Best of your town.
Earned, not bought.

The Centurion Awards verify local businesses against published criteria: years of real operation and a genuine customer track record, backed by a community that’s glad they exist.

Free to nominate·Free to be evaluated

The Centurion Awards
Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams Best Ice Cream in Columbus · Columbus, OH Katzinger's Delicatessen Best Deli in Columbus · Columbus, OH Schmidt's Sausage Haus Best German Restaurant in Columbus · Columbus, OH The Book Loft of German Village Best Bookstore in Columbus · Columbus, OH The Thurman Café Best Burger in Columbus · Columbus, OH Bay of Burma Best Burmese Restaurant in San Francisco · San Francisco, CA DNA Lounge Best Restaurants · San Francisco, CA Dragon Horse Best Late-Night Japanese Restaurant in San Francisco · San Francisco, CA Noc Noc Most Unusual Bar in San Francisco · San Francisco, CA Paxton Gate Best Curiosity Shop in San Francisco · San Francisco, CA San Tung Best Restaurants · San Francisco, CA Tempest Best Dive Bar in San Francisco · San Francisco, CA Zeitgeist Best Beer Garden in San Francisco · San Francisco, CA Beaver Street Brewery Best Brewpub in Flagstaff · Flagstaff, AZ
For locals

You know a place that deserves this.

Hand a favorite spot the recognition it already earned. Nominating is free, takes about a minute, and it can only ever help the business. Or browse the winners already named in your town.

For owners

You run a place like that.

Heard from us, or from a customer who nominated you? See where your business stands. The check is free and private.

Just your business name · Evaluated against the published criteria

The 2025 winners

Verified best of their town.

Every winner met the same standard: years in operation and a customer track record their neighbors vouch for. Find yours, or discover a new favorite.

The process

The evidence does
the deciding.

There’s nothing to enter and no panel to win over. Our evaluation engine reads years of public evidence on every business in a market. The same five criteria, weighted the same way, for everyone. People audit the data, and no one picks favorites.

2,400+businesses scanned
260awards issued
51markets live
01

The full-market scan

We don’t wait for entries. Every business in scope is evaluated. We read years of public signals across listings, reviews, local press, and the open web. If you’ve been doing the work, you’re already in the running.

02

The bar

Five published criteria: longevity, sustained presence, customer track record, community sentiment, local recognition. Evidence that takes years to build, and can’t be bought, botted, or campaigned for.

03

The verdict, in private

Your verdict stays private either way. Fall short and nothing publishes: you won’t turn up on a ranking or a runner-up list, and we never publish a negative verdict.

04

The award, on the record

A short digital confirmation and a $199 processing fee put your dated winner page on the record, typically within a business day. The fee covers the publishing work; it can never sway a verdict. Anyone can verify the page. It renews each year, and we revoke it if the evidence ever stops holding up.

Why it matters

Most “Best of” awards
are sales funnels.

The Better Business Bureau formally warns business owners about vanity-award schemes. Here’s how the usual suspects compare.

Vote-drive contests Pay-to-play badges The Centurion Awards
Who wins Whoever mobilizes the biggest mailing list Whoever pays the fee Whoever clears the published criteria
Fee to be considered None Fees to enter, more for an “edge” None. We never charge a business we don’t list
Cost of selection Weeks of vote-chasing $300–$3,000+ Selection can’t be bought at any price
Proof behind it Unaudited vote counts None Published criteria and a public, dated award page

One award per category in each city, each year. No tiers, and no way to pay for placement or selection. Winners who choose to publish pay a $199 processing fee, which covers the review, the winner page, the certificate, and the hosting behind them; no business ever pays unless it’s listed. See the full owner comparison. Source: BBB Business Tip, “How to spot and avoid vanity awards” (2022).

For business owners

A credential that works
as hard as you do.

Customers check the evidence before they choose. The difference is whether the award behind the badge survives a second look. A Centurion Award is built to survive one. That’s the whole point.

68%

of consumers will only use a local business rated four stars or better (BrightLocal, 2026)

+37%

higher five-year sales growth for quality-award winners than for matched peer firms (Hendricks & Singhal)

59%

more revenue for an independent restaurant with each added star of Yelp rating (Luca, Harvard Business School)

The announcement writes itself.

Qualify, and it all arrives ready to run. You get a dated winner page anyone can look up, a badge and social kit sized for feed and story, and a framed plaque for the wall your customers actually look at. And the published criteria sit behind all of it, for anyone who asks “is this real?”

Dated winner page Badge & social kit Framed plaque Printable certificate
F
freakyfoottoursFlagstaff, Arizona
Centurion Award · 2025
Best Walking & Ghost Tour
in Flagstaff
freakyfoottours Ten years of ghost stories on these streets, now it’s official. Verified, not voted. #CenturionAwards
The Centurion Awards
Freaky Foot Tours
Best Walking & Ghost Tour · Flagstaff, AZ
2025

Sources: BrightLocal, “Local Consumer Review Survey” (2026); Hendricks & Singhal, “Evidence from Quality Award Winners” (2000), about 600 publicly traded award winners against matched peers; Michael Luca, “Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com” (Harvard Business School, 2011).

Nominate

Know a place that deserves this? Say so.

Nominating takes a minute or two, and neither you nor the business pays anything to be considered. It’s the easiest way to hand a beloved local spot the recognition it already earned.

We’ll evaluate the business against the criteria. If it qualifies, we take the result straight to the owner. If it doesn’t, the evaluation stays private.

Categories we award

Breweries & Meaderies Tours Restaurants Music Venues Cafés & Coffee Lodging Outfitters Local Retail

Live categories are being awarded now in Flagstaff and Tucson. More categories launch with each new city.

“A town’s best businesses deserve a signal decided by evidence alone.” Nick Jones & Brendan Tobin, Founders