BARTENDER’S OR BARISTA’S CHOICE

The Coveted Simply the Best Award

Story By Patti Boccassini-Hill

How it All Started

What could we come up with that would tout the new Harrisburg Magazine, as well as be a great marketing campaign for local businesses? It was the year 1997, during an inbound plane ride from a City/Regional Magazine Association (CRMA) Publishers’ convention in Minneapolis, MN, that “Simply the Best” was born.

The very first Simply the Best awards party was held in September of that year, upstairs at the Appalachian Brewing Company pub on Cameron Street, Harrisburg, with nearly 200 people in attendance. We were thrilled. We gave out small, inexpensive acrylic star statues with their name engraved on them along with their category. The following year, the event was held with almost 350 people. The annual event increasingly grew, and on 9/9/99 the party was held at the new Whitaker Center for the Science and the Arts. Still growing in attendance, in 2000 we moved to the Hilton downtown, with the awards ceremony being held outside on the patio and the ballroom turned into dancing to the beat of the fabulous and eclectic Big Tubba Mista. Quickly realizing this marketing idea was becoming big, we trademarked the Simply the Best logo. Sure enough, as the years followed, other local publications started having “best of” issues. The gala was gaining recognition as the “party of the year” for Central PA, and, with the help of the JDK Group, it was kicked up a notch. The ballroom at the Radisson Penn Harris was decked out like no other venue. In 2001, Mike Miller of Mixed-up Productions was raised up in the air above the dance floor to the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Each year grew to be bigger and better. By 2013, we had to turn people away, as the limit in the ballroom was 800 people.

Half-time shows showcased models dressed in flower bikinis; the Garden of the Good and Evil décor; Japanese Gardens with dancers, just to name a few. And the food – over 18 local restaurants who either won Simply the Best or Readers’ Choice honors provided amazing cuisine from which to choose. This wasn’t a typical awards show.

In the beginning, the ballots, which were in the first three issues of the year, were counted by hand. By the fifth year we realized it was just too much to handle, and ballots were put online, tallied, and verified.

What started out with approximately 25 categories such as best power lunch, best hot dog, best martini, best steak, best hospital, best hotel and so on, has grown into the most successful marketing campaign for both the magazine and the winners. Over the years the event became a fund raiser with silent auctions as well as a portion of the proceeds from advertising dollars benefitting different nonprofit organizations. Giving back to the community was deep in our hearts.

Who knows, those original acrylic star awards from 25 years ago may be worth some money someday. Congratulations to all the winners. You make this community thrive. 7

Patti Boccassini-Hill was the former Publisher and Editor-in-chief of Harrisburg Magazine. Patti semi-retired in 2014, and now works part time at Triscari Video|Web| Marketing in Camp Hill, PA as a project manager, and contributing writer for PA State Association of Boroughs’ magazine, The Borough News.

Introspection

“The goal is not to be better than the other man, but your previous self.” — The Dalai Lama

This month marks one year since I came on board as Managing Editor. Though my name was in the masthead for the 2021 August issue, I wouldn’t actually begin writing content for the magazine until September. To quote myself (how often does anyone get to do that!) from my very first Introspection, I said back then that I was “determined to have a blast as Editor, by helping our readers have one, too.”

It would be an understatement to say it truly has been a blast guiding our editorial content for the past 12 months – and I can safely say it’s been one of the best 12 months of my career. And, ironically, seeing as how I first moved to Harrisburg 25 years ago, I feel a strange kinship with the magazine’s annual Simply the Best, which also is celebrating its 25th anniversary this month.

Therefore, being able to witness first-hand the behind-the-scenes process of the building and promoting, the tabulating and publishing of our biggest project of the year, has been both humbling and enthralling.

What have I learned from being one of the many cogs in the Simply

the Best machine? Mainly, something akin to what the Dalai Lama once said. For our Simply the Best and Readers’ Choice honorees aren’t recognized merely as people and businesses who are better than others; but rather are the best versions of themselves, constantly aspiring to improve upon their relationships with the Greater Harrisburg region. I know for a fact that Harrisburg Magazine has helped me to work more on my relationship with the local community – and hence, I feel like a better, more-rounded person myself. To everyone who participated in the 2022 version of Simply the Best – including those who may have narrowly missed out on their own laurels – I say, “job well done!”

In these pages our readers will, of course, find our annual list of those who earned the esteemed distinction of Simply the Best – 471 honorees in approximately 200 categories! But, in our continuing efforts to improve our magazine, you’ll find plenty of other “cream of the crop” features and articles.

For starters, there are our first-ever Simply the Art honorees, local talents in both the visual and performing arts arenas who were recognized last month at a special gathering at the Smith Gallery and Fine Custom Framing in New Cumberland. With any luck, and with the able assistance of my newly promoted assistant, Arts & Entertainment Editor Christina Heintzelman (who was the driving force behind this year’s Simply the Art), the plan will be to further expand the boundaries of the awards in 2023.

Christina’s Artful Inspirations feature this month focuses on the works of an artist whose paintings not only are among the best the region has to offer but will figure prominently in this year’s Simply the Best Gala, scheduled for September 1st at the Penn Harris Hotel Harrisburg. Stuart Leask’s “State Street Reflections,” a beautiful nighttime rendition of State Street looking east to the State Capitol, will be the centerpiece of our fundraising efforts for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society the night of the event.

An additional piece by Christina profiles a woman who could easily top “best of” lists in the fields of nursing, education – and humanitarianism. “A Life Well Lived” is exactly that, the tale of Darlene Oordt Dykema, who definitely holds a top spot on her brother (and magazine owner) Darwin Oordt’s pedestal.

In this month’s Influencer, freelancer Paul Hood examines the lofty and quite noble mission of ex-NFL player Garry Gilliam, Jr., a Milton Hershey School grad and Founder and CEO of The Bridge, a “for-purpose” real estate development company looking to turn the old Bishop McDevitt High School grounds into a self-sustainable eco-village.

One of the best mixologists you’re likely to find in Central Pennsylvania is this month’s Bartender’s Choice bartender Lauren Hench, anointed a “mad scientist” behind the bar at Old Trail Tavern in Liverpool by co-workers who marvel at the multiple versions of new potent potables she creates on a regular basis.

Harrisburg Magazine also strives to bring you some of the best literature and humor we can gather, and hopefully this month’s contributions won’t disappoint. Julia Tilley’s “Friday Night at the Drive-In” is a poetic snapshot in time for summertime outdoor movie aficionados; fiction writer Roni Fogelman makes her print premiere with “Fifteen,” a tale that’s both nostalgic and tragic; The Cercus cartoonist Brad Maurer decides to “stray” away from insects for a moment for some laughs about cats; and, as always, satirist Bill Roddey will “bite” you with some acerbic – and quite topical - one-liners.

And don’t forget our columns! Alex Brubaker’s By the Book previews the annual Harrisburg Book Festival; in Postcards From … author Steven G. Williams discusses how to mitigate the effects of “overtourism”; Barbara Trainin Blank previews Narcisse Theatre Company’s production of Antigone at Italian Lake in Theatre Thoughts; Andrea Reed suggests foods that are good sources of prebiotics in Nourishing Bites; Kristen Zellner evaluates the nutritional plusses and minuses of name brand pet foods in For the Love of Pets; Film & TV historian Kevyn Knox sings the praises of the little-seen gem “Johnny Guitar” in Cinematic Ramblings; in The Finance Hound, Bryson Roof answers the question “what happens to our money when we die?”; and finally, HACC’s Robert Stakem takes aim at home gun safety in Tailboard Talk. 7

Keep striving to be “Simply Your Best!”

RG

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