Ballot Winners

Best of Seattle is a give-and-take thing. We've taken your answers— almost 50,000 of them—and created what we hope is our most entertaining, useful Best of Seattle issue yet. Now it's time for us to do some giving, to randomly selected readers who turned in ballots, online or via mail, with at least 10 categories filled out. First, though, we want to thank everyone who took the time to submit a ballot. Without you, Best of Seattle simply wouldn't be. And now, without further ado . . . 

FIRST PRIZE

Bud Kauffman of Bothell has won gift certificates for dinner at Earth & Ocean, one of Seattle Weekly's 100 Favorite Restaurants of 2005, where chef Maria Hines and pastry chef Sue McCown create a menu of beautiful, adventurous Northwest cuisine. Mr. Kauffman and a guest may enjoy magnificent entrées like free-range duck leg confit with grapes, spaetzle, and black walnuts, perhaps finishing the evening with warm pillow cakes served with Tonasket strawberry tar-tar and cayenne-honey ice cream. We wish Mr. Kauffman a lovely dinner.

SECOND PRIZES

But wait! There's more! Rodger Benson of Seattle and Becky Brooks of Issaquah each win a Seattle Weekly–themed prize package that includes CDs by Biography of Ferns and Carrie Akre, both 2005 nominees for SW Music Awards, as well as a copy of Best Places Northwest, published by Sasquatch Books, and a monogrammed SW multitool for you hands-on types—all contained in a sleek, diaphanous bag. Enjoy!