The voting period has closed in our annual 'Ilima Awards best-restaurant reader poll, and more than 2,800 Islanders filled out ballots. For the first time this year, online ballots outnumbered paper ballots. The award winners will be announced Oct. 9 at the annual 'Ilima Awards gala, a benefit for Diamond Head Theatre, and in our annual free guide, Hawai'i's Best Restaurants, which will be published Oct. 13. (A few tables, at $2,500, $3,500, $5,000, and $10,000, are still available; call 733-0277, ext. 305.)

Now the accounting firm of Nishihama & Kishida is starting on the complex process of crunching the numbers; they've had to write a program with the name of every restaurant for which anyone is voting (plus common misspellings!). The firm donates its services each year as a gift to Diamond Head Theatre. IT Manager Jon Hashimoto has become quite the restaurant expert in the process!

BAVARIA IN A BOTTLE

WHEAT BEER NOW IN 6-PACKS, TOO

Gordon Biersch Brewery's popular Bavarian-style Hefeweizen ("yeast and wheat," aka wheat beer) has long been available on tap at the brewery's restaurants, including the one at Aloha Tower Marketplace. But now beer fans can heft a Hefeweizen at home; for the first time, the beer is being bottled in six-packs for sale in retail outlets.

Dan Gordon, Gordon Biersch co-founder and director of brewing operations, said in a news release that the natural fermentation method lends the beer notes of citrus and effervescence (it's naturally carbonated to a level 20 percent higher than most beers), making it popular in the warm summer months. The beer is made using traditional Bavarian methods.