The ‘Best of’ Everything

If it’s August, it’s time to share what you, dear readers, have selected as the annual Best of Lake Norman CURRENTS award winners. It’s a “who’s who” of the region’s most remarkable restaurants, dazzling designers, pet pamperers, master massage therapists and glamorous gift shops.

Lake Norman has so much to offer, and it just keeps getting better year after year – which makes it that much more difficult when August rolls around and there can be only one winner in each category. It’s tempting to want to add categories as our towns continue to grow and thrive, but it’s important to keep this list as exclusive as it’s come to be known and not dilute it with what would be some interesting – but far from popular – categories. For instance, here are some of the ideas we’ve kicked around but ultimately rejected, mostly out of fear that we wouldn’t receive a single nomination (for obvious reasons):

• Best Stretch of I-77

• Best Major Intersection

• Best Quiet Cove (who on earth would want to dime out their secret place to park and swing off an anchor?)

• Best Road Construction Project

• Best Homeowners Association

• Best Carpool Line

• Best Town Board of Commissioners Meeting (Editor’s Note: as a former municipal government wonk, I would vote for Huntersville’s as the one Most Likely for a Food Fight to Break Out; Davidson’s as the one Most Likely for an Impromptu Group Hug; and Mooresville’s as the one for Best Odds for Yet Another Massive Development Project)

Yep, our towns certainly have it all ... the great and the not-so-grand. But we did stumble across something that everyone needs to know and would likely agree upon: a one-time category called Best Use of Personalized Stationery. Trevor Burton, our brilliant wine connoisseur and commentator, received a heartfelt, handwritten note from a reader to thank him for a recent article. She wrote:

I always enjoy reading your columns in CURRENTS and have saved a few since moving here in 2015. One of these was an article about Le Train Bleu. Recently, my husband and I were in Paris (on a Paris — Normandy cruise) and we went to Le Train Bleu. Since we had meals on the ship, we only had cocktails, but we had a wonderful time. The place is beyond beautiful! We told several people on the cruise who were extending in Paris following the cruise and hopefully some of them will go there. The waiter was amazed that “his restaurant” was written up in a magazine in the U.S. Thanks for the review. A votre santé – Dottie Kosicki

Not only was it kind of her to reach out personally to Mr. Burton, but we stand amazed that the art of a handwritten note (in cursive, nonetheless) has not completely disappeared and thank her for taking the few minutes it took out of her day to send her thoughts this way.

Come to think of it, maybe there is one category we should add, because the voting would be easy to tabulate. It’s unanimous, Lake Norman CURRENTS has the Best Readership Imaginable.

— LH

Co-Editor

Lori Helms Lori@LNCurrents.com

MacAdam Smith Mac@LNCurrents.com

Advertising Director

Sharon Simpson Sharon@LNCurrents.com

Co-Editor

Tony Ricciardelli Tony@LNCurrents.com

Advertising Sales Executives

Carole Lambert Carole@LNCurrents.com

Beth Packard Beth@LNCurrents.com

Trisha Robinson Trisha@LNCurrents.com

Event Coordinator

Publisher Social Media Specialist

Alison Smith Alison@LNCurrents.com

Lauren Platts social@lncurrents.com

Design & Production idesign2, inc

Contributing Writers

Becky Aijala

Trevor Burton

Kathy Dicken

Mickey Dunaway

Bek Mitchell-Kidd

Lara Tumer

Allie Spencer

Contributing Photographers

Jon Beyerle

Lisa Crates