WALK INTO TAQUERIA Can-Cun on Mission Street sometime, and check out the plaques on the wall. The modest-looking restaurant (which has, by the way, the absolute best grilled-chicken super burrito on the planet and never puts – ick – peas in the rice) has won all sorts of awards from all sorts of publications; to check out the wall, it seems as if every newspaper and magazine in town (and a few out-of-towners) does "best of" awards.

When you have a good idea, I guess, everyone has to copy it.

Just for the record, this is the original Best Of. We pioneered the idea a long 31 years ago, well before the rest of the alternative press (and now the mainstream media) glommed on to it. After more than three decades, we're getting pretty good at it.

(Actually, that's wrong: We were pretty good at it back in 1974, although the nation's first urban-weekly Best Of issue was all of 28 pages, with the 50 bets squeezed into a two-page spread and a jump page.)

This year's edition is 288 pages, and we offer more than 400 items, five local heroes, and seven special neighborhood guides. You want Best Karma for your Car (BioFuel Oasis, in Berkeley)? You want Best Local Punk-Porn Diva (Rachel Rotten)? Best Men's Room With a View (Jade Bar, in Hayes Valley)? Best New York-Style Pizza (Arinell Pizza, on Valencia in SF and Shattuck in Berkeley)? Best Hong Kong-Style Egg Waffles (Eggettes.com, on El Camino Real)? That's just a small sample. We've got plenty more.

Then there are the readers' picks. This is a two-way communication: We give you our choices, and you give us yours. Almost 3,000 people participated in this year's poll, and their picks are a fascinating picture of San Francisco culture. (Gavin Newsom, for example, won both Best Politician and Best Politician You Love to Hate.)

And as you've already noticed, our artistic theme this year is tattoos. We've searched the city for the best ink – the best designs, the best colors, the best presentations – and photos of that work, much of it uniquely San Francisco, illustrate the pages of this 31st annual Best Of issue. Many thanks to Tanja Nixx, who now owns the venerable Lyle Tuttle tattoo parlor, for her assistance, her contacts, her encouragement – and her truly awesome cover illustration.

Tim Redmond