Update, Oct. 23, 2026: Best of Boston 2026 now has 22 categories. Boston Weekly added Best Restaurant and Best Tech Startup, plus Fan of the Year awards for Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox and Patriots fans.
Boston Weekly is accepting nominations for its Best of Boston 2026 awards, a newspaper-run program covering 16 categories for businesses, places, individuals and organizations. Each submission costs $20, and editors will select the winners rather than put the nominees to a public vote.
The program includes 10 awards for businesses and places and six community honors. Anyone may submit a nomination. No deadline has been announced, so the nomination period is open without a published closing date.
The selection process centers on the case presented for a nominee, not the volume of entries submitted on that nominee’s behalf. Editors will review all submissions, check the finalists and choose the winners. Both winners and finalists will appear on Boston Weekly’s awards page, accompanied by explanations of their selection.
Which categories are open?
The business and place awards include several food categories: Best Seafood, Best Bakery and Best Pizza. Other dining honors are Best New Restaurant and Best Brunch, while Best Neighborhood Bar and Best Coffee Shop round out the food-and-drink selections.
The remaining three categories in that group are Best Fitness Studio, Best Local Shop and Best Bookstore. Together, those 10 awards cover the program’s business-and-place portion, separate from its recognition of people and organizations.
Among the community honors are Rising Artist and Local Hero. The program also includes Volunteer of the Year and Nonprofit of the Year. Two additional honors recognize an Educator of the Year and a Small Business Owner of the Year.
These are categories within Boston Weekly’s own awards program. The community portion expands the nominations beyond destinations and storefronts to include individuals and organizations alongside the business awards.
How to submit a nomination
The nomination form is available at thebostonweekly.com/awards/nominate. Payment options include a card, Google Pay and Apple Pay. The $20 charge applies to each nomination, rather than serving as a single fee for multiple entries.
There is no overall limit on how many nominations someone can make. The restriction applies to each pairing of nominee and category: a person may nominate a particular candidate only once within that category. Additional submissions must therefore be for a different nominee or a different category.
How editors will decide
Paying to nominate does not turn an entry into a vote. Under the announced process, nomination totals will not determine who wins; editors will weigh the strength of the case made for recognition.
The newsroom’s stated review covers every nomination, with checks on finalists before winners are chosen. Publication will include the reasons honorees stood out, rather than only a list of names.
What’s next: Nominations remain open, with a closing date still unannounced. Following the editorial selection process, Boston Weekly will publish the winners and finalists at thebostonweekly.com/awards.
