The voting for the inaugural Birmingham Independent Food Business of the year 2010 is now open! We’ve had some great nominations over the past few days, and now you have a week to have your say on who you think should win the award. Who’s done the most to promote good food and drink this year in Brum? Who’s brought great new products to the market, done things differently, taught us about food or drink, got people excited about food, or promoted Birmingham as a food destination? Have your say until New Years Day, voting is open below – you can only vote once, any duplicate votes from your IP address will not be counted!
surely the two businesses who requested their facebook fans to vote should be disqualified or at least have their score heavily doctored to take it into account? that skews the balance massively and gives them a huge advantage over all the other deserving businesses who didn’t take part in any underhanded tactics to ‘win’.
Totally disagree with you Alex! How can you call these two “underhand”!!! It’s called community support. If you bothered to read the posts of, say, Capeling & Co, you would see that the updates are almost daily, the content lovingly crafted and exactly how you gain support for your business.
Any of the companies listed could do the same. If they haven’t, then maybe this will spur them on. The supporters of these food businesses are passionate, creative and community-focussed. Please don’t criticise as it just seems like sour-grapes for your choice/business not being on the ball. Be more positive, eh? I know which business I have voted for, but even if they come further down the list, I believe that it is legitimate garnering of support. If they aren’t any good, or give poor service, or aren’t liked…..no-one will vote for them!!! Oh look, they are getting votes. Good for them, they must be worthy winners. So Happy New Year, Alex. Maybe start 2011 on a more upbeat note? 😉
Seems as though Capeling and Co have clinched it, but I’ll just check for any duplicate voting and announce the official winner in a couple of days. As Colin says it’s just a bit of fun really, and with an online competition it’s fairly likely that business that are active online stand a better chance, but it’s noteworthy that Rossiters came a worthy third and they do nothing online whatsoever. Well done everyone, and thanks for taking part!
Tom.
Thanks to the people who voted for us and congrats to Capeling & Co for winning. Must pay a visit sometime soon 🙂
yes, my words were overly strong, so i apologise for those. it is all just a fun little award afterall but it just seems to go against the spirit of the voting system to me. every business mentioned deverses a win (along with all the other local ones who keep an interesting and diverse food scene alive) i just would’ve liked to see a completely fair vote which was representative of the opinion of the readers of the Loaf blog, rather than seeing how many other votes people could conjure up from outside sites.
perhaps i do sound sour grapes, but at the end of the day i’ve learned of a few more businesses to try out, so i’m happy on the inside 😉
Actually, here’s a couple of thoughts:
I discovered a couple of food businesses as a direct result of a Facebook request, so that worked for all of them.
I’m surprised at the lack of votes for certain companies as they were suggested by seemingly lots of people who then did’t vote.
Yes, it’s an online vote supported by people who are…online!
And finally, congratulations to Capeling & Co: if you want a good chat about cheese and what type goes well with what other food/drink, pop in and chat to David.
I will be checking out Urban Coffee which I’d never heard of till yesterday! Win for them too! Happy 2011 🙂