Best Parking Garage

Royal Valet Parking Co.

525 Jones (at Geary), 440-1279

Remaining brand loyal to a parking ramp might seem a bit neurotic, until those panicked moments just before dusk on New Year's Eve, when the dinner reservations at a swish place near Union Square are scant minutes away and you've been circling the neighborhood for an hour. That night -- and many since -- we've found succor at Royal Valet, a tucked-away two-story garage that looks down on Jones Street. It's an easy place to pass by if you aren't looking, but the extraordinarily kindhearted staffers (who are willing to stay open late for regulars, on occasion) have earned our unfailing devotion. Most nights it costs only $5 to leave the car there all evening, and even on weekends or event nights (when the valets defy the comprehensible laws of physics, à la Dr. Who, by carefully squeezing in a fantastic number of vehicles) the rates are always below market price.