BEST OF EVANSTON The Daily Northwestern PRESENTS 20 23 WINNERS

Letter from the editor: Celebrating Evanston businesses

Every year, The Daily Northwestern shows our appreciation and support for the business owners and employees that make Evanston one-of-a-kind. After hundreds of votes, The Daily Northwestern’s annual Best of Evanston edition is here. As a Chicago native with familial ties to Evanston, I was a frequent visitor; from a young age, it was clear to me that the city’s businesses are the backbone of the community. In my time as a Daily reporter, I’ve also had the opportunity to report on some Evanston storefronts and seen firsthand the incredible impacts they are making.

This is why I’ve looked forward to serving as the Best of Evanston editor and celebrating this city’s vibrant economy ever since joining The Daily. Throughout the past month, my fellow editors and I crafted a unique design, brainstormed and executed new multimedia elements and created new categories to represent Evanston businesses as best as possible. This issue is a product of that work and, although it was fun, it was a challenging undertaking I could not have completed without the rest of The Daily staff.

We’ve compiled a list of your 19 favorite restaurants and businesses, and commemorated four businesses that closed their doors this year.

I encourage you to grab your friends and visit the winners to see firsthand why these businesses have been voted the best and learn more about their role in the community. Lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current state of our economy have made owning and operating a business today very difficult, and they need your help now more than ever to survive.

— Ella Jeffries