Don’t wait, nominate: Submit your favorites for the Best of Brooklyn by Friday!

You know the best of Brooklyn: It’s the places you bring your out-of-town friends when they want to experience the actual Brooklyn you can’t see from the top of a double decker bus; the friendly bagel shops and authentic pizzerias that remind you constantly why you decide to keep living here despite the endless rent hikes; the places you check in on every few weeks with mild panic, making sure they haven’t been replaced by a Subway sandwich shop yet.

Now you get your chance to have your opinion heard: Today we’re launching the Best of Brooklyn competition to find the most outstanding restaurants, venues, businesses and date spots in Brooklyn!

Along with our sister publication the Brooklyn Home Reporter, we’re giving the public a chance to determine the parts of the borough that deserve the most recognition.

Now in its fifth year, we rebranded the Best of the Boro program as the Best of Brooklyn. Since its inception, the competition has grown to be a coveted award for Brooklyn’s best businesses, allowing the public to nominate and then vote for the best businesses in the borough in a wide range of categories and subcategories in different rounds throughout the year. This is a by-the-people, for-the-people style competition: No listening to what the Style section says is hot, no deference to trendy places with long lines snaking out the door: Just our readers’ picks for the best damn things in all of Brooklyn.

Nominations are open now through August 5 in the these categories: Restaurants, Food, Bars and Nightlife. The 10 businesses that receive the most nominations in each category will make it into the round of voting beginning Aug. 22 and ending on Oct. 21 at midnight.

Hundreds of businesses are nominated and thousands of people vote each year, but there will only be one first place winner in each sub-category crowned Best of Brooklyn!

For more information or to nominate your favorite businesses, visit bestof.brokelyn.com.