots of good candidates here. Chili's is not one of them.

Trumbull Kitchen

BEST NEIGHBORHOOD BAR: 

Kind of a bizarre category since it's going to be very dependent on where you live.

Mario's Cafe

BEST NEW BAR:

Best decor too.

The Russian Lady

BEST PUB:

McKinnon's places second here, but note, after a Whale game you can go to McKinnon's and get a buy one, get one drink deal with your ticket stub. The bathroom radio is pretty amusing. 

Half Door

BEST SPORTS BAR: 

We hate the "Sports Bar" designation so this is an abstain. 

WHEW. Intermission. 

This ballot is huge. Let's chop it down a bit. We aren't going to vote on the Books, CD, DVD's, (CDs, seriously?), Driving, Drinks (Hooker Watermelon), Getting Married (ask Jumper), Health and Beauty (we have neither), Home and Garden (ditto), Live Music (too old), Professional Services (haven't used them), Shopping (Amazon), Sports & Fitness (does fantasy baseball count?),  The Arts, and People & Places.

Ok, that makes life easier. Let's return to our ballot! 

RESTAURANTS

BEST AMERICAN/CONTINENTAL

Tough call with Trumbull Kitchen. More unique menu takes it.

Firebox

BEST BAR & GRILL:

Too early to consider Burger Baby. Plan B is just short here.

Max Burger

BEST BREAKFAST SPOT:

Apologies to Half Door, Mo's, Tisane, and East West Grill.

Goldberg's

BEST BUFFET: 

Slight in stature, buffets are never great deals for us. Is the Bellagio in the Advocate's voting range?

Royal Masala

BEST CHINESE:

Black Bamboo

BEST COLOMBIAN:

La Fonda

BEST DINER:

Mo's

BEST GREEK:

Slam. Dunk.

Tangier's

BEST INDIAN:

Kashmir

BEST IRISH:

It's more of a gastro pub than an Irish place. (Irish food isn't good)

Half Door

BEST ITALIAN:

We can still make better Sunday sauce than any of them.

Salute

BEST JAMAICAN:

Dunn's River

BEST JAPANESE:

Feng

BEST KOREAN:

Ichiro

BEST LOOKING WAITSTAFF:

Half Door

BEST MEDITERRANEAN:

Costa Del Sol

BEST MEXICAN:

So many awesome, awesome choices. We love Monte Alban and El Sarape but,

El Tepyac (or whatever it's called inside El Mercado)

BEST MIDDLE EASTERN:

Love them all but have to go with

Abbyssinian

BEST NEW PLACE:

Burger Baby

BEST OUTSIDE DINING:

Monte Alban

BEST PACIFIC RIM:

East West Grille

BEST PERUVIAN:

Cora Cora

BEST POLISH:

Polish National Home

BEST PORTUGUESE:

La Primavera

BEST PUB FOOD:

Half Door

BEST PUERTO RICAN:

Comerio

BEST RESTAURANT:

The El Mercado, not a restaurant itself, wins by having four awesome restaurants under one roof.

BEST SEAFOOD:

Max Oyster

BEST SUSHI:

Feng

BEST THAI:

Thai Truck

MEDIA

BEST HYPERLOCAL NEWS SITE

We were second place last year. 

Sad City Hartford

BEST LOCAL BLOG

Well this a slam dunk right? With all due respect to the others on the list, does anyone even approach the quality and quanity of Sad City posts?

Sad City Hartford

BEST LOCAL TWITTERER

Following us on Twitter gives you some additional insight into the Sad City world. We also promise wewon't even blow up your feed. Let's face it, no one needs to tweet over 20,000 times.

Sad City Hartford

BEST RADIO SHOW

We can't choose between our great friends Colin McEnroe and Craig The Porn Star

BEST TV NEWS ANCHOR

While Sad City friend Gerry Brooks used all his Jedi Mind tricks on us, he didn't understand the power of the dark side. We'll award the tiebreaker on being our neighbor.

Dennis House

BEST TV STATION

They have Survivor

WFSB

BEST TV WEATHERMAN

He's good on Twitter

Ryan  Hanrahan

Well that's it for us folks, take it for what it is. Hope you will cast your ballot and support us for Best blog, hyperlocal news site, and twitterer. We'll accept other categories you might think we deserve.