Introducing the 2010 Best Of San Francisco Issue

​SF Weekly's 2010 Best of San Francisco issue is now live online and filling street boxes around the city. The culmination of three months of research, dozens of extra meals, and one belt notch lost (and not yet regained, goddammit), these annual issues are always a lot of work ― good work. For a restaurant critic, they're a welcome chance to dole out unadulterated love.

Though the food capsules in this year's issue aren't bylined, they represent the work of both staff writers like SFoodie editor John Birdsall and I as well as many freelancers, most notably SF Weekly stalwart Matthew Stafford and SFoodie regulars Tamara Palmer and Andrew Simmons. I can't thank them enough.

One of the things this year's research showed me was how well the previous Best of San Francisco issues have held up (look for the search box on the Best Of section of our website, which you can use to search a decade's worth of awards by category, year, and keyword). I kept having to scratch ideas for local foods to celebrate because my discerning predecessor, Meredith Brody, and her cohorts had already done it. As someone who took a four-year break from the city (I moved back in January 2010), it was also heartening to see how many longstanding restaurants, bakeries, markets, and coffee shops are still producing great food. Listening to buzz alone, you'd think any restaurant older than six months had gone downhill, but the quality of the cooking here is as consistent as it is high.

What'd we get right? What'd we miss? What deserves to be included in next year's issue? Email me at jonathan.kauffman@sfweekly.com or send us a Tweet at @SFoodie.