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• Best Starting Nine
  With the Giants off to a hot start and the A's fresh off two consecutive playoff appearances, optimism is running high in Bay Area baseball circles. That's nice, but there's a slight problem: It shouldn't be. The Giants, for all their strengths, are built around Barry Bonds, who has a .196... More >>
• Four Best Places to Get Your Asana in Shape
  Type-A Westerners now flock to the age-old tradition of yoga, which means "union" in Sanskrit. For better or worse, the 5,000-year-old system is currently in vogue with on-the-go multitaskers looking to de-stress, get in shape, and flirt with nirvana. A practice that provides guidelines on how... More >>
• Best Sale
  One Half
  Take a store called One Half, whose motto is "Great Stuff at Great Prices," throw in a twice-yearly half-off sale and personable owners, and what do you get? A crowd of die-hard bargain shoppers waiting patiently out front exchanging lines such as, "I save up for months for this," "I postponed... More >>
• Best Haircut (1 Comment)
  Bruce Choy
  Stylist Bruce Choy doesn't cut hair -- he creates masterpieces of art that you wear on your head. Using special patented scissors (two to eight pairs of scissors welded together, manufactured in Japan), Choy has developed a unique technique that will produce only the most fashionable of results.... More >>
• (Another) Best Reason to Be Glad You're a Woman
  Osento, a Spa for Women
  Osento dubs itself a "temporary refuge for women," and indeed, the spa, which mimics the tranquillity of Japanese bathhouses, is a relaxing and classy haven with every luxury an overstressed girl could want. For a sliding-scale fee of $10 to $20, paradise awaits. The dim and peaceful dressing... More >>
• Best Place to Pound, Screw, and Grind
  Tool Lending Center
  You might expect to get a different kind of service by calling 467-TOOL, but the TLC available at the other end of this line stands for Tool Lending Center. The center offers more than 200 implements that you can rent for free -- from bull floats to pony clamps to kneepads -- and you could get... More >>
• Best Shop to Discover What Your Betters Are Dispensing Of
  Cathedral School Shop
  Dolce & Gabbana shoes. A Coach handbag. An Yves St. Laurent evening gown. The fact that these are sitting in the window display of a thrift store, of all places, says a lot about how the Cathedral School Shop goes about its business. Located at the foot of Nob Hill, the Cathedral School resells... More >>
• Best Car Rental Agency for Pedestrians and Cyclists
  Rent-a-Wreck
  The first thing you should know about Dan Pendergast is that he spent a couple hundred dollars earlier this year having a custom frame shop repaint his old bicycle. In other words, he cares about the same sorts of things this city's pedestrians and cyclists do. He comprehends, for instance, what... More >>
• Best Asian Supermarket
  99 Ranch
  To shop at 99 Ranch is to realize America is indeed the world's great melting pot. The place looks like a Safeway, but in addition to mundane necessities such as coffee, milk, and sugar, 99 Ranch carries salted duck eggs, ong choy, Chinese rice wines, fresh noodles, sashimi-quality fish, and... More >>
• Best Place to Get Smooth for Your Honey
  Prima Facie Skincare Salon
  While some may cringe at the prospect of having one's pubic or butt hair ripped out by the roots, for others it's a near-religious ritual -- agony endured for the ecstasy of smoothness. Fortunately, the friendly aestheticians at Prima Facie make the process as painless as possible by using a... More >>
• Best Beds (2 Comments)
  The Four Seasons Mattress
  Finally, Four Seasons custom-designed-mattress addicts needn't go without during their stay by the bay. With the construction of the new luxury hotel last year arrived the Four Seasons' famed overstuffed mattresses, which have been touted and purchased by the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Julia... More >>
• Best Label Whore Epicenter
  Union Square
  With the economy in the pits and ex-dot-commers heading for the Peace Corps, blatant materialism may not be chic these days. But there are still closet fashion freaks out there -- you know who you are -- and Union Square will cater to your every designer whim like no other place in the city.... More >>
• Best Union Square Boutique
  Marc Jacobs
  There's no stopping fashion's "It" boy. The Vogue/VH1 Designer of the Year now creates three distinct collections (Marc Jacobs Signature, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton) and has fast become the top purveyor of urban chic (he's the guy responsible for bringing back the permanent-creased jean... More >>
• Best Cheap Designer Clothes
  Marshalls
  You can keep your Loehmann's and Off Saks. You won't be able to browse filmy, pastel-colored disco tank tops by Armani there, priced to move at $19.99. And where else can you get a $29.99 set of all-cotton Ralph Lauren sheets, $10 Spode blue china plates, and $99 Prada beige-nylon space boots?... More >>
• Best Place to Shop for Housewares
  Bed, Bath and Beyond
  We can already hear the screeching about how this is a -- dare we say it -- chain store. Sorry, folks, but it's also a much better place to stock your apartment than any other we've run across. Here's why: The store makes sense. It carries exactly what you need, from shower curtains to lemon... More >>
• Friendliest Place to Buy Meat
  Divisadero Meat Market
  It's not exactly hip to be a carnivore in health-conscious San Francisco. But for those of us who enjoy the taste of animal flesh, the Divisadero Meat Market is a place where we'll always be welcome. Set in a diverse neighborhood whose inhabitants would just as soon buy pig ears as they would... More >>
• Best Place to Buy a Blade
  North Beach Cutlery
  When your kitchen knife has lost its zing, or you're ready to upgrade to a better blade, North Beach Cutlery's the place to go. The selection, with prices anywhere from $4 to $140, is downright dazzling, ranging from tiny paring knives to 16-inch slicers. North Beach Cutlery carries top name... More >>
• Best Gift Shop for Children
  Kinokuniya Stationery and Gift
  Feel guilty spending next to nothing on a birthday present for your niece in Boston? Don't. Kids don't know or care how much a gift costs; all they want is something fun, unique, colorful, and cool. So unless you're trying to impress the child's parents, there's no reason to drop large sums at... More >>
• Best Place to Find an Intergalactic Police Force
  Heroes Club
  Here, superheroes, villains, and monsters are revered as art and stored behind glass -- everything from Ultraman to Hanuman to Optimus Prime to Frankenstein (if you don't see it at the shop, or on the Web site, it probably doesn't exist anymore). But while collecting models and action figures is... More >>
• Best Web Surfing
  The Nikko Hotel Lobby
  There are a growing number of cafes and hotels around the city where you can surf the Internet through a wireless card installed in your laptop. The Hotel Nikko is the only one we're aware of where you can surf the Net, appreciate an elegant collection of modern Asian art, and tip back a... More >>
• Best Travel Store
  Rand McNally Bookstore
  At Rand McNally, you can outfit yourself for a trip to almost anywhere that has potable water (and quite a few that don't). What makes the store so special is not merely the exhaustive combination of books, maps, electronics, accessories, and luggage to make your trip more enjoyable, but also... More >>
• Best Astrologer
  Susan Levitt
  Before shelling out cash for your weekly visit with your shrink, consider booking an appointment with astrologist, tarot card reader, and feng shui consultant Susan Levitt instead: Her clients claim she could have saved them from years of therapy. Unabashed in her enthusiasm for the metaphysical... More >>
• Best Bargain Hunting
  Alameda Point Antiques & Collectibles Faire
  Now that dot-com salaries have gone the way of the job market, those of us lucky enough to still have a home to decorate fear that our options are limited to IKEA or thrift stores. But at the Alameda Point Antiques & Collectibles Faire, secondhand shopping doesn't have to mean second-rate.... More >>
• Best Discount Shopping Tour
  Savers
  Thrifting veterans pity the fools who shell out more than $5 for an old frock at city vintage boutiques. The favorite haunts of retro clothing hounds are usually out of town -- and carefully guarded. Yet Redwood City's thrift stores have been an open secret for a while. Off the quaint main drag... More >>
• Best Costume Shop
  Costumes on Haight
  In other cities, a costume store can be a seasonal proposition, with a lot of downtime between Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. But San Francisco is not your average city: Its denizens like to party, and party in costume. Whether you're looking for a last-minute mustache to finish off a porn... More >>
• Best Bookstore to Find African-American Authors
  Marcus Books
  Despite the recent explosion of new African-American storytellers on the scene, trying to find books by and about African-Americans can be a true test of one's investigative skill. In many bookstores, you may find that small corner marked "African-American," with the works of a few well-known... More >>
• Best Shop to Visit When Your Apartment Is Smelling Funky
  Asakichi
  It's as small as a walk-in closet, so it's easy to miss Asakichi, which sells incense in all shapes and scents. But don't be deceived by the store's modest size -- Asakichi is absolutely packed with an amazing selection. Incense holders come in surprising and charming shapes (sleeping cats,... More >>
• Best Place to Buy a Bar of Soap
  Buu
  This closet-size shop carries "a little bit of everything," says the salesgirl, and she's right: housewares, gifts, bath products, aromatherapy items, women's clothing. The item that draws us through the door is the decadent bar soap by Votivo. It produces a rich, luxurious lather, but the... More >>
• Best Knife Sharpener
  Jivano's Cutlery Service
  If you're neither married nor a professional chef, you probably have crappy knives -- old, chipped, worn down, dull. But like a day spa for silverware, Jivano's Cutlery Service will rejuvenate them. Haul your battered blades to Jivano (first or last name? He won't tell), a long-haired, silent... More >>
• Best Furniture for Book Lovers
  Books & Bookshelves
  As with being too thin or too rich, you can never have too many bookshelves. Unfortunately, they're damned expensive. If you'd rather not spend multiple hundreds for the chichi rustic style of Pottery Barn or risk loading a decrepit antique with heavy volumes, stop by Books & Bookshelves, a... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Affordable Art
  Califia Books
  Buying original art takes dough. Sure, you could wait for the annual S.F. open studios and buy the reasonably priced work of up-and-coming artists, but at any other time of year your best bet is artists' books at Califia. Hidden away up a staircase, across the hall from the legendary Crown Point... More >>
• Best Unusual Textiles
  Satin Moon Fabrics
  Like the United Nations of fabrics, Satin Moon's overstuffed Clement storefront houses diverse material from India, China, Japan, and Italy (among other countries), but it's dominated by cloth from the United States. The stylish sisters who run the shop specialize in decorating fabrics -- plush... More >>
• Best Place to Print Photos
  Photoworks
  It's easy to get caught up in the whole digital camera thing -- especially if you travel a lot or have kids -- but printed photos speak a language that pixels never will. Here's proof: Pull your old point-and-shoot out of the closet, fill it with decent black-and-white film, shoot random pics... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Eclectic Gifts
  Market Between Sanchez and Castro
  We used to say we'd like to open a shop called Weird Random Shit and fill it with cool stuff we like. We'd display everything handsomely, and occasionally we'd even sell some of it. Now we don't have to, because a two-block stretch of Market Street has blossomed with three WRS shops, all of them... More >>
• Best Thing That Ever Happened to a City With Too Many Cars
  City CarShare
  Owning a car in San Francisco is a terrible bargain. Beyond the expense of buying the vehicle and paying insurance, traffic and parking are such deterrents that many car owners drive only often enough to avoid street-cleaning tickets. City CarShare premiered last year as an alternative, offering... More >>
• Best Place to Get Your Do Did
  Platinum Plus
  So you're the type of person who likes to keep your hair options limitless. Last month alone you changed your tresses so often and so radically that the Joneses just couldn't keep up. Then we may have found the hairdressers for you. In the last three years, the women of Platinum Plus -- Karen... More >>
• Friendliest Video Store
  Four Star Videos
  Proprietor Dave Ayoob took over this little business in the Bernal Heights hippie-yuppie district last year. He's purchased tons of new movies and has plenty to say about what is good and what sucks. Ayoob and the usually cordial staff seem to know most of their steady customers by name. With... More >>
• Best Children's Hospital
  UCSF Children's Hospital
  The California Legislature recently passed a law conferring special recognition on the staff of the pediatric units at UCSF Medical Center for running a "hospital within a hospital." The children's hospital features medical support programs such as Child Life Services, which works with the... More >>
• Best Car Mechanic
  Ulysses Toich & Son
  We have taken our ramshackle vehicles to Ulysses Toich for a decade. He does good work, estimates correctly, and does not surprise you with grotesque overcharges. They broke the mold on Toich, who is, unlike many in his profession, honest. He works on cars in the open air or under a tin roof and... More >>
• Best Place to Buy a Toy That Doesn't Require Batteries
  The Ark
  If every kid you know already has an Xbox, try taking a low-tech toy to the next birthday party you attend. The Ark offers the antithesis to the fluorescent-lit aisles of Toys "R" Us, a fact that's glaringly obvious from the moment you walk through the charming Dutch door and into the warm... More >>
• Best Dog Walker
  Canine in the City
  The dog-walking industry seemed to explode over the last several years, perhaps because of the dot-com boom, which brought new pet-owning tech employees to town who worked long hours and could afford some hired help for their animals. We've met plenty of capable dog walkers on our jaunts to... More >>
• Best Customer Service by a Government Agency
  National Archives and Records

  Administration

  Pacific Sierra Region

  You don't have to be a records geek to know that the stuff in the National Archives -- essentially, the government's attic -- is really cool: prison files from Alcatraz Island, legal cases as far back as the building of the railroad, family records of immigrants and internment camp residents,... More >>
• Best Place to Go After You've Had a Baby
  Day One
  Your new baby has finally arrived. You're excited, anxious, sleep-deprived, and frankly a little concerned that medical professionals have let you leave the hospital with this newborn. You've forgotten everything you learned in parenting classes, and nothing you were told in childbirth class has... More >>
• Best Place to Shop for Gourmet Foods
  Draeger's Market
  We fully expected to give this award to a business within the city limits of San Francisco. Alas, we could not, in good conscience, say that any market in the city beats Draeger's for high-end, gourmet, can't-find-it-anywhere-else groceries. The store stocks practically every oddball fancy food... More >>
• Best Watch Repair
  Puffin's
  This little hole in the wall in the middle of the Union Street shopping district is well worth seeking out. Gather up your watches with dead batteries, broken bands, or more serious problems (we all have a collection) and hand them over to the doctor at Puffin's. A few days later, you'll return... More >>
• Best Place to Get Your Internal Organs Cleansed
  Sacred Space Healing Center
  You are what you eat -- and breathe for that matter. So unless you're a strict vegan living in a plastic bubble, that may mean you're a toxic mass of chemicals, environmental pollutants, drugs, meat products, and fats. In fact, "the average intestinal tract has as much bacteria as the septic... More >>
• Best Place to Find the July 1967 National Geographic
  McDonald's Bookshop
  There are magazines piled all over this rambling, ramshackle, elephantine bookstore that happily describes itself as "a dirty poorly lit place for books." McDonald's opened its doors in 1926 and today boasts the largest selection of used magazines, books, and records in California. Wandering... More >>
• Best Places to Share Brotherly Love
  Though we couldn't possibly mention all the wonderful places to volunteer in this town, three stand out in our experience. And if none of these organizations hits home for you, visit www.volunteerinfo.org for more ideas. Habitat for Humanity San Francisco 78 Ocean (at Alemany), 406-1555,... More >>
• Best Wedding Resources
  So you've decided to tie the knot. Now what? Despite all the horror stories, planning a wedding in the Bay Area can be quick, fun, and relatively inexpensive (pick two of those for best results). Seamstress Kath Hughes 2450 Geary (at Baker), 775-7113 Once you've found a site -- try Where... More >>
• Shopping & Services Readers' Poll
  Best Women’s Clothing Store Ambiance Best Men’s Clothing Store Macy’s Best New Boutique Martini Lounge Best Department Store Macy’s Best Shoe Boutique Gimme Shoes Best Vintage Store Wasteland Best Dry Cleaner Peninou Best Laundromat Brain Wash Best Lingerie Boutique Victoria’s Secret Best... More >>