Boston Weekly has added Best Restaurant and Best Tech Startup to its Best of Boston 2026 awards, expanding the program to 22 categories. Nominations are open, with each entry costing $20 and winners selected by editors rather than through a public vote.
The two additions recognize established dining favorites and Boston-area startups developing useful products while adding local jobs. They broaden the business portion of Boston Weekly’s own awards program, which already includes categories for food, retail and fitness businesses.
Anyone can submit a nomination at thebostonweekly.com/awards/nominate. There is no overall limit on how many nominations someone may make, but a nominator may submit a particular nominee only once in a given category. Payment options include a card, Google Pay and Apple Pay.
Which category fits?
Best Restaurant is intended for established favorites, whether a neighborhood dinner destination or a place reserved for a special occasion. The category asks nominators to make the case for the restaurant they would recommend to someone visiting the area.
That award is separate from Best New Restaurant, which remains available for restaurants that opened within the past year. The distinction gives nominators a way to recognize a longtime favorite without placing it in the category devoted to recent openings.
Best Tech Startup focuses on young Boston-area companies whose work is useful and whose growth is creating jobs locally. A nomination can explain what the company is developing, who benefits from it and why its work merits attention.
The additions sit alongside existing business awards covering pizza, coffee shops, bakeries, seafood, brunch and neighborhood bars. Bookstores, local shops and fitness studios also have their own categories, as do newly opened restaurants.
Making the case
The newsroom’s nomination guidance emphasizes specifics. Entries should identify the business and its neighborhood, explain what distinguishes it and describe how long the nominator has known it. The aim is to give editors a clear account of the business rather than simply register support.
For a restaurant, that explanation might center on a particular dish or the quality of service. For a startup, it can describe the product being built and the people it helps. Those details are among the examples the newsroom recommends when preparing an entry.
The number of submissions does not determine the result. Editors review each nomination, check the finalists and choose winners according to how compelling the submitted case is. The program does not include public voting, so submitting an entry is not the equivalent of casting a ballot.
The $20 charge applies to each nomination, including when someone nominates different businesses or submits entries in multiple categories. The one-entry restriction applies to each nominee within each category for that nominator.
What’s next: Nominations remain open, and the program has not announced a deadline. Boston Weekly will publish the winners and finalists on its awards page, along with explanations of what distinguished them.
