CELEBRATING THE HALL OF FAME OF NORTH BAY BUSINESS
Best of the North Bay Hall of Fame 2025
“i t was a pretty darned good feeling,” baseball legend Cal Ripken said, in typical understatement, about his 2007 induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. For inductees into our Best of the North Bay Hall of Fame, we like to think “pretty darned good” is merely a starting point. These are the local businesses that have earned first or second-place awards in our annual readers’ poll more than 15 times (since we began an official count in 2002). These companies have so consistently been acknowledged for outstanding service by our readers, we feel they deserve special recognition. We launched the Hall of Fame during our 2024 contest. It being our first induction year, there was an expected backlog of honorees—15 of them, in fact—who had topped 15 wins throughout the years. In fact, Redwood Credit Union, John Ash & Co. and Exchange Bank have all racked up more than 30 awards—we may one day need a Hall of Fame for the Hall of Fame, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. This year the induction list is more right-size (as they say in the corporate world), with two deserving honorees: Pisenti & Brinker accounting firm and Balletto Vineyards winery crossing the threshold of 15 wins. Winning consistently is difficult and rare—achieved by only the best in their respective fields. Richard Petty won 200 races in the NASCAR Cup Series. Tennis great Novak Djokovic
has won 24 Grand Slam singles titles. Sam Snead and Tiger Woods are tied for the most PGA Tour wins at 82. Winning once or twice is highly commendable. Winning 82 times is truly remarkable. So congratulations to Balletto Vineyards and Pisenti & Brinker—you join a special rank of North Bay companies that have earned customers’ and clients’ long-term trust and loyalty. Hall of Fame status remains active for two Best of the North Bay contests—during which time inductees are elevated from the category in which they’ve won the most awards (but are still eligible in other categories) and honored in the Hall of Fame pages of our Best of the North Bay issue [see pages 12 to 16]. After two years, HOF honorees return to regular competition. Walt Disney, who knew a thing or two about nurturing a long-lasting business, summed up his philosophy by saying, “Whatever you do, do it well.” “Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again,” he continued. “And they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.” More than anything, our Hall of Fame businesses encapsulate the very essence of Disney’s wisdom. They do what they do well—so well, it can’t be ignored. Not by the Best of the North Bay awards, anyway. Time and time and time again. — Jason Walsh, editor
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Best of the North Bay 2025
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