People & Places >>

• Readers' Poll
  Best Local Comedian Alex Blagg Best Local Stripper No winner Best Local Writer Dave Eggers Best San Francisco Icon Golden Gate Bridge Best Local Bartender Erin Freer, 540 Club Best Beat Cop No winner Best Place for a First Date Golden Gate Park Best Place to Propose Ocean... More >>
• Best Free Sightseeing
  Paradise Drive, Tiburon There's a reason that most of the multimillionaires in the Bay Area live in Tiburon: It's breathtaking. While all the tourists jam Sausalito, lesser-known Tiburon is a destination for local residents in the know. It's got a modest downtown with nice little ice cream... More >>
• Best Place for Kids
  Zeum
  One glance in the Reality Check room at Zeum confirms it: They never, ever had anything like this when you were a kid. A handful of high-tech stations make up a whole production studio for creating media shows, all with controls so simple a child could use them (which is the point). During an... More >>
• Five Best Pre-Quake Structures
  On April 18, 1906, the greatest natural disaster in American history hit San Francisco in the form of an 8.3 earthquake that opened gas mains, ruptured water lines, cut off telegraph contact with the outside world, and started some four dozen fires that grew into an enormous, wind-whipped... More >>
• Best Audio and Visual Collagist
  Rob Col
  San Francisco has one of the highest DJ-per-square-inch ratios in the country: We're famous for it. Many DJs are insincere victims of a trend (we may be famous for this as well). But Rob Cole, aka KROB, is a man following his vision so tenaciously that San Francisco ought to be famous for... More >>
• Best Street Name
  Mark Twain Plaza West of Sansome between Clay and Washington Mark Twain was not only a towering influence in the development of our native literature, one of the country's sharpest and most astute social critics, and the author of what is arguably the Greatest American Novel, but he also... More >>
• Best $1.25 Tour of the City
  Muni Lines 29, 9, and 15 www.sfmuni.com The famed 49 Mile Drive is a rightful chestnut for out-of-towners for its spectacular views of San Francisco, but visitors and locals without cars can get a decent abridged version for half the price of a gallon of gas with some clever maneuvering on... More >>
• Best Contemplative Spot
  Legion of Honor
  Two famous meditative types have chosen this quiet hilltop retreat as their eternal musing ground: on celluloid, the mysterious Madeleine Elster in Hitchcock's Vertigo, and in bronze, Rodin's massive emblem of human cogitation, forever ruminating beside the museum's entrance. This Thinker is... More >>
• Best Classic Murals
  Rincon Center
  Built as a Works Progress Administration project, the Rincon Annex post office is among the city's finest links to a glorious art deco past. When the Rincon Center shopping and office complex was built in 1978, developers were required to preserve the splendid murals depicting California's... More >>
• Best Parking Garage
  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... More >>
• Best Metaphysical Travelers
  Golden Gate Pronaos Rosicrucians
  The Rosicrucians are an unusual bunch of self-helpists. We don't mean unusual in a Tony Robbins "I am a giant who could crush your skull but will instead proffer honey-tongued advice" kind of way, but rather in a "further man's evolution through the wisdom of the mystery schools of ancient Egypt... More >>
• Best Comedian
  William Franken www.willfranken.com If any comedian today could be said to embody the spirit of San Francisco, it's Will Franken. Long-haired, lanky-limbed, and mildly shabby-looking, Franken slaps his audiences about the face and neck with his cerebral, surreal blend of sketch comedy... More >>
• Best Historic Marker
  Sparky 20th & Church streets Stand at the top corner of Dolores Park and you'll probably find yourself facing northeast, checking out the breathtaking view of the bay, the city, and the array of thinly veiled buttocks in front of you. The location offers pretty good free distraction, and... More >>
• Best Popcorn Vendor
  Joe Rukus at the Metreon
  This performer puts the pop in popcorn. A fixture at the Metreon's weekend flicks, Rukus wheels his red concessions cart from theater to theater, belting show tunes and songs from TV (most recently, the theme to Gilligan's Island) and dispensing snacks and life lessons. He lists Johnny Carson... More >>
• Best Redwood Grove
  Transamerica Pyramid
  "From them comes silence and awe," John Steinbeck said of Sequoia sempervirens, the majestic, towering conifers that can grow well over 300 feet in height, 7 feet in diameter, and 2,000 years in age. Not native to San Francisco, they are nevertheless the fog-nurtured essence of Northern... More >>
• Best Place to Watch Pornos (and Be Considered Intellectual)
  The Center for Sex & Culture
  Sex educator Dr. Carol Queen (author of Real Live Nude Girl and Exhibitionism for the Shy), with the Center for Sex & Culture, has created a safe public space where people can research issues pertaining to sexuality and participate in lively sex-positive events. The center's event calendar... More >>
• Best Place to Work on Your Laptop When You're Unemployed
  Atlas Cafe
  Unemployment sucks, no matter how much you overworked types may dream of "free" time. In reality, the long hours filled with shoulda-coulda-wouldas creep past excruciatingly slowly, as alienation and guilt set in; panic attacks often follow. But if you are unemployed, try spending your few... More >>
• Best-Looking Library
  Marin Civic Center 3501 Civic Center (at Avenue of the Flags), Fourth Floor, San Rafael, 499-6056, www.marincenter.org Many people live in the Bay Area without ever realizing that there's a gigantic, beautiful building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Marin County. The Civic Center is a... More >>
• Best Heart Attack-Inducing Stairs
  Vallejo Steps Vallejo between Mason and Taylor Tucked into a verdant slice of Russian Hill above Mason Street, the Vallejo Steps and their pedestrian cargo are easy to miss from a distance. Up close, however, it's impossible not to notice the people wheezing up the 167 stairs like fat... More >>
• Best Museum
  Cartoon Art Museum
  We were ordered, long ago, to start thinking of cartoons and comics as art, so stop fighting it. Seeing the work framed, labeled, and hanging on the walls of an austere gallery goes a long way toward legitimizing the form, but we also like the Cartoon Art Museum for its fascinating peek at the... More >>
• Best Scrolling View
  Amtrak to Sacramento (800) 872-7245, www.amtrak.com If you've ever taken the weekend or evening ride on Amtrak's Capitol Corridor route to Sacramento, you've likely as not seen an in-the-know couple lounging in a dining booth with a luxury picnic complete with wine, cheeses, canapés,... More >>
• Best Unconventional Bombshell
  Bambi Lake Born Johnny Purcell, Lake has blossomed into a cyclonic force in San Francisco. Even if you haven't seen her gorgeous, harrowing live routines or witnessed her antics (which border on brilliantly insane performance art) at any number of local dive bars, you've probably seen her... More >>
• Best Wooded Retreat
  MacBeath Hardwood Co. 2150 Oakdale (at Industrial), 647-0782, www.macbeath.com If your wife leaves you, you lose your job, or your computer crashes with your career-hinging afternoon presentation aboard, do the following: Drive out to MacBeath Hardwood. Walk past the sales area, across... More >>
• Best City Campground
  Rob Hill Campground Harrison & Central Magazine, The Presidio, 561-5444 Camping in the city usually follows some horrible miscalculation, such as losing your keys or your girlfriend. But at Rob Hill on the Presidio's west edge, people engage in old-school camping, with tents and mess kits,... More >>
• Best Political Transformation
  Matt Gonzalez Gonzalez & Leigh LLP, 332 Pine (at Sansome), 217-3200 A grooming-challenged deputy public defender known mostly for pissing off judges -- one whose previous stab at political office, a run for DA, barely registered with voters -- might have seemed a long shot to represent... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Most of Us Can't Afford to Live In
  Presidio Terrace Near Arguello & Washington Sure, Pacific Heights has many fine mansions, but there's only one neighborhood in San Francisco so affluent that it makes the gated communities of Orange County bow their heads in shame. Presidio Terrace -- located at the nexus of Laurel... More >>
• Best View
  Ninth Floor of the de Young Museum 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden (at 10th Avenue), Golden Gate Park, www.thinker.org/deyoung If you don't like Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron's design for the new de Young Museum, that's fine. It really does look like a rusting aircraft carrier. If you're... More >>
• Best Cheap Date
  Ocean Aquarium
  The bankroll's low, the coin jar's empty, and your date's arriving in a few minutes; what to do? Escort your sweetie to Ocean Aquarium in the Tenderloin for some quality time among the cichlids, plecos, and goodeids. This friendly, hard-to-find hole in the wall carries a dazzling variety of... More >>
• Best Place for a Walk (Indoors)
  Limn
  For all their still-emerging hip grandeur, South of Market's growing high-rise neighborhoods are still a bit of a rat hole. Until the city does something to narrow and calm the one-way thoroughfares, reduce the number of car-magnet parking garages, and encourage bicycle commuting with additional... More >>
• Best Film Programmer
  Edith Kramer Senior film curator and director, Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft (at Bowditch), Berkeley, (510) 642-1124, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu From Hong Kong shoot'em-ups to Indian political documentaries, silent Swedish melodramas to forgotten '40s westerns, Edith Kramer has... More >>
• Best Fictional San Francisco Character
  Sam Spade With this being the 75th year since the publication of The Maltese Falcon, can the city claim a better sleuth than writer Dashiell Hammett's hard-boiled 1920s crime-solver? We think not. In Falcon, Spade (or Humphrey Bogart, if you're thinking about the movie, and we know you are)... More >>
• Best Tantric Yoga Teacher
  Bast Sekhmet Temple, 860-5705, www.tantrictemple.org Tantra is really catching on, even among those of us who don't particularly want to be part of a 24-hour coitus session. What the method is really about is learning how to breathe, meditate, and transfer energy throughout your body --... More >>
• Best Public Place to Play Anagrams
  Midnight Sun
  Whether you're hitching a ride on the 12-step wagon or simply uninterested in the Castro bar scene (and really, how can you not be?), exercise your mind while having mischievous fun by using the Midnight Sun's marquee for a rousing game of anagrams. It's simple: Take a seat across the street... More >>
• Best People-Watching Spot
  Dolores Park
  Ever noticed how Dolores Park seems to be, hands down, the warmest spot in the city? Aside from the weather, it's an idyllic place -- equipped with six tennis courts, two soccer fields, a stellar downtown backdrop, and a playground that even adults can enjoy. It has also been the neighborhood... More >>
• Best Cable Car Gripman
  Frank Ware Powell-Mason line, 673-6864, www.sfmuni.com Don't take our word for it. Veteran gripman Ware, a native of the Philippines, is the defending champion in the annual cable car bell-ringing contest sponsored by Muni, which operates the cable cars. And while he doesn't claim to be a... More >>
• Best Place to Lose Your Heart
  Harry Denton's Starlight Room
  Draped with chandeliers and silk and done up in ruby red and gold tones to create a 1930s opulence, the Starlight Room (formerly the Starlight Roof) occupies the 21st floor of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, overlooking Union Square. It would be worth a visit for nothing else but the dazzling... More >>
• Best Perfumer
  Yosh Han www.eaudeyosh.com After you smell Han's scents, you'll never go back to wearing department store perfume again. Unlike most mass-produced fragrances that chemically approximate aromas found in nature, Han's offerings use essences extracted from the actual plants and flowers. Some... More >>
• Best Extrasensory Experience
  Tactile Dome in the Exploratorium
  The Tactile Dome is a splendid place to suspend your overutilized sense of sight and rely instead on more primal antennae. Housed in a large geodesic dome in the middle of the Exploratorium interactive science museum, the dome is itself the hands-on experience in extremis. The interior is a... More >>
• Best Enigmatic Art Window
  Johnny Ramirez's Studio 3589 20th St. (at Valencia), 642-2844 Large brass letters embedded in the sidewalk spell out "LOUIS BAKIN." It isn't clear why, but then, if you're standing near the southeast corner of 20th and Valencia streets, there's at least one other thing that at first... More >>
• Best Place to Hobnob With a Ghost
  Queen Anne Hotel
  Planted on the outskirts of Pacific Heights, the Queen Anne Hotel is a decadent Victorian in shades of crimson and pink, pretty typical for a haunted house -- which it's purported to be. The hotel opened in 1890 and was originally Miss Mary Lake's School for Young Ladies; it passed through... More >>
• Best (Affordable) Way to Impress a First Date
  The Bar at Farallon
  So you have a hot date with someone you'd like to impress who doesn't know how poor you really are? Don't fret: Take her here. Not everyone can afford to eat dinner in this place, but most of us can afford to get appetizers and drinks, so pull up a comfy stool and hang out in the bar. The... More >>
• Best Sex Tour Hostess
  Jane Tollini, S.F. Zookeeper S.F. Zoo, Sloat & Great Highway, 753-7080, www.sfzoo.org Before you get too hot and bothered, we're talking animals here -- the zoo kind. Each Valentine's Day (and on the weekend before and after) the comedic Tollini leads a "sex tour" -- really an educational... More >>
• Best Pet Viewing
  Valencia Between 16th and 20th Streets Start by taking BART to 16th and Mission streets, then hoof it up 16th to Valencia; stay on the east side of the street and head south. After about a block, look for Valencia Street Books (569 Valencia, 552-7200). You'll know you've found it when you see... More >>
• Best Wildlife Spot
  Telegraph Hill The Greenwich Steps, Greenwich above Montgomery Thanks to the unexpected success of Mark Bittner's lovely memoir The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill and Judy Irving's captivating, nationally distributed documentary of the same name, tourists will soon be flocking to North... More >>
• Best TV News Anchor
  Dennis Richmond KTVU, Channel 2 Call us crazy, but we like our TV anchors straight -- talking, that is. Richmond's banter-free, no-nonsense style (not to mention his longevity) serves him well in an era of increasingly obnoxious talking heads. The 60-year-old Ohio native came to the... More >>
• Best Place to Meditate
  San Francisco Zen Center
  Most of us are aware that San Francisco is a meditation cloud nine. Since Buddhism was popularized in the United States in the 1960s, monks, scholars, and peaceniks have flocked to the city to get in on the nonaction. The San Francisco Zen Center is perhaps the most established haven of the... More >>
• Top Five Spots Made Famous in the Movies
  San Francisco's place in cinematic lore is assured, because the city has served as a backdrop to countless classic films (and plenty of car commercials, too). Here are a handful of places to get that sense of dramatic déjà vu. Union Square Between Stockton and Powell, Post... More >>
• Best Landmark
  Melvin M. Swig Interfaith Memorial Labyrinth at Grace Cathedral
  Atop Nob Hill, surrounded by some of the priciest property in town, a space has been set aside for reflection and meditation. Just to the right of the entrance to Grace Cathedral, up a flight of stairs above the street, a circular labyrinth on the ground serves as a path, a resting place, and... More >>
• Best Ways to Kill Yourself in San Francisco
  For years now -- this year especially -- our nation has been bombarded with stories of a massive suicide pandemic via San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Even if you missed Tad Friend's breathless New Yorker article or the numerous segments on NPR, you can Google "Golden Gate Bridge" + suicide... More >>