Darke County strikes gold in Ohio Magazine ‘Best of Ohio’ awards

Dayton area Best of Ohio winners

• Best Coffee Shop/Roaster: Boston Stoker Coffee Co. in Vandalia;

• Best Farmers Market: the 2nd Street Market in downtown Dayton;

• Best Ohio-Made Candy: Esther Price in Dayton;

• Best Food Truck: Dayton-based Zombie Dogz Gourmet Hot Dogs;

• Best Winery: The Winery at Versailles in Versailles;

• Best Main Street/Downtown: Greenville;

• Best History Museum: the Garst Museum, which focuses in part on Annie Oakley;

• Best Summer Festival: Gathering at Garst;

• Best County Fair: The Darke County Fair;

• Best Brunch: Patterson’s Cafe in Oxford;

• Best Bed & Breakfast: Arrowston Inn, Piqua;

• Best College Town: Oxford

• Best Bike Trail: Little Miami Scenic Trail

Source: Ohio Magazine

Darke County business and tourism officials are seeking to take full advantage of the county’s impressive performance in Ohio Magazine’s “Best of Ohio” 2016 Readers’ Ballot.

The magazine’s readers and web site visitors awarded five “best-of-Ohio” designations to Darke County businesses and attractions. There were 80 categories total. Ohio Magazine itself is based in Cleveland, in the heavily populated northeast quadrant of the state, which makes the accomplishment of Darke County, more than 200 miles away on the Indiana border, even more impressive.

The county’s wins included:

• Best Winery: The Winery at Versailles in Versailles;

• Best Main Street/Downtown: Greenville;

• Best History Museum: the Garst Museum, which focuses in part on Annie Oakley;

• Best Summer Festival: Gathering at Garst;

• Best County Fair: The Darke County Fair

“We’re really excited, especially with all of the diverse categories we were recognized in,” said Matthew Staugler, executive director of the Darke County Visitors Bureau. “We were up against counties that have over a million people in them, and we’re little ol’ Darke County with 53,000 people. And we won five categories.”

Staugler said he believes the Garst museum reached out to its Facebook followers alerting them to the magazine’s online voting, but there was no coordinated “get-out-the-vote” effort.

The Darke County Visitors Bureau will roll out some new initiatives early next year to leverage the positive publicity and attention, the executive director said. The bureau is developing a driving tour of historical sites in Darke County and will launch a “Darke County Whiskey, Wine, & Ale Trail” in its new visitors guide scheduled for release next month, he said. The guide will spotlight wineries, distilleries, and breweries in the county and in adjacent counties, “to give visitors the tools to plan and create their own weekend getaway in Darke County,” Staugler said.

The Winery at Versailles’ “best in Ohio” designation can be regarded as a bit of an upset, since northeast Ohio is home to a disproportionate number of the state’s wineries and is considered the epicenter of the state’s wine industry.

Mike Williams, co-founder of the Winery at Versailles, said his winery has earned its share of accolades and awards over its two-plus decades, “but Ohio Magazine’s ‘Best Winery of the Year’ award was especially gratifying because it was consumer-driven and based solely on the opinion of the buying public — a measure of our attention to customer service and the production of good wine.

“In a broader sense, Darke County has remained ‘off the radar’ for a number of years, due to our geographic distance from the main Ohio hubs, quietly building its reputation for quality family entertainment, in a family-friendly atmosphere.”