If we didn't feel it was a conflict of interest, we'd be awarding that Best Blog Readers 'Fistie to y'all, but can our love really be quantified with an award like that? Well, maybe next year.

Make the jump to see a rundown of all our 2005 awards. Thank all of you out there for saying your piece, you've given us excellent fodder for next year.

We here at SFist like our celebrities like we like our men: insane, rude, dirty, and fabulous. Oh, wait, that's NOT how we like our men anymore (that's 12 years of therapy finally paying off, folks.) But any celebrity who seems too classy, clean, or "just like us" is not who makes us buy that Us magazine at the Cala point of purchase.

Our attitudes about celebrities mesh nicely with our attitude about our fair city, which we also love for its funk and circumstance -- hey, if we wanted the geographical equivalent of that tasteful Armani Oscars dress, we'd move to Menlo Park. And there's no local celeb who personifies San Francisco better than our own Dede Wilsey.

Chronicle photo by Michael Macor

Our favorite place to shop for non-essentials is, bar none, Super 7. We wander their tiny store for ages, certainly inciting suspicions of shoplifting. But we swear we're not! We just love everything in the store SO MUCH that we can't make up our damn minds.

We first sang their praises over a year ago, and our love has not waned in the slightest.

We mean to subscribe to their Super 7 magazine ("the first and only all English publication covering all aspects of Japanese Toy Culture"), but then we don't have an excuse to go into their Japantown store.

You can get an idea of their wares by shopping their online store, but it's just not the same. Unique, cool, and toothsome accessories, clothing, art, books, housewares, all live under one tiny roof. You'll be overwhelmed by edgy cuteness.

In our darker days, we fantasize about an apartment fire from which our pets and we escape unscathed, then set out to Super 7 with our renter's insurance spoils to repopulate our surfaces. in our happier, we take the 22 over to Webster and Post and browse in a gleefully acquisitive haze. There's no doubt in our minds: Super 7 is our absolute favorite place to shop in San Francisco.

But all those totally unsuccessful efforts pale in comparison to 2005's greatest activism-loser: the Muni fare strike. Because it could've been so awesome, if it had worked. There is no organization more loathed by San Franciscans than our self-declared "transit" agency. (Which reminds us: SFist's just inaugurating a new feature called Dear Mr. Ford in which you're invited to send in your mass-transit nightmare stories for a weekly recap of the horrors that Muni visits upon us all.) We were SO READY to all rally together, and stick it to them, and to feel all noble and Les-Miserablish about ourselves. So what happened?

In fact, it's pretty easy for the garden-variety lacto-ovo vegetarian to find something to eat on almost every menu in the Bay Area. No more are the days of having to settle for a salad as an entree, as pretty much everywhere but House of Prime Rib offers a politically and culinarily acceptable entree.

We were going to award the Best New Restaurant award of 2005, to Jack Falstaff which opened exactly a year ago, and which we reviewed here on SFist after our third visit. Although by no means does JF offer a perfect restaurant experience, we found it to have a little spark, a little je ne sais quoi, a little magic something that we just couldn't resist the allure of. Unfortunately, we read just a few days ago that the chef, Jack Ormsby, on whom we had a rather large crush, has left the Plumpjack group, for good.

This sudden news throws our award ceremony into a state of disarray . We can't bestow the crown on Jack F's head since we are now in the dark about what its future might hold. No problem, local food bloggers to the rescue. We asked them instead to give us a list of new restaurants that they can't wait to return to in 2006...

Bring your kid there, have them play on the state-of-the-art structures which look like they have been designed by Santa during a sabbatical at NASA**, have them network with the neighborhood kids, take a stroll in the adjoining Presidio, hit a few tennis balls on the court next door. And if you peek through the eucalyptus and cypresses which make this park a quiet grove, you'll get a glimpse of the sun shimmering on the bay. It is a place to make you love this city.

*He actually was a German immigrant (1861-1924) who became an American citizen and a Republican congressman in the Gilded Age, another period of looting of the public by robber barons.
**The park got an extensive remodel in 2003, and the neighborhood sure could afford a fund drive to make things spiffy.
Info and direction: San Francisco Recreation and Park Department at (415) 831-2782.

Campton Place won our heart almost a year ago, in our pre-SFist life, when we ordered a four course meal which ended up an eleven plate effort, with so many freebies thrown in by the house. We mostly remember the epiphany of a dish of olive oil ice cream with a shaving of a sharp parmesan-like grana, and a cured sardine: how strange the dish looked, and how the textures, the temperatures, the flavors all meshed together despite its deconstructed appearance. We also reminisce fondly about the pistaccio crusted piece of lamb, or a turnip soup with sweetbread. The 4 course meal is now $88, which makes it one of the more affordable fine dining experience in the city, considering all the extras. Ne nous quitte pas, Daniel, ne nous quitte pas.

[Update: SFist's plea is coming too late. Since we wrote this, Humm is going to New-York. His decision would un-arguably have been much more difficult had he been aware he received the first 'Fisty for Fancy Restaurant. Reviens, Daniel, reviens!.

Campton Place
340 Stockton Street
781 5555
Picture Courtesy of Campton Place

People who've been reading our "Trimethyldioxypurist" missives will not be especially surprised by the winners. For those who are strangers to our periodic ramblings about coffee and cafes around the City by the Bay, here are our favorites among the many, many cool, delicious, and often unique coffee choices at which we overcaffeinated during the past year. We give our big, meaty fist (and, yeah, those are, in fact, knobby knuckles in the logo) to:

BEST "bring-it-home" coffee:
TIE--Taylor Maid Farms and Blue Bottle Coffee. What we've sampled from the former is delicious, readily accessible to all sorts of tastes, and the company engages in "Green" practices to boot. Blue Bottle, meanwhile, has many interesting beans and roasts--patrons should be careful about picking one that'll suit your particular tastes, as they tend to be very distinct; the baristi at BBC (whether Hayes Valley kiosk or at the Farmer's Market) are always happy to help you pick one.

BEST "drink it there" coffee:
Like a broken record, we're awarding this 'Fistie to the Blue Bottle kiosk in Hayes Valley. We think this still pretty much says it all.

BEST espresso + milk drink:

A cappuccino from Boulange de Polk. We don't know how they do what they do with that milk, but we lurves 'em. Makes spending a Sunday morning in Polk Gulch a real treat.

BEST old-school cafe:

Caffe Trieste still absolutely brings it. We honor our favorite among old-time cafes that helped set the precedent for good coffee. Tried and true, Trieste ain't over by any means, its espresso straight-up kicks ass.

BEST coffee place with bad coffee:

Red's Java House. The coffee, frankly, stinks, but the views and people are great, the food is delightfully simple and greasy, and this place could have just as easily have received a made-up 'Fistie for "best place to battle a hangover." In fact, we'll give it that one too (though we should probably consult Mr. Staggering Through Fog, SFist Drew, on that one).

BEST new cafe:

Ritual Coffee Roasters. We're actually writing this from Ritual right now; the place has really caught on, as evidenced by the lack of available tables. In our initial review, we only talked about the coffee, which is done via a press pot on order. We can now attest many times over that the espresso and espresso drinks (we're now pausing to take another hit of our Americano) kick ass as well. Interestingly, there's a roasting machine hanging out in the back . . . will it go into use? Who knows. Either way, Ritual is our early favorite for next year's 'Fistie winner.

BEST coffee joint, overall, period:
We use "joint" because we can't really call the kiosk a "cafe." Obviously, it's Blue Bottle--our fave espresso, our fave baristi, our fave beans, our second-fave drip (to Ritual,who cheats by using the press pots), our fave affilliated blog; our favorite thing to bring to people from out of town as gifts . . . etc. etc. etc. Yeah, we're that fan who takes it way too far and starts stalking.

While only we at SFist can wield these mighty 'Fisties, we also want to know what you think! Hit the comments section, folks -- nominations for next year have already begun.

Rita: Let the burrito debates begin! Lincoln/Douglas rules! (I have absolutely no idea what that actually means, but doesn't that sound all high-school debate-team-y?)

RESOLVED: that Papalote has the best frickin burrito in town. Mmmmm, I love me the Papalote fish burrito. The buttery fish, the just-the-right-amount-of-flour tortilla, the tangy organic tomato/onion/cilantro, and if you eat in, the world's best smoky dip for the chips? The grainy, cinnamoned horchata totally caps off the experience! Sure, it's yupscale and trendy and Beck doesn't play there, but it wins my best burrito vote hands-down (just like it did on Burrito Eater last year). Sorry, Pancho Villa/ Cancun/ La Cumbre, we don't play that "best of the bay for the last 15 years running" game over here at the Fist!

I understand that you might feel differently, Jeremy: so go on, Trimeth -- defend your boy!

Jeremy: Hey, I won't deny that Papalote is pretty good -- very fresh, an original take on some classics. It's in my 'hood, I go there with some frequency (remember this?). But burritos are comfort food and, the way I see it, are all about being excessive. Sloppy. Not healthy (Soy chorizo? come on, now), not innovative, not hip. Not neat and clean. Not reasonably portioned, only reasonably . Papalote does a pretty good job; they certainly try hard. But maybe they try a little too hard.

My ideal burrito place? Taqueria Castillo "B" down at the Civic Center, 86 McAllister ("A," over on Golden Gate, is pretty good too, of course). It's clean, it's authentic, and the custom touches (like the totally to-die-for green salsa) enhance the experience. For "cheep cheep cheep" you get a big, fat burrito with just about anything you would want on it. Check out the lunch rush, with the folks from U.N. plaza crowding in there for better-than-anywhere burritos at cheaper-than-Taco Bell prices.

In fact, I'll put Pancho Villa/El Toro and Taqueria Can-Cun a head and shoulders above Papalote as well. I'm glad it's in my neighborhood, but I wouldn't travel for it. Taqueria Castillo "B" is the only burrito place I'll go out of my way for -- one of two Mexican food places I'll do that for are (the other is Nick's Crispy Tacos, but for the fish tacos, not for the burritos -- pardon the digression). Taqueria Castillo "B" gets my 'Fistie.

The debate rages on, after the jump

5th Place — Neogentronyx:

As first reported by CNet, Carlos Owens is an Anchorage steelworker who moonlights as a designer of larger-than-life robots, known as Mech (or Gundam Mecha, if you're an otaku like us). His 18-foot monster of steel, pistons and microcontrollers is a true testament to imaginiation and ingenuity. Not to mention totally bitchin'! Carlos and his team are currently looking for funding to continue the project. We suggest that they get Don King to kick in for a second Mech, and then sell the rights to the fight on Pay-Per-View.

4th Place — Kegbot:

While Kegbot won't actually save you from getting up off your a** to get a beer, what it will to is help you monitor your consumption by generating reams of data about how much and how fast you and your friends dispense of a keg. Originally developed by Mike Wakerly to make sure that people weren't drinking more than their share of the beer money, it became a sensation at Codecon. Build one for yourself — you can even set it up to cut off your friend who's an angry drunk (better do it early, though).

Win, place and show geeks after the jump!

Gillian Welch and Victoria Williams sat and watched Emmylou Harris perform, the guys from Los Super Seven hung out with some of the Knitters, and Patty Griffin stood by as Buddy Miller performed. It was a little surreal, but the un-reality hit a peak when Dolly Parton raced in on a golf cart for her set, and then raced out as soon as it ended. Despite some sound problems, the tiny turquoise-bedazzled genius performed just like we hoped she would. We salute Warren Hellman for putting his dollars behind such a gorgeous undertaking, and letting us all share it for free.

Best Local Band of 2005: Can we say all of them? Seriously. All the bands that work their arses off, scheduling practices and hustling for gigs, praying for some press or radio or label interest, agonizing over how they're going to get the money together to make a recording, and suffering tragedies like van breakdowns or stolen equipment. All that for those tiny bits of glory and fulfillment they get when they play onstage. Rock on.

Best Career Move: Congratulations to Two Gallants, who have begun a promising career with esteemed indie label Saddle Creek Records. Expect extensive touring and timely releases, and look for their full-length debut with Saddle Creek in January 2006 (listen to the Indie Interviews podcast with the band about the album). Another perk of signing with an indie is artistic freedom, which the band exercised on the b-side of their just-released "Las Cruces Jail"/"Long Summer Day" 7-inch. Enter to win your own copy (contest ends 12/14).

Best Club Bookers Who Do the Work For You: If you like new music but you never know what to check out, you'd do well for yourself to head to Popscene every Thursday night. Whether it's coming out of London, LA, or Australia, Popscene has all the latest music before you've heard of it.

There's no way we could cover all the great music or music-related events that have come out of the Bay Area this year. Please leave your musical shoutouts in the comments.