Is It Legit? Community Skeptical About ‘Best Of Southern Utah’ Contest

If you've lived in St. George, or ANY part of Southern Utah, you've probably heard of the 'Best Of Southern Utah' Awards. You may have heard of it regarding a restaurant, a carwash, schools, or a variety of other local businesses. You've probably seen the stickers in windows of these businesses, claiming they're the absolute BEST at whatever their business is. But the question is... IS IT LEGIT?

In the Facebook Group 'St. George Word Of Mouth', Garcia Ward posed the question to a poll: "What are your thoughts about the “Best of Southern Utah” contest? Is it fiction or fact?" Opinions from the community came flooding in and the results were SHOCKING. A total of 424 votes came in with a WHOPPING 405 votes (95%) voting "FICTION" while 19 votes (5%) said "FACT".

Comments on the poll were even more eye-opening than the results itself!

Now, these opinions don't mean the contest or awards aren't real. But it seems like the community is questioning the validity of the results. Is there really a true way of getting results that everyone is going to be happy with? I don't think so. It seems like there will always be people upset with results of contests like these.

Let's take some winners of Best Of Southern Utah and see if MY OPINION matches up with the winners.

2023 Best Ice Cream:
GOLD: Handel's Ice Cream
SILVER: Alumni Creamery

I have no problem with the results of this. Handel's is great, and the Alumni Creamery is awesome too!

2023 Best Cookies:
GOLD: Cookie Co.
SILVER: Fabulous Freddy's

I struggle with this one. Crumbl is one of the BIGGEST and FASTEST growing companies, they sell MILLIONS of cookies each year. I'm shocked Crumbl didn't make the list here.

2023 Best Soda:
GOLD: Splash @ Fabulous Freddy's
SILVER: Fiiz

This one is also a struggle for me. Where is Swig?! How is Swig not #1? They invented this category! But they're all pretty much the same anyway.

2023 Best All Around Restaurant:
GOLD: Red Fort Cuisine Of India
SILVER: Riggatti's Wood Fired Pizza

I'm PRETTY CLOSE to being okay with this one. Both Red Fort and Riggatti's are great. But I REALLY thought Sakura would win this award, and they didn't get Gold or Silver.

2023 Best Frozen Yogurt / Custard:
GOLD: Yogurtland
SILVER: Nielson's Frozen Custard

This is a smaller category, but I can agree to it. But who else could really have made the list? Culver's and Menchies are the only ones I can think of.

After all of this, if you've made it this far, I think you should make up your OWN MIND on the results of this contest, and next year we should ALL be voting and build the ABSOLUTE BEST LIST of Southern Utah's BEST in 2024!