Best of the Bay 2012

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST YOUNG ADULT HIP-HOP MISCHIEF

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It is no small feat to write about suburban kids loving hip-hop without coming across as condescending or a-historic, but somehow a free-styling Minnesota-bred woman managed it. San Francisco-based author Laura Goode triumphed with Sister Mischief (Candlewick, $16.99, 367pp), a young adult novel about a gang of outsider girl friends who take on the powers of conformity at their whitebread, fundamentalist-controlled high school by forming a queer-straight hip-hop alliance (and performing their feminist lyrics for unwitting audiences). The book is hardly preachy, but does include teenage conversations about race, cultural co-optation, and sexuality — along with a scene that pretty well teaches you how to smoke weed — and is flush with curiosity, radicalism, and outright guffaws.

www.lauragoode.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST AMATEUR WRESTLING HOT DAMN

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After a wild first couple of years, Oakland’s premiere way-amateur wrestling night, Hoodslam, is still flexing its muscles once a month — these days at the Oakland Metro Operahouse. Full of soap opera-worthy subplots, grudge matches, awesome costumes, awesome-er characters, a noisy metal house band, burlesque interludes, giant plushy referees, and oh, even some wrestling, Hoodslam’s signature mayhem makes us downright giddy on so many levels. Whether we’re watching a pair of zombie fighters body-slam each other into the ropes, a bondage gear-wearing gimp get tossed over them, a mafia mob throw fedoras into the ring, or a squadron of burly stoners mop it up with whoever their hapless opponents of the moment might be, we’re right there with them, climbing the ladder, and getting higher. Fuck the fans!

Oakland Metro Operahouse, 630 Third St., Oakl. (510) 763-1146, www.birdswillfall.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST FEMINIST RECORDING STUDIO

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Ladies in the music biz deserve to be heard — weirdly, that still needs to be reiterated in 2012 — and Women’s Audio Mission is helping them get loud. The nonprofit is staunchly dedicated to “the advancement of women in music production and the recording arts.” As it notes, this is a field where women are chronically under-represented. WAM hires teachers for recording classes and has its own in-house studio, which means affordable recording time for budding female artists. Last year, the truly exciting local all-girl teenage rock ‘n’ roll band the She’s recorded their debut album at WAM, and this year the band is gaining some serious traction with radio spots. Ever grateful, the quartet behind the She’s credits WAM with realizing their dream (aww). Other clients include Kronos Quartet, Making Dinner, and Brazil’s Constantina. Here’s to a female future of recorded sound.

1890 Bryant, Suite 312, SF. (415) 558-9200. www.womensaudiomission.org

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST DANCE DOMINATION

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You may not know this, but you are living in the shadows of an empire. An empire with an origin spanning three continents and stretching back to 2006. Its ruling class is composed of fierce athletes and dedicated artists who preserve a lively tradition with the concentration of tigers on the prowl — but who aren’t afraid to dress up in outrageous costumes and re-enact hilarious Bollywood movie sequences. Behold, Bhangra Empire, a dazzling entity of interlocking steps and poised limbs that performs contemporary variations on bhangra, the Punjabi harvest dance that was transformed in underground clubs in 1980s London into a vital global art form. The Bay Area, with its huge Indian population and many fans of all things subcontinental, has embraced bhangra wholeheartedly, and the Bhangra Empire troupe — our hometown representative at national bhangra dance competitions (and even at the White House) — helps keeps us all on our toes.

www.bhangraempire.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST MOVIE THEATER IN WHICH TO LOSE YOUR MIND

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“A place beyond time, beyond space to experience movies, drinks, and cosmic reverberations.” We know this is Best of the Bay, but the Vortex Room is a contender for Best of the Galaxy. A website, a lounge, a retro-flavored rip in the space-time continuum? Yep, it is all of the above. Host with the most Scott Moffett draws from in-house Cosmic Hex Archive, which includes an online library of delicious, nearly-forgotten sleaze and genre gems (just a taste: 1976’s Soul Hustler, a.k.a. The Day the Lord Got Busted). Most films cost $3.95 to download, but are even cheaper if you become a member. For maximum magick, get thee to one of the Vortex Room’s cult-film double-features, which start up again, weekly, in August.

1082 Howard, SF. www.cosmichex.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST REASON TO DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE ALBUM

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In the age of downloadable singles and quick-click clips, UnderCover Presents’ series of one-whole-album-with-one-live-show pairings values the full record experience. The quarterly event is an inspired mashup comprised almost entirely of Bay Area-based musicians, with each band performing just one reinterpreted song off a classic album. Thus far, there have been shows at Coda (now Brick and Mortar Music Hall), Public Works, the Rickshaw Stop, and the Independent; full nights spent luxuriating in every crevice and groove of the Velvet Underground’s Velvet Underground and Nico, the Pixie’s Doolittle, Nick Drake’s Pink Moon, and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. To complete the sparkling tribute experience, a pre-recorded album of all the covers is doled out at each performance, to be played in its entirety beyond those singular shows.

www.undercoverpresents.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST OPEN SOURCE UTOPIA

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“We’re giving tax breaks to companies that allow people to meet in a virtual space,” Erick Lyle told the Guardian prior to the opening night of Streetopia, a multidisciplinary, utopian community art festival that he, Kal Spelletich, and Chris Johanson curated. “But this event will really show the vibrancy that is right here.” In the battle to keep the second tech bubble from edging everyone else out of the city, Streetopia was proactive, asking its participants not for dire predictions, but to share images of what their utopian SF would look like. For more than a month, there were classes on civilian investigative reporting taught by working journalists, dance performances in the street, shared meals in the Tenderloin National Forest, art in empty storefronts, and much more — proof positive that a San Francisco which doesn’t require stock options of its inhabitants is still very much thinkable and alive.

www.streetopiasf.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST HEAVY METAL STITCH WIZARD

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He’s the mustachioed maniac who wields a sewing machine and an endless array of heavy metal T-shirts, creating quilts depicting claw-bearing beasties, horned skulls, and other images that wouldn’t be out of place on an Iron Maiden stage backdrop. Ben Venom (née Baumgartner), whose MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute definitely didn’t include quilting, is self-taught when it comes to pieces like his massive quilt, “See You On the Other Side,” featured in Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ prestigious Bay Area Now 6 exhibition. He also presented work in You Should Be Living, a display of metal-inspired pieces at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery in Birmingham, England (homeland of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and Napalm Death). Venom has even whipped up a baby quilt for an infant who’ll grow up with a unique appreciation of Metallica and the Scorpions.

www.benvenom.com

Best of the Bay 2012: Local Heroes

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2012 Local Heroes

Alex Tom and Shaw San Liu

Alex Tom and Shaw San Liu — the executive director and lead organizer for the Chinese Progressive Association, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on Aug. 4 — have laid the groundwork for a progressive resurgence in San Francisco by organizing Chinese immigrants and actively building close and mutually supportive relationships with working-class allies throughout the city.

The two have been involved in just about every recent effort to counter the pro-corporate neoliberalism that has come to dominate City Hall these days. They have seized space with Occupy San Francisco and they have supported labor unions and helped to create the Progressive Workers Alliance. They have fought foreclosures and pushed for affordable housing reforms, and they have protected vulnerable immigrant workers from wage theft by unscrupulous employers.

“Shaw San and Alex are incredibly talented organizers and movement builders who are managing to do the nearly impossible,” said N’Tanya Lee, who worked closely with the pair as the director of Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth. “They have built an authentic base of working-class Chinese immigrants who are interested in fighting for change in their community, and are creating a grassroots organization at the forefront of building multi-racial alliances to combat the divide-and-conquer strategies that are confronting us.”

Liu, who joined CPA six years ago, said she’s always inspired to see the old photographs on the walls of CPA’s office, and to read the history of CPA’s organizing and advocacy on behalf of working people. She said the organization has always understood the need to forge alliances with labor unions and other progressive interests.

“The organization itself has been, since its inception, playing a critical role in bridging the needs of Chinese interests with other communities,” Liu said. “I’ve always seen my role as bridge building.”

Today — with stagnant real wages, a deteriorating social safety net, and growing power by corporations that enjoy unprecedented political clout thanks to Citizens United and other court rulings — the need to organize people across cultural lines is more important than ever, even if that begins by addressing the individual needs of each community.

“Always at our core, it’s about empowering our folks to be able to voice their own struggles and visions,” Liu said.

Working to build that capacity within the Chinese immigrant community is hard and important work, Liu said, but it’s equally important to connect with the struggles of working class people from other communities, uniting to effectively counter the political dominance of employers and property owners.

Lui framed the struggle as: “How do we build unity and not have that be lip service?”

Tom and Liu have demonstrated that they know how to do just that, despite the diversity of sometimes-conflicting interests on the left and in a working class squeezed by recession and feelings of economic uncertainty.

“The issue that will unify people is good jobs that are accessible to everyone,” Liu said.

Yet she also said that working class organizing is needed to counter the simplistic “jobs” rhetoric coming from City Hall, which politicians are using to advocate for tax cuts to big corporations.

“More and more, it exposes itself as a total lie,” Liu said of the argument that the city should be facilitating private sector job creation with business tax cuts. “So much points to the fact that the US economic system doesn’t benefit everyone … When we talk about jobs, we talk about what kinds of jobs we want and for whom.”

 

2012 Local Heroes

Stardust and Ross Rhodes

Ross Rhodes and Stardust, like all of the people involved in Occupy Bernal, are neighbors. But until Stardust helped found the group — a local take on Occupy focused on stopping unjust foreclosures and evictions — they didn’t know each other.

Now they do, and if it wasn’t for Occupy Bernal, Rhodes is sure he would no longer have the house that his parents bought in 1964.

A former college football star, Rhodes injured his knees and back playing. He lives on disability payments, volunteering at the 100 Percent College Prep Club, and bringing home-cooked meals to seniors in his area. He also coached kids in the Junior 49ers program until it became too hard on his injuries.

Stardust, an ESL teacher and oboe player in the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony and the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, has been working for LGBT rights, women’s rights, and online civil rights for years. When Occupy took off, he gravitated toward the neighborhood fights against foreclosures.

Like people all over the US, Rhodes and his wife were fooled several years ago by a pick-a-payment loan plan. At the time, World Savings was peddling the deals through neighborhoods, promising potential borrowers that they could send their kids to college, buy a car, take vacations — and modify their loans after a year.

But when Rhodes started to apply for loan modifications, he was denied. He kept receiving letters asking for more information, often the same information he had already given — a common story that led to part of the Homeowners Bill of Rights that will guarantee a single point of contact from the bank. He was stumped when he was told he needed more income — the bank said it wouldn’t accept payments that were more than 30 percent of a borrower’s income, and Rhodes was getting a fixed disability check.

He found another income source as a homecare provider, but after all the time that the bank wouldn’t accept his payments, Rhodes was marked as someone who wasn’t making payments, and was tracked for foreclosure.

Meanwhile, Occupy Bernal was working on more than 100 similar cases in its neighborhood. The organizers hadn’t quite convinced Mayor Ed Lee to help at that point, but Rep. Pelosi’s staffers were on their side, getting banks to prioritize the cases of those working with Occupy Bernal. They worked with other community groups like Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) to do physical occupations of homes. But for those who had received a notice of default and a notice of sale — two steps in the foreclosure process that precede the auction of a property — Stardust was there with another tactic.

He spearheaded Occupy the Auctions. He shows up at City Hall at 1:30 every day and tries to disrupt foreclosure auctions. He’s been there continuously since April 27, 2012, and has stopped dozens of home sales. When fighting the eviction of a neighbor, he is sometimes backed by more than 100 people. But many days it’s just Stardust.

Now, Rhodes is in a loan modification process. Rather than conflicting and confusing machine-generated paper work, he gets regular calls about the status of his modification from a point person in Wells Fargo’s executive complaint office. He testified in Sacramento in favor of the Homeowners Bill of Rights, which passed July 2. He’s also become an Occupy Bernal organizer on top of his other volunteer pursuits.

Stardust battles mega-banks and the city’s wealthiest in his work. But he says the biggest challenge is helping people to get over the shame they feel when they realize they are facing foreclosure. “It’s not their fault,” he says. “It’s the system.”

Friends of Ethics

In the summer of 2011, at the behest of the Ethics Commission, the Board of Supervisors put on the ballot a measure that would have loosened some of the rules for campaign consultant reporting, and would have allowed further changes in the city’s landmark ethics laws without a vote of the people. It had unanimous support on the board — and frankly, technical changes in campaign laws are not the kind of sexy stuff that gets the public angry.

But a small group, led in part by five former ethics commissioners, took on the task of defeating the measure. The activists also took on the challenge of defeating Prop. E, which would have allowed the supervisors to amend future measures passed by the voters.

Despite being outspent by tens of thousands of dollars, Friends of Ethics — a small grassroots operation — prevailed. Both measures were defeated (32 percent to 67 percent in the case of Prop. E, the worst loss of all the local measures on the ballot).

The group is great at forming coalitions: in the case of the No on E and F campaign, Friends of Ethics reached out to some 30 organizations that formally joined in opposing the measures after hearing presentations.

The members of FOE are a fractious group of organizers and shit-disturbers who don’t always get along or agree on other issues. But they’ve come together to do something nobody else does: make protecting and expanding political reform laws a front-line priority.

And the battle goes on. Not long after the November 2011 election, Supervisor Scott Wiener introduced legislation that would have led to less disclosure of political contributions before an election, and would have made it easier to conceal who was making contributions and paying for campaign mailers. The Wiener bill would weaken campaign contribution limit, giving the wealthiest donors greater power in elections.

When the amendments were heard at a well-attended Rules Committee in June (with plenty of public comment from Friends of Ethics), the supervisors sent the amendments back to the Ethics Commission to be rewritten.

The next step for the Friends of Ethics is to work with interested supervisors to push for changes to the city’s campaign laws that will actually benefit the public, such as increased transparency in election contributions and expanded campaign restrictions for those receiving contracts and other benefits from the city.

In an era defined by the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United case and a nationwide assault on fair elections, it’s critical work.

Friends of Ethics can be reached at sfethicsfriend@gmail.com

2012 Local Heroes

The Occupy movement

When Adbusters magazine called for people to show up on September 17, 2011, in New York City to protest the way Wall Street was holding the country hostage, no one could have predicted what would emerge.

It was the start of a movement, and San Francisco heeded the call. About 100 people gathered in the city’s Financial District. They started camping. And the effort exploded.

In the first few weeks, camps sprung up across the country. In Chicago and Los Angeles, in Bethel, Alaska and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, people were drawn together. But, unlike most protests, they stayed together. Night after night.

Along the way, a certain prevailing narrative from outside observers never quite got it right. First the camps were dismissed as nothing but bratty college students and hippies. Then they were called dirty and filled with homeless people. (Occupy challenged the whole idea of a monolithic homeless population. Once they had a home in the Occupy tent cities, homeless people were just — shocker — people.)

By December, when most of the campers had been kicked out, the narrative shifted. Occupy was resting, hibernating, many declared. Some snickered at the fair-weather activists who would only come out in the sunshine.

But in the Bay Area, at least, that hibernation story was simply false. On December 12, Occupy Oakland brought out thousands for its second port shutdown, in solidarity with port workers. On January 20, downtown banks were forced to close for the day and people in the streets celebrated Occupy San Francisco’s shutdown of the financial district. A week later, 400 were arrested when thousands tried to turn a vacant Oakland building into a community center. This was no hibernation.

Actions in some way inspired or fueled by Occupy have continued into the spring and summer. On March 1, Occupy, with a focus on student debt and accessible education, formed the 99 Mile March. Dozens marched from the Bay Area to Sacramento to join thousands of students and supporters in calling for an end to cuts to education; hundreds then occupied the Capitol building. On April 22, Occupy, with a focus on food justice, formed the Gill Tract Occupy the Farm action. Hundreds took a UC Berkeley-stewarded tract of land slated for a baseball diamond and a Whole Foods and planted it, turning it into a farm with rows of crops, a kids space, and a permaculture garden. On June 15, Occupy formed the Lakeview sit-in and Peoples School for Public Education, which taught day camp to children and refused to leave a beloved Oakland elementary school, one of five slated for closure.

Police eventually won the many-months battle with most Occupy groups in the Bay Area. The camps are mostly gone, though a tenacious group keeps its 24-hour protest in front of the Federal Reserve.

But because of Occupy — and its accompanying burst in resistance, creativity, and the belief that we really can, and must, come together to do something — dozens of Bay Area residents remain in homes that were facing foreclosure. Hundreds of people who felt forgotten and abandoned have found community. Thousands have been inspired to start their own projects and work with others.

When Adbusters called Occupy Wall Street to action, it was under the banner of “democracy not corporatocracy.” That ain’t an easy project. But it has already made the world a better and more hopeful place. 

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST BRIGHT-EYED BREAD GUY

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BEST BRIGHT-EYED BREAD GUY

Here’s how Vermont-bred Josey Baker launched Josey Baker Bread: he walked into Mission Pie and asked (sweetly) if he might borrow some oven space. The neighborhood bake shop obliged, and to no one’s surprise (the alluring qualities of handsome men and fresh-baked bread being what they are) Baker’s business took off, delighting subscribers to his poppy, walnut, and black pepper parmesan loaves — delivered weekly to your door! — and walk-in customers alike. On some days he has even given away bread on a by-donation basis; we’ve seen it. Now he’s set to open his own bakery in partnership with Four Barrel on Divisadero. His fans may be excited by swirling rumors of a toast bar, but for us it would be enough to just see that smile again. He may not be oblivious to his own charms; his website recommends that you write him a love letter. Josey, does this count?

736 Divisadero, SF. joseybakerbread.wordpress.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST POP-UP RIVER OF LIQUOR

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BEST POP-UP RIVER OF LIQUOR

The Bon Vivants cocktail crew — Scott Baird, Josh Harris, Jason Henton — is a local treasure, throwing some of the coolest, most innovative parties around. They’ve also created winning cocktail menus, like the one at Berkeley’s new Comal, while working on their long-awaited Mission bar Trick Dog. But till then, tipsy transients can catch them at their more fleeting establishment, the Rio Grande Bar. What started as part of A Temporary Offering — the intriguing rotating pop-up project that inhabits the entire ground floor of the Renoir Hotel — may soon (we hope) become a permanent destination. Or it could morph into roving gypsy bar. Evoking a funky border-town roadhouse as Quentin Tarantino might interpret it, the bar is already a cute-kitschy go-to for cocktailians in the know. There, tequila, mezcal, whiskey, and beer (in cans) flow. No drink menu is needed: talented bar staff create bracing beverages based on your mood. Or simply opt for a Dos Equis while grooving to live bands on the mini stage, beneath shrines to 1970s adult film star Vanessa del Rio and the Virgin of Guadalupe.

1108 Market, SF. www.bonvivants-sf.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST CLAWS FOR CELEBRATION

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BEST CLAWS FOR CELEBRATION

It is ridiculous that we are about to register a wee bit of complaint regarding the Bay’s incredible surplus of native seafood — we could happily live on Tomales Bay oysters, Dungeness crab, and all those other tasty species one finds stewing in our hot pots of cioppino. And yet … we do miss a nice fresh lobster to go with our bubbly on special occasions, or some genuine surf to pair with our turf when we’re feeling old-school romantic-fancy. That’s when we head to our secret Maine-line to East Coast crustacean bliss, New England Lobster Company in South San Francisco, which offers not just succulent, flown-in pinchers both live and frozen, but steamers, scallops, mussels, clams, and many other treasures of the briny deep. And hey, what do you know, you can score some good ol’ Dungeness here, too. Don’t miss the super-delish lobster rolls from the lunchtime food truck in the parking lot, either. (Motto: “We’re on a roll!” LOL.) Time to get cracking.

170 Mitchell Ave., (650) 873-9000, www.newenglandlobster.net

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST SECRET WORLD OF CHEESE

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BEST SECRET WORLD OF CHEESE

Be not fooled by Gourmet & More‘s small size. This long, skinny Hayes Valley specialty shop, owned by French-born longtime Bay Area residents Laurent and Josiane Recollon, is bursting at the shelves with all manner of goodies for the gourmand. Foie gras has flown the coop, but there’s an array of tasty imported meats (prosciutto, salami, chorizo), breads, sweets (no such thing as “too many macarons”), fancy mustards and oils, and made-to-order sandwiches (to-go, or to eat on Gourmet & More’s back patio). But the best part, bien sûr, is the climate-controlled shoplet tucked away at the back, stuffed with more than 300 kinds of cheese. Customers are encouraged to sample before they buy (any wonder that there’s sometimes a line to get in there?). We repeat: cheese room. Who needs Paris?

141 Gough, SF. (415) 874-9133

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST PUPUSA PARADISE

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BEST PUPUSA PARADISE

If you were to describe Mission establishments by historical eras, El Paraiso Cafe would be decidedly Post-German working class, Pre-Valencia Street $200 cork wedges. Its menu bears the marks of a business whose customer base does not guide its brunch-seeking steps toward outrageously pricey gluten-free breakfast plates. Rather, El Paraiso is perfect for that Mission dream of a neighborhood half-full of families and transplants from all over the world and half-full of broke boho Americans — OK, and those who are a mix of the two — who flock toward piping hot pupusas accompanied by free, generous bowls of curtido (piquant, fresh coleslaw) and thin red salsa. And it’s all parked kitty-corner to the yelping soccer children and sunbathing elders of Parque de los Ninos Unidos. Did that Mission ever exist? Or are we thinking of paradise?

1198 Treat, SF. (415) 824-2535

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST MARMALADY

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BEST MARMALADY

Who wouldn’t want all the colorful bounty of the Bay Area served up on a nice piece of toast (preferably sourdough, in our case)? Meyer lemon, Santa Rosa plum, pear, apple, mild pepper, lime, nectarine, grape … these fruits (plus pineapple, kiwi, rose petal, lavender, and blueberry) are gathered from backyards and garden plots by the ever-foraging Aunt Kitty, a.k.a. Kitty Myers of San Francisco’s Sunset District, and transformed into the most spectacular jellies imaginable. The secret is not simply organic; it also lies in the unique combination of two or three parts fruit to one part sugar, allowing a lush effulgence of natural flavor. Besides delicious marmalades packaged in distinctive little Mason jars and sold in local cafes and grocery stores, Kitty’s homegrown company, Aunt Kitty’s Kreations, also supplies apple and mango chutney, piccalilli and cranberry-orange relish, and even fudge. According to legend, many of Aunt Kitty’s products were actually developed in her church’s basement — maybe that’s where the wholesome flavor comes from?

www.auntkittyskreations.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST CAN-ARCHY

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BEST CAN-ARCHY

When it comes to the latest trends in pickling, canning, jarring, putting up, putting by, or just plain preserving, we’ve got a dirty little secret: everything we know about Mason jar-ology comes from the amazing Punk Domestics. Food and travel blogger Sean Timberlake, with support from his husband Paul Brown and terrier Reese, took inspiration from canning expert and former Guardian writer Karen Solomon — particularly a review of one of her books that mentioned the “punk domesticity of the hipster DIY movement” — to launch a content aggregation site for can-atics of everything dried, cured, or otherwise preserved. It’s jam-packed with links to community-posted articles with helpful hints and innovative techniques from around the Web, plus heads-ups on events, giveaways, recipes, and book releases. Ever wonder about micro-farming, curing meats, making cheese, or pickling duck eggs? No need to keep a lid on it when the Punk Domestics are in the house.

www.punkdomestics.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST GOURGÉRES

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BEST GOURGÉRES

We don’t know what makes the clutch of cafes around Church and Market in SF so inviting — OK, we do: great service, good coffee, and a laidback, no-hurries vibe — but we find ourselves drawn here more often than not on those precious early mornings off. French bakery Thorough Bread and Pastry is one of those cafes, and although the punny name evinces a slight groan, the trés magnifique selection of authentic French pastries keeps us coming back for more. There are flaky croissants, of course, and fruit-laden tarts, dense and drenched baba au rhum and mint-kicky grasshopper cakes, wee sugar-dusted chouquettes and almond-brown butter financiers. And could anything be more perfect on a foggy morning than a small bag full of fresh-out-the-oven gougéres? The original cheesy puffs, these savory, bite-sized beauties (four for $1.50) instantly bring out the sunshine. Combine them with a steaming cup of coffee, s’il-vous plaît, and you’ve got breakfast pegged.

248 Church, SF. (415) 558-0690, www.thoroughbreadpastry.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST FULL-SCOPE ROAST

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BEST FULL-SCOPE ROAST

The smoky dark brew served up by the folks at Sightglass Coffee certainly isn’t indicative of the sibling-owned roastery and cafe’s mission of transparency. Brothers Jerad and Justin Morrison started their SoMa enterprise aiming to treat the cup of coffee less as a product than a democratic sensory experience — an intuition, a smell, a sound, a sight. Thus, the name of their cavernous new shop, which roasts and brews in a single warehouse space that has proven popular among the hip-pretty techies (almost as hip-pretty as the Sightglass staff that serves them) who roost in the area. Using small-production methods to ensure freshness and authenticity, Sightglass provides a unique place that’s simultaneously homey (baristas are quick to introduce themselves) and airily trendy.

270 Seventh St., SF. (415) 861-1313, www.sightglasscoffee.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST KIND OF STRICT

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BEST KIND OF STRICT

If things have been rough on your soul lately, forget the prose of that insipid, chicken-related book series and turn your page to Israel’s Strictly Kosher’s matzo ball soup. While other deli’s versions are salty, one-dimensional facsimiles of a real pick-me-up, the version at Israel’s, which also does strictly Kosher catering, is home made by co-owner Faina Avrutina with savory broth to comfort you on windy days and massive matzo balls that’ll fill you up just enough to not get blown sideways by gusts of outrageous fortune (throw in one of the excellent sufganiyots and you’ll be even more ground-bound). And it’s not just the eating that’ll do you good — a genuinely kind staff soothes city-weary troubled minds and will make you feel like you just dipped into your parents’ cozy kitchen.

5621 Geary, SF. (415) 752-3064, www.israelskosher.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST PEANUT BUTTER CLOUDS

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BEST PEANUT BUTTER CLOUDS

Despite our American love for all things soft, saccharine, and somehow edible, vegans and equinophiles alike are saddened by the innocuous-seeming marshmallow, which often includes gelatin derived from horse hooves and other slaughterhouse scraps. But worry not, sweet things, Benkyodo Company has treats that top the standby campfire comfort. Namely, mochi, a Japanese delight made of glutinous rice that is pounded and molded into sweet submission. Soft clouds of heaven — and they come in a variety of flavors like strawberry, green tea, mugwort, adzuki, and, wow, peanut butter. Benkyodo’s mochi has the texture of your favorite childhood sweet, with the flavors — and food justice acumen — of a grown-up gourmand.

1747 Buchanan, SF. (415) 922-1244, www.benkyodocompany.com