The QList 2010, Best of the LGBT Carolinas

Throughout April and the first week of May, qnotes readers had the chance to submit their ballots in a contest juding their favorite bars and clubs, restaurants and eateries, coffee shops and cafés, community organizations and leaders and more.

After more than 300 submitted ballots, our readers have spoken!

Carolinas-Wide

Best gay club/bar in the Carolinas
Readers’ pick: Sabrina Love’s Night Owls
Honorable mention: The Scorpio
Only four votes separated Sabrina Love’s Night Owls and The Scorpio. It was a tight race, indeed!

Best lesbian club/bar in the Carolinas
Readers’ pick: Hartigan’s Irish Pub

Best straight, but LGBT-friendly club/bar in the Carolinas
Readers’ pick: Art Bar

Club/bar with the best drink value
Readers’ pick: Sabrina Love’s Night Owls

Club/bar with the hottest staff in the Carolinas
Readers’ pick: The Scorpio

Club/bar with the best drag show in the Carolinas
Readers’ pick: The Scorpio

Best drag performer in the Carolinas
Readers’ pick: Sabrina Love

Best LGBT non-profit organization in North Carolina
Readers’ pick: Equality North Carolina
Honorable mention: Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN)
This contest was among the tightest this year. Equality North Carolina won out over RAIN by one vote. Whew. It was down to the wire on this one.

Best LGBT non-profit organization in South Carolina
Readers’ pick: SC Pride Movement

Best AIDS service organization in North Carolina
Readers’ pick: Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN)

Best AIDS service organization in South Carolina
Readers’ pick: Palmetto AIDS Life Support System (PALSS)

Carolinas organization with most effective grassroots advocacy
Readers’ pick: Equality North Carolina

Best LGBT leader (female) in the Carolinas
Readers’ pick: Tamera Tedder
Honorable mention: Lin Orndorf
Yet another tight race. Again, only one vote separated Tedder, readers’ pick, from Stereotypd editor Lin Orndorf.

Best LGBT leader (male) in the Carolinas
Readers’ pick: Ricky Burns II
Honorable mention: Ian Palmquist
An icon in the Charlotte nightlife scene, Burns can be found working at The Scorpio or at Sabrina Love’s Night Owls. Burns — who, with Love, recently bought Night Owls — deserves props for his ability to turn out the vote. Our editor tips his hat to Burns’ runner-up, Equality North Carolina Executive Director Ian Palmquist.

Best LGBT youth leader (under 30) in the Carolinas
Readers’ pick: Ricky Burns II
Honorable mention: Ryan Wilson
Again, Burns proves himself a vote-getter. His runner-up in this race is former SC Pride Movement president Ryan Wilson.

Best Carolinas LGBT elected official/politician
Readers’ pick: Mark Kleinschmidt
Honorable mention: Julia Boseman, Chris Cole.
Kleinschmidt, mayor of Chapel Hill, was quite a popular guy in our QList this year — so was soon-to-be former state Sen. Boseman, Kleinschmidt’s runner-up. Cole, the Libertarian Party candidate in North Carolina’s 2008 Senate race, also performed well.

Best Pride celebration in the Carolinas
Readers’ pick: Pride Charlotte
Honorable mention: NC Pride
In another tight, down-to-the wire contest, readers chose Pride Charlotte over NC Pride by a single vote.

Best locally-owned, LGBT-specific store
Readers’ pick: White Rabbit

Best locally-owned, LGBT-friendly specialty store
Readers’ pick: Hamilton Hill
Honorable mention: Paper Skyscraper

Best LGBT-friendly, adult-oriented store
Readers’ pick: White Rabbit

Charlotte

Best LGBT-friendly restaurant in Charlotte
Readers’ pick: 300 East
Honorable mention: Dish
Dish ran a close second to 300 East. Both restaurants are fabulous. Speaking of food, are you hungry? Let’s flip a coin…

Best LGBT-friendly coffee shop in Charlotte
Readers’ pick: Amelie’s French Bakery and Cafe
Honorable mention: Caribou, East Blvd.
As in last year’s QList, the East Blvd. location of Caribou easily won the contest. The national brand, however, wasn’t a right fit for our “locally-owned” category.

Best Charlotte LGBT non-profit
Readers’ pick: Regional AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN)
Honorable mention: Time Out Youth
RAIN’s runner-up, Time Out Youth, deserves some credit. For nearly two decades the group has served at-risk LGBT youth by offering counseling, social support and emergency housing. Like RAIN, Time Out Youth offers a unique and much-needed service to Charlotte LGBT community.

Best LGBT-affirming faith institution in Charlotte
Readers’ pick: MCC Charlotte
Honorable mention: Myers Park Baptist Church

Best Charlotte drag performer
Readers’ pick: Tiffany Storm
Honorable mention: Sabrina Love, Roxy C. Moorecox
These three contestants know how to get folks pumped. It was a tight race from the beginning. In fact, the “projected winner” changed a couple times as votes were tallied. Congrats to readers’ pick winner Tiffany Storm, runner-up Sabrina Love and second runner-up Roxy C. Moorecox.

Triangle

Best LGBT-friendly restaurant in the Triangle
Readers’ pick: The Burough

Best LGBT-friendly coffee shop in the Triangle
Readers’ pick: Third Place Coffee House
Honorable mention: Francesca’s

Best Triangle LGBT non-profit
Readers’ pick: Triangle Gay Men’s Chorus
Honorable mention: Equality North Carolina, LGBT Center of Raleigh

Best LGBT-affirming faith institution in the Triangle
Readers’ pick: St. John’s Metropolitan Community Church
Honorable mention: Imani Metropolitan Community Church

Best Triangle drag performer
Readers’ pick: Mary K. Mart

Triad

Best LGBT-friendly restaurant in the Triad
Readers’ pick: West End Café

Best LGBT-friendly coffee shop in the Triad
Readers’ pick: Caffé Prada
Honorable mention: De Been Espresso

Best Triad LGBT non-profit
Readers’ pick: PFLAG of Winston-Salem

Best LGBT-affirming faith institution in the Triad
Readers’ pick: Wake Forest Baptist Church

Best Triad drag performer
Readers’ pick: Cass Westbrook
Readers’ pick: Paisley Parque
A tie! Can you believe it?! Folks in the Triad just can’t make up their minds! Congrats to both winners!

Columbia

Best LGBT-friendly restaurant in Columbia
Readers’ pick: Café Strudel
Readers’ pick: The Loose Cockaboose
Like the folks in North Carolina’s Triad, it seems Columbia guys and gals can be just a teeny bit indecisive. Congrats to the tying winners.

Best LGBT-friendly coffee shop in Columbia
Readers’ pick: Cool Beans Coffee Company
Honorable mention: Starbucks, Five Points
Although Cool Beans and Starbucks’ Five Points location tied, the national chain didn’t fit so well in our “locally-owned” category.

Best Columbia LGBT non-profit
Readers’ pick: SC Pride Movement

Best LGBT-affirming faith institution in Columbia
Readers’ pick: Reformation Lutheran Church
Honorable mention: Garden of Grace United Church of Christ
Reformation’s runner-up, Garden of Grace, has served the unique spiritual interests of LGBT Christians for years, first as a member of the Metropolitan Community Churches and now affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

Best Columbia drag performer
Readers’ pick: Patti O’Furniture