Welcome to the 46th Bay Guardian Best of the Bay, hosted by 48 Hills! PHEW! What a couple years, eh? The Bay Area has stood up through it all. While we’ve lost so much, it’s important to still celebrate who we are and how we’ve pulled through together. We’re beating back the monsters every day, and embracing our Best of the Bay beasts! Thus our 2021 theme: Beast Mode.

This year’s Best of the Bay is dedicated to the indomitable Bay Area spirit, in all its freaky, oft-foggy glory. Inside you’ll find the winners of more than 100 categories, voted on by thousands of fans. This year, we’re also publishing the runners up in each category, to spread more local love. We encourage everyone to pour all they can into supporting great local businesses, institutions, organizations, and wonderful people, starting with this edition as a guide.

We’ll be publishing our Editors’ Picks, highlighting folks and orgs that have made a difference, throughout the next two months to keep the positive vibes going.

Click below to see the winners in each category. Special thank you to our terrific designer Aaron Joseph of Identafire, my Hunky Beau who has stuck with me through 16 of these, and all the readers who make the Bay Area the Best Place to Live on Earth. You can see 2020’s winners here.