2012

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST VALUE-ADDED WAFFLE

Andrew Lam
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BEST VALUE-ADDED WAFFLE

Despite regulations handed down by the city’s Medical Cannabis Task Force, which have eschewed food that can’t be stored at room temperature and have made mandatory stringent labeling guidelines to prevent kiddos from getting caught up in too-cute pot food, Bay Area medicated food producers continue to innovate. See: various trail mixes, hard ginger and cinnamon-flavored candies, and high-class chocolate. But our favorite non-traditional cannabis food item isn’t all that non-traditional … in Amsterdam. Canna Organics’ Stroop Waffle packs a punch at four doses per pair of flat waffle cones, stuck together by a chewy, sticky layer of caramel. It’s like carnival food, but meant to take you on a journey to alleviate your aches and pains, neuroses, and various other maladies.

Available at various Bay Area dispensaries

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST BREW-NOS AIRES

Andrew Lam
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BEST BREW-NOS AIRES

If you’re looking for the perfect brew to pop into your Dolores Park-prepped picnic basket, look no further than the new-ish Ceveceria de Mateveza, where Mateveza’s signature ales, lagers, and IPAs brewed with that stimulating Argentinean beverage yerba mate await in a park-side brewpub location. There are ready-to-go bottles for the sunshine-inclined, but also perfect blends of stimulating mate and smooth-tasting hops on tap if you prefer to snag a pint — plus one of the joint’s sweet or savory emapanadas — and hang indoors. Just don’t let the décor fool you; the picturesque shelves of Buenos Aires paraphernalia belie the fact that real porteños would never befoul their beloved tea with beer. Thanks goodness we’re in San Francisco, where alternative couplings are a point of pride.

3801 18th St., SF. (415) 273-9295, www.ceveceriasf.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST STYLE FOR APOCALYPSE SURVIVAL

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST STYLE FOR APOCALYPSE SURVIVAL

Triple Aught Designs fills a post-North Face niche almost too perfectly: the outdoor apparel company is locally based (it’s headquartered in the Dogpatch) and personable (the recently opened outlet in Hayes Valley offers a friendly, intimate shopping experience). It is also light-years ahead in terms of tech and design: hyper-strong micro-thin jackets and hoodies in futuristic battleground colors so styley we’d seriously consider sporting them on the dance floor, plus elbow armor and space pens that zip right past wilderness campouts and into Prometheus territory. We’re particularly enamored of the Triple Aught backpacks — these strappy beauts could have been nabbed from a boutique on Tatooine, a perfect look for riding out the coming apocalypse.

660 22nd St.; 551 Hayes, SF (415) 318-8252, www.tripleaughtdesign.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST ILLUMINATI

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST ILLUMINATI

Situation: You’ve just moved into a new place, only to look up and discover that the previous owner somehow Frankensteined three different desk lamps from the more aesthetically challenged end of the 1990s into a living room light fixture. It must die. Worse: Your aunt just gifted you the most generic Walmart wall sconces ever for your housewarming present, and she is coming to stay next month. Perhaps worst of all: You’ve just discovered a gorgeous 1930s pendant lamp in the basement, but it’s banged up terribly and who the heck knows if it works? Solution to everything: the wizards at Dogfork Lamp Arts, headed by owner Michael Donnelly. Services include restoring and rewiring antique lamps and light fixtures, and even reinventing ugly ones — making glowing swans of your awkward mass-market ducklings. (We discovered Dogfork’s magic at the new Local’s Corner restaurant in the Mission, where a pair of Pottery Barn lamps were transformed into wonderfully intriguing, post-steampunk sconces.) Rip out that gross track lighting and put up something unique.

199 Potrero, SF. (415) 431-6727, www.dogfork.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST RIBS IN THE ROUGH

Andrew Lam
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BEST RIBS IN THE ROUGH

One need only scope the location of Double D BBQ next to the decidedly unlovely International Avenue to grok that the storefront incarnation of this former food truck is as unpretentious as it is under-hyped. Credit this food-first attitude to owner Duane Orr’s blunt (but friendly) personality. Screw décor — his art is barbeque. Our favorite is his brisket sandwich: greasy, fatty, saucy chunks of meat falling out of a soft roll. Double D’s Texas-style red sauce, sold by the bottle, is sweet and tangy with a mild spice. Other menu highlights? Ribs and chicken grilled with a perfect hint of char, and creamy, peppery macaroni and cheese. Fair warning: we’ve begun to have severe Double D brisket cravings. A similar yen might lead you to cavalier disregard for aesthetic niceties.

1240 First Ave., Oakl. (510) 228-7000, www.doubledbbq.net

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST POLKA PURVEYOR

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST POLKA PURVEYOR

Though Skylar Fell fell in love with the squeezebox via a happy exposure to the punks of the East Bay’s Accordion Plague back in the 1990s, she knows to pay homage to the masters. Fell apprenticed with master repairman Vincent J. Cirelli at his workshop in Brisbane (in business since 1946!) and at Berkeley’s now-defunct Boaz Accordions before opening Accordion Apocalypse in SoMa. The shop, which both sells and repairs, also stocks new and antique instruments in well-known brands (to accordionists, that is) Scandalli, Horner, Roland, and Gabanelli. Fell will fix you up if you bust a button on your beloved accordion, and she has made her store into a hub for lovers of the bellows — check out the website for accordion events coming up in or out of the city.

255 10th St., SF. (415) 596-5952, www.accordianapocalypse.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST BABKA, BUBBELEH

Andrew Lam
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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST BABKA, BUBBELEH

BEST BABKA, BUBBELEH

Have you ever fantasized about eating a chocolate bar for breakfast and totally getting away with it? (Be honest now.) No need to slip a Snickers in your Corn Flakes — or even worry about dessert for a couple weeks — when you’ve got a huge, heavy, delicious babka from Wise Sons in your breadbox. Evan Bloom and Leo Beckerman’s canny tribute to traditional Jewish food made the transition from popular pop-up brunch and Ferry Plaza Farmers Market stand to perhaps too-popular brick-and-mortar deli this year. The charming old-school atmosphere and menu filled with dishes like the mouth-watering chopped liver, the addictive pastrami cheese fries, and the vibrant pickle plate are certainly worth the often considerable wait. But it’s the formidable chocolate babka, made of scrumptious dark chocolate ribboned through dense, cinnamon-flavored, brioche-like dough, that really has us missing Grandma (although perhaps she wouldn’t approve of such indulgence).

3150 24th St., SF. (415) 787-3354, www.wisesonsdeli.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST HOGWARTS GREENHOUSE FOR MUGGLES

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST HOGWARTS GREENHOUSE FOR MUGGLES

They may not scream when you uproot them or ensnare you with insidious vineage, but the exceptional succulents, epiphytes, and bromeliads at Crimson Horticultural Rarities will certainly tickle your fancy — in a perfectly harmless way. Find everything necessary to cook up an enchanted garden or adorn your dorm room (four-poster bed not included) in singular style. Proprietresses Leigh Oakies and Allison Futeral indulge your desires with oddities ranging from the elegant to the spectacular to the slightly creepy, and will even apply their botanical wherewithal to help you create a whimsical wedding. Or, if your potions kit needs restocking, Crimson can supply sufficient dried butterflies and taxidermied bird wings to oblige you. (Collected, cruelty-free, from California Academy of Sciences.)

470 49th St., Oakl. (510) 992-3519, www.crimsonhort.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST LAING IN THE ‘LOIN

Andrew Lam
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BEST LAING IN THE ‘LOIN

Foodies know: if you want sit-down Filipino cuisine, head to Daly City for the densest concentration of deliciousness. Yet there’s an outlier — a humble little Tenderloin hole-in-the-wall steadily serving the real deal. Family-run Kusina Ni Tess dishes out kare-kare, a peanut sauce-based Filipino stew; picadillo, a savory mélange of ground pork, carrot, potato, and green peas; and fish in tangy, sweet-sour broth. For breakfast, savor garlic fried rice with egg and your choice of meat: try Filipino corned beef or daing na bangus (butterflied, skin-on milkfish). The staff will offer tastes to help you choose from the hearty, ultra-cheap menu — all dishes under $9 — but don’t miss the laing: taro leaves cooked in coconut milk and shrimp paste, tinged with subtle chile heat. Finish it all off with egg pie or young coconut pie.

237 Ellis, SF. (415) 351-1169

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST LOCAL UNION, PINT DIVISION

Andrew Lam
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BEST LOCAL UNION, PINT DIVISION

Visitors to the SF Beer Week opening gala might have been surprised to find that a sizable portion of the Concourse Exhibition Center was dedicated to beer brewed right here in the Bay Area. Our beloved Anchor Steam and 21st Amendment breweries are no longer the only sudsers in town — no, not by a long shot. This expansion in local brew is part of a national trend, but local leaps may be due, in part, to the efforts of the SF Brewers Guild — an association, born in 2004, of 10 of the city’s best-loved new breweries, including Magnolia Pub and Brewery and Thirsty Bear Brewing Company. In addition to Beer Week, the group organizes a “meet the brewers” event every month, an easy entry point for those who want to take their local beer boosting past six-pack status.

www.sfbrewersguild.org

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST REALITY TV-STYLE SCORES

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST REALITY TV-STYLE SCORES

Gold Rush Alaska? Deadliest Roads? Swamp Life? Though you love ’em, it’s hard to apply what you’ve learned during those late-night trashy-television-and-junk-food binges. But fans of Storage Wars and American Pickers, rejoice! At the Santa Cruz Flea Market, you’ll meet folks who locker for a living and travel hours to sell their scores — everything from fur coats to antique fuel tanks. Pick through yourself to see what invaluable treasures turn up: belt-driven two-seater motorcycle? Check. Handmade blown glass, Civil War memorabilia, bootlegger’s copper still? Check, check, check. Come for the farm-fresh produce, aisles of leather boots, plastic whosee-whatsits and electronics of dubious provenance, or, if Man Versus Food is more your style, challenge a massive stuffed baked potato or shrimp ceviche tostada.

Fridays, 7am; Saturdays, 6am; Sundays, 5:30am; $1-$2.50. 2260 Soquel, Santa Cruz. (831) 462-4442, www.scgoodwill.org

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST COOKBOOK CHEFTIVIST

Andrew Lam
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BEST COOKBOOK CHEFTIVIST

In this era of Paula Deen-Anthony Bourdain warfare and endless glossy spreads of chefs-cum-rockstars-without-the-rock, you are to be excused for not caring about yet-another celebrity chef writeup. But stay your cleaver. Oakland’s own Bryant Terry considers himself an activist who uses comestibles as a medium for social change, not TV dinner promotion. Terry’s beautiful, seasonally sensitive vegan cookbooks — his latest is The Inspired Vegan (Da Capo Lifelong Books, $19, 240pp) — contextualize recipes so that the connection between eating healthy and having healthy communities is clear. He also tours the country educating audiences about vegan lifestyle and cooking, with a focus on minority communities, and makes no bones about the fact that he thinks families could stand to spend more time in the kitchen together.

www.bryant-terry.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST ONE-UP ON INSTAGRAM

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST ONE-UP ON INSTAGRAM

The square aspect ratio and grainy filters of everyone’s favorite $1 billion photography app turn perfectly good shots crappy-cool with the swipe of a finger, allowing smart phone users everywhere to take photos way back. But to take photos way, way back, you have to be in the Mission for a tintype portrait at Photobooth. These old-timey sheet-steel images were once popular at carnivals and fairs; even after wet plate photography became obsolete, tintypes were deemed charmingly nostalgic — a sort of prescient irony that pre-dated hipsterism yet neatly anticipated it. Perhaps that same appreciative irony applied to the tintype’s tendency — due to long exposure time — to make subjects look vaguely, yet somehow quaintly, sociopathic. Or, as the Photobooth website delicately puts it, “Traditionally, tintypes recorded the intensity of the individual personality.”

1193 Valencia, SF. (415) 824-1248, www.photoboothsf.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST KNOBS OF GLAMOUR

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST KNOBS OF GLAMOUR

In addition to being part of a string of friendly neighborhood hardware stores, Belmont Hardware‘s Potrero Hill showroom brims unexpectedly with rooms of fancy doorknobs, created by the companies who design modern-day fittings for the likes of the White House and the Smithsonian. A gold-plated door handle with an engraving of the Sun King? A faucet set featuring two crystal birds with out-stretched wings, vigilantly regulating your hot and cold streams of water? It’s all at Belmont Hardware. With a broad range of prices (you can still go to them for $10 quick-fix drawer knobs and locks, don’t worry) and an even broader scope of products, Belmont represents a world where hardware can inspire — check out the local chain’s four other locations for more ways to bring the glory home.

Various Bay Area locations. www.belmonthardware.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST ART SQUAWK

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST ART SQUAWK

Sure, on any given Sunday the Rare Bird is flush with vintage duds for guys and gals, antique cameras, birdhouses, jewelry, and trinkets. But for all you birds looking to truly find your flock, fly in to this fresh store on third Thursdays during the Piedmont Avenue Art Walk. Rare Bird proprietress Erica Skone-Reese hatched the event a year ago, and has chaired the art walk committee ever since, giving all those art-walk lovers who Murmur, Stroll, and Hop (all names of Bay Area art walks, for the uninitiated) a place to home in between first Fridays. Can’t make it when the Ave.’s abuzz? No worries. Rare Bird curates an always-changing list of featured artisans — like Featherluxe, who’ll fulfill your vegan feather-extension needs should you have them — and recently began offering classes in all art forms trendy and hipster, from terrarium making to silhouette portraiture.

3883 Piedmont, Oakl. (510) 653-2473, www.therarebird.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST PLACE TO STASH YOUR NERDS

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST PLACE TO STASH YOUR NERDS

Got nerdy friends you just can’t understand? Feel bad asking them to explain, for the tenth time, the difference between RPG, GMT, MMP, and D&D? WOW them with a trip to Endgame. Not only will they find others who speak their language, but — because they can spend hours browsing board games, card games, toys, and trinkets — you’ll have them out of your hair … at least until you can look up what the heck they’re talking about on Urban Dictionary. Add an always-open game room, plus swapmeets, mini-cons, and an online forum, to equal more nerd-free hours than you can shake a pack of Magic Cards at. Just be careful you don’t find yourself lonely, having lost your dweeby mates to Endgame’s undeniable charms. Or worse: venture in to drag them out and risk being won over, yourself.

921 Washington, Oakl. (510) 465-3637, www.endgameoakland.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST GET LIT

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST GET LIT

Back in college, you probably had that friend who dressed up as a Christmas tree on Halloween and had to dance near a wall outlet all night so he could stay plugged in. Or … maybe you didn’t. Either way, costumes that light up are no longer just for burner freaks and shortsighted frat bays. With a little help from Cool Neon, anyone can get lit in an affordable el-wire wrapped masterpiece of their own creation. Wanna cover your car with LEDs? This place can do it. Creative signage for your business? No problem for these neon gods. And even if you’re just missing the sparkly, lit-up streets of the holiday season, Cool Neon can oblige: its Mandela Parkway façade is a light show in itself.

1433 Mandela, Oakl. (510) 547-5878, www.coolneon.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST NEIGHBORHOOD FIXTURES

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST NEIGHBORHOOD FIXTURES

Hey, you with the dreams of a better bathroom! There’s no need to put up any longer with that cracked toilet bowl, that faulty faucet, that perma-grody bathtub, or that shower head that suddenly switches into “destroy” mode at the worst possible moment (i.e. right in the middle of herbal-rinsing your long, lustrous hair). Head down — or direct your responsible landlord down — to the cluster of independent home supply stores at the intersection of Bayshore Avenue and Industrial Street in Bayview-Hunter’s Point. There you’ll find K H Plumbing Supplies, a huge family-owned and operated bathroom and kitchen store with everything you need to fulfill your new fixture fantasies. The staff is extra-friendly and can gently guide you toward affordable options in better-known name brands. Even if you have only a vague idea as to which of the thousand bath spouts will reflect your unique personality, they’ll find something for you to gush over.

2272 Shafter, SF. (415) 970-9718

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST BUSHELS OF BUDS

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST BUSHELS OF BUDS

Ever rolled your eyes at the endless articles on flower arranging found in home magazines — as if you had the money or the time? Then you might be due for a visit to the San Francisco Flower Mart. The SoMa gem sells cut flowers of every description at wholesale prices, making it the perfect playground for those looking to get plenty of practice, per-penny, poking stems into vases. And if your Martha Stewart moment doesn’t seem imminent, there are plenty of other fixin’s — giant glass balls, decorative podiums, fish tanks, driftwood, grosgrain ribbons, flamingo-themed party supplies — to rifle through. It’s the perfect place to while away your lunch break: it smells great, and it even has a perky little cafe to caffeinate your midday visit.

640 Brannan, SF. (415) 392-7944, www.sfflmart.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST EXQUISITE ADZES

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST EXQUISITE ADZES

Some chefs drool over the copper pots at posh cooking stores. Artists lovingly caress the sable brushes in painting shops. But what aspirational retail options exist for the you, the craftsman? Home Despot? Perish the thought! Luckily, your days of retail resentment are over. At the Japan Woodworker, you can fondle high-end power tools to deplete your paycheck, plus tools hand-made in traditional Japanese style — like pull saws, chisels, and adzes — which are not only beautiful, but quite affordable. If you’re the type of person who savors doing things the slow way, the tools found here will do much to imbue your projects with love and care. And if you’re not, perhaps it’s time you paid a little more attention to detail — a very Japanese value, indeed.

1731 Clement, Alameda. (510) 521-1810, www.japanwoodworker.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST LITERARY VALHALLA

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Best of the Bay 2012: BEST LITERARY VALHALLA

For lovers of esoteric literature, 2141 Mission is a dream come true. The unassuming storefront (the building’s ground floor is occupied by the standard hodgepodge of Mission District discount stores) belies a cluster of alternative bookstores on its upper levels. Valhalla Books is flush with titles in their debut printing; Libros Latinos holds exactly that; lovers of law history will find their joy in the aisles of Meyer Boswell; and the building’s largest shop, Bolerium Books, holds records of radical history — volumes and magazines that together form a fascinating look at the gay rights, civil rights, labor, and feminist movements (and more!). Most visitors make the pilgrimage with something specific in mind, but walk-ins are welcome as long as they have a love of the printed page.

Bolerium Books, No. 300. (415) 863-6353, www.bolerium.com; Libros Latinos, No. 301. (415) 793-8423, www.libroslatinos.com; Meyer Boswell, No. 302. (415) 255-6400, www.meyerbos.com; Valhalla Books, No. 202. (415) 863-9250

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST PRAYER FOR UNITY

Andrew Lam
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BEST PRAYER FOR UNITY

A sanctuary that offers religion to some and is open to all, St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church genuinely lives by JC’s should-be truism, “there are no outcasts and all are welcome.” Volunteers from the church’s congregation manage the Cyprian’s Arc community center, which opens its doors wide as a music venue and meeting space for neighbors of every age, belief system, and background. Local activists, like those from the sustainability-driven Wigg Party, organize workshops and events within the St. Cyprian’s public areas. And the 89-year-old church’s efforts at community building, such as a recent oral history project, remind Panhandle neighbors that even — perhaps especially — in a rapidly changing community, they are connected at the roots of the ‘hood.

2097 Turk, SF. (415) 567-1855, www.saintcyprianssf.org

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST FUTURE OF THE PRESS

Andrew Lam
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BEST FUTURE OF THE PRESS

This might get a little meta, so pull up a bar stool, grab a stiff drink, and bear with us. Better yet, let’s go down to Local Edition bar, where the walls are adorned with perfectly preserved newspapers from the great days of print journalism (ahem, not yet over by the way) and the cocktail menu, designed by Ian Scalzo of Bourbon and Branch, offers playful twists on classics any fedora-sporting muckraker worth her salt would be more than familiar with. Yes, in the plush, Art Deco-ish space you’ll find displayed a copy of the Guardian’s first issue from October 1966 and other legendary artifacts of historic Bay Area journalistic output, yellow or otherwise, plus a vintage typewriter or two. It’s a dreamy wayback machine for romance-addled Lois Lanes and Clark Kents — and it all takes place in the basement that once housed the Examiner’s (and The Call’s) printing press. There is nary an emoticon, comments section, or LOLcat in sight. If the future of print is leading to this sort of thing, we’ll stick with ink and drink.

691 Market, SF. (415) 795-1375, www.localeditionsf.com

best of the bay 2012: BEST DIY PANDA BAIT

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best of the bay 2012: BEST DIY PANDA BAIT

“If just owning a bamboo bike was the end goal, we’d just build them for you,” said Justin Aguinaldo in a Guardian interview back in February. “For us, it’s about empowering more people and providing them with the value of creating your own thing.” Aguinaldo’s Tenderloin DIY cycling hub Bamboo Bike Studio doesn’t just produce two-wheeled steeds whose frames are made of easily-regenerated natural materials — it teaches you useful bike-making skills so that you can be the master of your own self-powered transportation destiny. Buy your bike parts (kits start at $459), and then get yourself to tinkering. After a weekend-long session with Bamboo Bike Studio’s expert bike makers, you’ll have a ride that’s ready for the hurly-burly city streets.

982 Post, SF. www.bamboobikestudio.com

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