montereycountynow.com/bestof BEST OF MONTEREY COUNTY® 2025 11 Copyright © 2025 by Milestone Communications Inc. 668 Williams Ave., Seaside, California 93955 (telephone 831-394-5656). All rights reserved. Monterey County Weekly, the Best of Monterey County and the Best of Monterey Bay are registered trademarks. No person, without prior permission from the publisher, may take more than one copy of each issue. Additional copies and back issues may be purchased for $1, plus postage. Mailed subscriptions: $300 yearly, pre-paid. The Weekly is an adjudicated newspaper of Monterey County, court decree M21137. The Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Visit our website at http://www. montereycountynow.com. Audited by CVC. FOUNDER & CEO Bradley Zeve bradley@montereycountynow.com (x103) PUBLISHER Erik Cushman erik@montereycountynow.com (x125) EDITORIAL EDITOR Sara Rubin sara@montereycountynow.com (x120) ASSOCIATE EDITOR Erik Chalhoub ec@montereycountynow.com (x135) FEATURES EDITOR Dave Faries dfaries@montereycountynow.com (x110) STAFF WRITER Celia Jiménez celia@montereycountynow.com (x145) STAFF WRITER Pam Marino pam@montereycountynow.com (x106) STAFF WRITER Agata Pope¸da (x138) aga@montereycountynow.com STAFF WRITER Katie Rodriguez (California Local News Fellow) katie@montereycountynow.com (x102) STAFF WRITER David Schmalz david@montereycountynow.com (x104) STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Daniel Dreifuss daniel@montereycountynow.com (x140) DIGITAL PRODUCER Sloan Campi sloan@montereycountynow.com (x105) PRODUCTION ART DIRECTOR/PRODUCTION MANAGER Karen Loutzenheiser karen@montereycountynow.com (x108) GRAPHIC DESIGNER Kevin Jewell kevinj@montereycountynow.com (x114) GRAPHIC DESIGNER Annie Cobb annie@montereycountynow.com (x114) GRAPHIC DESIGNER Lani Headley lani@montereycountynow.com (x114) SALES SENIOR SALES EXECUTIVE Diane Glim diane@montereycountynow.com (x124) SENIOR SALES EXECUTIVE George Kassal george@montereycountynow.com (x122) SENIOR SALES EXECUTIVE Keith Bruecker keith@montereycountynow.com (x118) CLASSIFIEDS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Keely Richter keely@montereycountynow.com (x123) DIGITAL DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MEDIA Kevin Smith kevin@montereycountynow.com (x119) DISTRIBUTION DISTRIBUTION AT Arts Co. atartsco@gmail.com DISTRIBUTION CONTROL Harry Neal BUSINESS/FRONT OFFICE OFFICE MANAGER Linda Maceira linda@montereycountynow.com (x101) BOOKKEEPING Rochelle Trawick 668 Williams Ave., Seaside, CA 93955 831-394-5656, (FAX) 831-394-2909 www.montereycountynow.com WELCOME Who, what or which is the best? It’s exceedingly useful to have answers to these questions. When the Check Engine light comes on, when you need a dentist, when you’re looking for a good taqueria or have a tree that needs trimming, you want a recommendation. We turn to the Weekly’s readers for answers. This year, the readers made nominations in 272 categories and then voted on the finalists. It’s a little game we play every year, presenting the winners in this volume. As you will see in the following pages, the theme of the writeups this year is “games”— board games, card or dice games, video games, party games, even games we played in the backyard. One of the reasons we write with a theme in mind is to add some fun to the process, both of writing and reading about the Best of Monterey County. It’s also a fitting theme. In any group of people, there will be disagreements on the best game to play. In any list of the best people, places, shops or restaurants, there will also be some debate—it’s likely each of us will differ on a few of the winners presented in this magazine. But we’re playing dealer’s choice here, and the readers hold the cards. However, we have one little ace up our sleeves. In the final section—Editors’ Picks— we present just a few of the worthy choices that were perhaps overlooked. That said, we hope you enjoy the Best of Monterey County readers’ poll for 2025. -Dave Faries CONTENTS 12 Around Town 28 Arts & Entertainment 42 Agriculture 48 Shopping & Services 82 Restaurants 104 Specialty Foods 118 Editors’ Picks ’25 BEST OF MONTEREY COUNTY® ’25
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