Best Public Art
READERS’ PICK: Amid the construction of Simon Donovan’s in-your-face Diamondback Bridge you’ll find Tucsonans’ present favorite “gateway feature,” the Broadway underpass tile projects. Artist Stephen Farley and tile masters Tom Galloway and Rick Young of Tile Canvases have managed to capture the hearts of the city with these four installations. The photographs themselves were collected…
Best Paean to the Gods
STAFF PICK: Tucsonans have been asking themselves the eternal questions for years now about this monolith. What ancient peoples built it? What exactly does it signify? And how did they transport the enormous quantity of chicken wire and plaster from Home Depot to this sacred site? As an experiment we got a team of scientists…
Best Meat
READERS’ PICK: A real big butcher shop, this is where we go when we want something special, something fresh, something that hasn’t been packaged in Styrofoam and cling wrap with a little diaper to soak up the juice. This is where we go when we want oxtails for tapas, or a big luscious pork butt…
Best Fried Chicken
Readers’ Pick: Quit yer complainin’! KFC does chicken right. Besides we’ve always thought Colonel Sanders looked just like Zeus. KFC keeps things interesting all year `round with a variety of specials, from BBQ wings to Twister sandwiches. But we have a special reason for liking KFC. There’s a guy named Doug up at the one…
Best Vegetarian
Readers’ Pick: The Tack Room it ain’t. Still, it’s heavenly to have cooks who prepare your meal as if their salvation depends on it. Since 1992, the local branch for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has been in the Kitchen doing the Lord’s work. (Lord Krishna, that is, not the other One.) The appropriately…
Best Local Dog Makes Good Story
STAFF PICK: Things looked bleak for Buster Borozan when the unflappable golden retriever grew hungry one day and ate most of a role of pennies. His brothers and sisters went the prissy show dog route. Not Buster. He could eat razor blades (disposable) and he once passed a hair band. But pennies are very bad…
Best Sports Team
READERS’ PICK: Gosh, it seems so long ago, what with all the players scrambling to leave town within days after the NCAA Finals, but the UA men’s basketball team came within a 45-second defensive lapse of winning Lute Olson’s second national crown in five years and providing a fitting finale to a season torn by…
Best Urban Myth
STAFF PICK: If it does, why are we so poor and always having to raise taxes? This legend belongs in the card catalogue with those of Greece and Rome. It has reached such epic proportions around here, even though its clearly fiction, it’s accepted as fact by too many people. OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS: Tucson Isn’t…
Best Place to Cool Your Heels
OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS:OK, it’s a little too late this year, but write this on your calendar for next summer: The museum has summer evening hours. Saturdays until 10, from June through August, enjoy the cooler temps of the intimately lit outdoor corridors that you cruise like a boat down a canal. This is without a…
Best Antiques/Kitsch/Collectibles
STAFF PICK: The abundance of cool antiques at Tom’s may make you faint. If so, perhaps you’ll find another fainting couch like the one we lusted after. While you’re looking for it you might trip over a fantastic sideboard, the perfect mirror for that spot in the hall, or an overstuffed chair for relaxing in…
Best Gay Bar
Reader’s Pick: This perennial favorite provides consistent fun ‘n’ games for Tucsonans, gay and straight. The dance floor’s always packed and the patio’s always a scene. For a Wild West twist and a cheap meal to boot, try Sunday’s barbecue/karaoke, where five bucks gets you a sandwich (chicken, veggie burger or meaty burger) and five…
Best Legendary Public Art
STAFF PICK: A Tucson fixture for decades, the 15-odd-foot-tall lumberjack statue on the corner of Stone and Glenn has a vaguely psychopathic look–and it doesn’t help that he holds a giant ax, replaced for a few weeks around Christmas with a giant candy cane by mysterious, anonymous elves. As far as we know, it’s the…
Best Best Place Not to Get Turned On
STAFF PICK: Boy, was this a crowded race! In any case, the open drawing sessions at Mat Bevel Institute have this one. The poses, like the world of sculpture around them and the personalized radio program sweetly tinkling behind them, keep the artist so enthralled that getting turned on by the nude before you would…
Best Sandwich
OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS: Situated on the main drag of the West University neighborhood, Time Market is timeless. This square structure is flanked by patios on the north and west sides. It has wood floors and high ceilings with fans; it’s swamp cooled and stocked with beer, wine, candy and groceries. Besides these amenities, Time Market…
Best Greek
Readers’ Pick: We’ve said it before: We’re lucky here; there is better Greek food in Tucson than in many cities with bigger Greek populations. The Olive Tree has had a long run under John Condiss. For years, he kept his business like family, keeping people on the payroll, for instance, when a fire ruined the…
Best Place to Smoke a Cigar
Readers’ Pick: Anthony’s is comfortable, with big, soft leather sofas and chairs. Television is turned to sports, news and financial news. Cigar selections are vast and you can rent lockers in the humidor for your sticks and drink. Readers’ Poll Runner-up: Smokers’ Haven, 6061 E. Broadway Blvd.; Head West, 2750 N. Campbell Ave. These rivals…
Best Park
READERS’ PICK: Way back in 1935, Tucson’s city government had the wisdom to buy the plot of land, then on the city’s far east side, bordered by Treat Avenue, Tucson Boulevard, First Street and Hawthorne Street, and to designate the property a city park. The seller got a fair price and a concession: The new…
Best Pro Athlete with Tucson Ties
READERS’ PICK: Let’s face it: Sean will be winning this category when he’s playing pickup ball at the Downtown Y with his kids five years from now. He IS Tucson sports and he embodies all that we admire about athletics: skill, determination, courage and flair. Plus, he’s modest, good-looking and funny as heck. With all…
Best Toy Store
Reader’s Pick: What makes Yike’s a legendary toy store? Well, in today’s age of commercialism and fickle fads, Yikes is steadfast in its stock of traditional toys: Pogo sticks, jacks, plastic roaches, whoopee cushions, potato guns, stuffed animals, plastic cars, even books. Here you will find the true measures of a toy store: Every child…
Best Public Garden
READERS’ PICK: The name means “desert corner” in the language of the Tohono O’odham, Tucson’s first people, and it’s just right: Tohono Chul Park, a privately owned garden attached to one of the town’s best and most scenic restaurants, is a rare oasis in the city’s asphalt-covered northwest side. Stocked with both common and rare…
Best Vintage Clothing
READERS’ PICK: No matter what your favorite era, How Sweet It Was, located in a sweet old-timey lime-green bungalow, has something irresistible for you, at an unbeatable price. Recent finds include a bias cut black silk slip from the 1940s that makes us feel like a screen siren, a tasty little crocheted hippiechick skirt from…
Best Upscale Bar Ambiance
Reader’s Pick: Say Dionysus and Venus dropped in to enjoy a little Tucson nightlife. Where to start off? Barrio, of course, because the place just oozes sophistication (and Dionysus is putting it all on plastic, anyway). Barrio’s upscale downtown atmosphere makes it the place to grab a cocktail while seeking Shakespeare at the Temple of…
Best Mural
READERS’ PICK: When the idea for a mural on Stone and Limberlost was conceived, Tucson’s people and policy-makers had all but consumed both the Rillito, which once flowed north of there, and the Limberlost neighborhood itself, which was bulldozed and walled in half to accommodate traffic between Tucson Mall and downtown. So what has come…
Best Book by a Local Author (Other than Barbara Kingsolver)
STAFF PICK: Best known for her enormously popular series about the widowed Joanna Brady, who succeeds her dead husband as sheriff of Cochise County, the prolific Jance penned this best-seller about the Tohono O’odham, artifact theft and a psycho killer. Darker than her usual stuff, but a good read. OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS: The works of…
Best Take-Out
READERS’ PICK: “Fresh Mexican Grill” is what the sign says, and your order hits the grill the minute the words leave your mouth. Try the Cancun Shrimp Burrito, which comes with 10 shrimp served with a mango salsa. OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS: Feast, 4412 E. Speedway Blvd. Doug Levy has logged many years in some of…
Best Indian
Readers’ Pick: With several nearly equal restaurants in town, picking the best is like a Florida election: Anyone could win. This year’s top choice, by a chad, is Gandhi (it also could have been either Sher-e Punjab or India Oven). Gandhi dishes up its richly flavored and delicately balanced meals individually on platters with servings…
Best Tucson Restaurant
Readers’ pick: On the back wall of chef Suzana Davila’s Café Poca Cosa is a set of articles, beautifully framed, from the lights of the New York Times and Gourmet extolling the virtues of her kitchen. And for good reason: Davila is a master of Mexican regional cuisine, and her fine touch shows in the…
Best Summer Splash
STAFF PICK: This has to be one of the city’s best-kept secrets: For two months every summer you can learn to fly, and land in cool turquoise water. Tucson Parks and Rec offers instruction in springboard diving to anyone over the age of 12, and while it’s mostly kids, there are always a couple of…
Best Kick in the Groin by a Third-Party Candidate
STAFF PICK: We’re sure Al Gore probably has some thoughts on this as well, but if we’re talking locally, kick-ass Green Party candidate Katie Bolger knocked that smarmy grin off of cocky Demitri Downing. Downing, a prosecutor on the Indian reservation, was sure he had his race all sewed up after the Democratic primary in…
Best Clothing Store
Reader’s Pick: What can you say? Good for them. Reader’s Poll Runner-Up: Robinson’s-May, various locations
Best Bike Riding
OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS: This crosstown route is the best way to beat rush hour traffic on Broadway or the facetiously named Speedway. Stretching over 10 miles from Wilmot on the east to the main Pima Community College campus on the west, it sports a fancy new crossing at Country Club before passing through Sam Hughes,…
Best Art/Artisan Jewelry
READERS’ PICK: Located in St. Philip’s Plaza, an outdoor mall that gets prettier every year, Bahti Indian Arts is stuffed with artwork made by some of the best Native American artisans at work today, whose careers owner Mark Bahti and his discerning staff have done much to advance. You can spend hours shopping here, and…
Best Cocktail Menu
Reader’s Pick: Think Hawaii Five-O. Think Magnum P.I. Think about a designated driver, because we’re gonna need it after two drinks at the Kon Tiki. This Tucson mainstay specializes in mixed drinks, Hawaiian style. The menu boasts over 40 libations with great names (maiden’s Downfall) and even better descriptions. If it’s your first time, be…
Best Local Artist/Visual
READERS’ PICK: See Best Public Art. READERS’ POLL RUNNER-UP: Mat Bevel
Best Barbara Kingsolver Book
READERS’ PICK: The woman wrote a bestseller about missionaries in the Congo in the early 1960s, for cryin’ out loud! She could probably make the Libertarian National Convention sound exciting. If she weren’t a Weekly alum, we’d really hate her. READERS’ POLL RUNNER-UP: The Bean Trees OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS: All the rest of them
Best Pizza
READERS’ PICK: People are almost religious about their preference in pizza, and there appear to be more Magpies devotees in Tucson than Catholics and Mormons put together. Magpie’s wins every year, and does so by a staggering margin. One taste and you’ll understand why. READERS’ POLL RUNNER-UP: Brooklyn Pizza, 534 N. Fourth Ave. You don’t…
Best Italian
Readers’ Pick: Gavi is the exception to the rule that fine food and family atmosphere are incompatible. From the soccer paraphernalia on the walls and ceiling to the strip-mall location, Gavi appears to be a typical family restaurant, but a quick look at the menu will convince you that this is a serious establishment. While…
Best South Tucson Restaurant
Reader’s Pick: There was a time, even when the Lopez family’s little nest was much smaller, that you could sneak between the crowds. Maybe sometime between 2:30 and 4 in the afternoon. Maybe late at night. Those opportunities are much more rare now. Still it’s not a problem, the wait. Have beer, a margarita, an…
Best Meditation Opportunity
STAFF PICK: Just when we thought bowling was the best way to empty the mind and coordinate body and breath in a deafening atmosphere of distraction, a friend took us to Marksman for an evening of shooting pistols. Time flew. We were absolutely present. A couple of lanes down someone was firing off rounds of…
Best HIV Testing
STAFF PICK: COPE is unique in that it is the only place in town offering walk-in HIV testing. Everywhere else you’ll need an appointment, which just adds one more obstacle for high-risk populations, the kinda scared and the just plain lazy. But COPE takes us as we are, when we’re ready, off the street. The…
Best Catered-to-Kids Restaurant
Reader’s Pick: Here a kid can be a kid with a screaming cheesy meltdown. It’s an overstim orgy, with music and play structures and arcade games. Send you wide-eyed children crawling around in an elaborate maze of tubes that would make a Nogales (ahem) importer proud. Just like at the bank drive through, you send…
Best Recreation Area In Southern Arizona
READERS’ PICK: So lucky we are to have this piney wonderland right in our own back yard. It takes about an hour to drive the 27 miles all the way to Ski Valley. You’ll rise more than 6,000 feet from Tucson to the 9,157-foot summit and feel a delightful drop in temperature. And the ongoing…
Best Home Furnishings
READERS’ PICK: This labyrinthine store has more displays than Yggdrasill has branches. The sleek styling and solid construction of Danish furniture is both contemporary and timeless. No chain has capitalized on this better than Copenhagen. Whether you’re seeking an elegant dining room set, tasteful but rich living room designs or a postmodern woody look for…
Best Lowbrow Bar Ambiance
Reader’s Pick: This establishment may object to the “low-brow” designation, thinking it’s some sort of Neanderthal crack. The Nug is more evolved than that. Some circles even refer to it as the “Country Club,” but not because it’s filled with drunken Ted Knight-types. No, the Nugget is a place where the “Dudes” of the world…
Best Local Artist/Performing
READERS’ PICK: Loge, the wily god of flames in Wagner’s monumental opera Das Rheingold, has fathered an entire troupe of fire-eaters, fire-throwers and all-around smokin’ performance artists. Though ignited in Tucson, Flam Chen is just starting to burn a path across America. Light my fire! READERS’ POLL RUNNER-UP: Calexico
Best Mystery Series By An Arizona Writer
STAFF PICK: This has really taken off. The Last Song Dogs and The Sporting Club are into reprint, this year’s Rode Hard, Put Away Dead is selling well, and the next addition–Fast Eddy–is ready to go for Bantam early next year. Favorable reviews and award nominations are proliferating for Browning’s part-Apache dirty-shirt cowgirl rancher PI.…
Best Barbecue
Reader’s Pick: Most mythology experts agree that when the Greeks talked about the “nectar of the Gods,” they really meant barbecue sauce. Jack’s is legendary, a decades-long successful black owned business in a city with one of the smallest African American populations in the country. But race doesn’t matter; taste does. And Jack’s tastes great.
Best Late-Night Eats
Readers’ Pick: It’s 4 a.m. and we’re still seeing through and alcoholic induced haze. Food and caffeine are a necessity as one of us is catching a 7 a.m. flight to Chicago. “Open later than you think” is a lifesaver in such dire straits. Tater tots that are hot and crispy, eggs sunny side up…
Best Tortillas
Readers’ Pick: A dear friend told us the reason the Anita Street Market had the tastiest and lightest tortillas in town is because nanas make them from an old family recipe. On a recent visit it became obvious she was right. You can watch the entire cooking process on the closed circuit television set on…
Best Urban Ambiance
READERS’ PICK: Some people just haven’t gotten over how the Fourth Avenue Merchants’ Association ruined this sometime hippie haven by having the cops run out those aggressive punks who used to demand money from you in the rudest possible terms. Well, good riddance. There are still plenty of colorful characters along the avenue, from multiply-pierced…
Best Publication of Men (And a Woman or Two) Behaving Badly
STAFF PICK: Who needs “Serial Killer Trading Cards” when you can get the Attorney General’s Profiles of Arizona Death Row Inmates for next to nothing? This bizarre publication has been consistently updated to include a comprehensive profile of each inmate and his (or her) crime. Even though it has a dry Joe Friday rat-a-tat-tat delivery,…
Best Playground
Reader’s Pick: An embarrassment of playground riches is what you’ll find at one of the Old Pueblo’s most-used parks. On the perimeters are a simple eastside play structure and a northern boundary outpost. And in the middle is the old playground with two structures, bouncy spring ride-`em creatures and a Wild West wagon. But we…
Best Hike
READERS’ PICK: Well, heading in there’s a long asphalt road crowded with walkers, joggers, bikers and trams. Not exactly the hard-core hiker’s idea of Seventh Heaven. But Sabino’s convenience and amenities make it a hiking haven for everyone else. For once you don’t have to drive to hell and back to have a fairly satisfying…
Best All-Purpose Gift Shop
READERS’ PICK: Ten Thousand Villages operates with a noble mission in mind: to offer a venue for selling craft goods from native peoples around the world, and to pay them fairly for their work. The mostly volunteer staff is a well-traveled bunch, and brings wonders to us: carved stonework from Africa, Central American textiles, paintings…
Best Leprechaun
STAFF PICK: Menehune is the Hawaiian word for a magical creature much like the leprechaun, and Ernie is the pot of gold at the end of a desert rainbow. Raised in the Waimea Valley on the Island of Kauai, Ernie has been delivering his charm to lucky audiences for almost 50 years. Performing the last…
Best Place to Learn About Legends
OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS: If you’re mythologically minded, you’ll do well to sign up for UA professor Solomon’s classical mythology course, a semester-long excursion into the weird doings of the gods and their human subjects. Held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at noon, the class is one of the most popular at the university, and rightly…
Best Breakfast
Readers’ Pick: The Blue Willow’s breakfast offerings rarely change, and neither do our readers’ preferences; this egg-centered menu gets the best-breakfast nod year after year. Take a shady outdoor seat, order an omelet, settle back and start filling in next year’s Best of Tucson ballot. Readers’ Poll Runner Up: Frank’s, 3848 E. Pima St. We…
Best Lunch Under $7
Readers’ Pick: If you’re wanting Mexican food quickly, but no quieres fast food, this is the place. Generous-and we mean generous-burritos, tacos, quesadillas (our personal favorite) and much more are prepared after you order before your very eyes. The beret-clad employees have been schooled in magical assembly-line technique that manages to crank out always-delicious meals…
Best Combo Plates
Readers’ Pick: See Best Take-Out. Readers’ Poll Runner-up: Café Poca Cosa, 88 E. Broadway Blvd. Staff Pick: A lot of places have good combo plates, but El Torero, 231 E. 26th St., goes to the head of the class with a dazzling variety of combinations and permutations. Rice that’s never bland, beans that are always…
Best Urban Wilderness
STAFF PICK: These rooms are off limits to the public, but like all great wilderness, while most of us will probably never go there, just knowing it’s there enriches our lives. It’s like those recurring dreams of a little house with an infinite interior, the subconscious seat of all the music ever heard in Tucson.…
Best Downfall of a Bloated Public Figure
STAFF PICK: For four years the state of Arizona was the unfortunate plaything of former jeweler Jeff Groscost. From his perch atop the state legislature as Speaker of the House, Groscost was the consummate deal-maker and backroom ball-breaker. He played Jim Jones to a group of right-wing Kool-Aid drinkers in the State House. He went…
Best Birthday Party Place
Reader’s Pick: See best Catered-To-Kids Restaurant. Of Mythic Proportions: Once upon a Time, 1515 E. Broadway Blvd. Perhaps you’ve noticed the charming little blue-and purple-trimmed cottage with flower boxes and a flowery arch as you went zipping down Broadway on your way downtown. If a little girl was with you, she not only noticed it…
Best Place to Find Unexploded Ordnance
STAFF PICK: Few are the places left so desolate as the southeast corner of Arizona (and no, we’re not talking about the nightlife in Yuma). A good place to start is in the BLM land south of Ajo, where you’ll find a cemetery and lots of places to lose yourself. To go any further into…
Best Plant Nursery
READERS’ PICK: Gardening in the desert isn’t an easy proposition, even with the greenest of thumbs. The good folks at Mesquite Valley have been growing things here for a long time, and they’re a splendid source of information for what will and won’t work, what needs to be planted when, and what needs to be…
Best Surprise Guest Appearance
STAFF PICK: We’ll never forget last spring when Wise Fool Puppet performed at Lucky Street, and in a magic moment of synchronicity just as the shadow puppets loomed into view to tell us the story of a Mexican family making a long train migration, the crossing gate for the tracks across the street began to…
Best Fast Food Drive Thru
Reader’s Pick: Do you realize that at Nico’s you can get three shredded beef taquitos with melted longhorn cheese and salsa for $1.60? At most places these days, you can’t get a dollar for $1.60. If Nico’s were in Mexico, they’d be singing songs about the place. Of course, in Mexico, they sing songs about…
Best Café
Readers’ Pick: While dining alfresco on the small patio at the Cup, breakfasters can watch Amtrak’s Sunset Limited come rolling through town, as passenger trains have been doing here since 1980. Morning time patrons can choose from a range of deliciously prepared selections including plate-sized flapjacks, omelets, princess bagels, scones and muffins. Of special interest…
Best Lunch Over $7
Readers’ Pick: For those of you who can afford lunch over $7, take us with you. And take us to Café Terra Cotta, where the waitstaff is personable, the selection incredible and the satisfaction undeniable. Readers’ Poll Runner-up: Café Poca Cosa, 88 E. Broadway Blvd. One of the few good reasons to work downtown, Poca…
Best Take Out
Readers’ Pick: If you’re wanting Mexican food quickly, but no quieres fast food, this is the place. Generous-and we mean generous-burritos, tacos, quesadillas (our personal favorite) and much more are prepared after you order before your very eyes. The beret-clad employees have been schooled in magical assembly-line technique that manages to crank out always-delicious meals…
Best Downtown Alternative
STAFF PICK: While downtown again struggles to rebound (and we sincerely hope that it will), there are areas of town that function like downtown ought to: lively neighborhoods with a mix of good restaurants, locally owned businesses, national chains and services all within walking distance of each other. Our favorite: the stretch of Campbell Avenue…
Best Place to Cool Your Heels
STAFF PICK: We’re going out on a limb here to provide you some education and entertainment. Got a few hours downtown? Got a few days? Watch the justice system. We’re not crying for a return of the Sob Sisters. Nor do we think you should have some ghoulish appetite for someone’s misfortune. (Leave that to…
Best Fun for the Whole Family
Reader’s Pick: We’re really puzzled by this one. You’ve got America’s pastime being played by athletes a step away from the big leagues in a dazzling ballpark that’s bright, vibrant and fan-friendly. There are games and toys for the kids, contests for the adults, giveaways for everybody, great, reasonable priced food, and killer baseball. And…
Best Campground (with amenities)
READERS’ PICK: Our favorite is the Spencer Canyon site at 8,000 feet. It’s best to try to get there early on a weekday to watch the deer foraging for half-empty chip bags. They have pit toilets, running water, tables, grills, nearby dumpsters and bear safes with securely shutting doors, although we’re not sure how you’re…
Best Cut Flowers
STAFF PICK: Phil Yard’s main business is growing iris rhizomes for sale, but a byproduct of that enterprise is flowers. And what flowers! It’s a hell of a drive out there, but for a heavenly reward! During April, Yard fills his little shed with armloads of iris, freesias and roses, big luscious fragrant bouquets that…
Best Opera Performance
STAFF PICK: Arizona Opera is slowly becoming Maricopa Opera, as the decision-making process follows the money to the home of the newish director, David Speers. The much ballyhooed progressive changes and improvements have been marginal at best, and the card looks about as familiar as it always did, primarily filled with the old warhorses that…
Best Local Grocer (Retail or Delivery)
Reader’s Pick: Across from the Rainbo Bakery in the warehouse district is a place where you can buy your cabbage straight off the truck. The fruits and veggies at 17th Street come straight from the fields to the warehouse to your mouth- open wide for the forklift! Along with the variety of necessary western produce,…
Best Café Inside a Bike Shop
Staff Pick: After you’ve collected your laurels for finishing the Tour de Tucson at the head of the pack, whiz on over to Musette, the new café nestled behind a frenzy of roadrunners on-on-wheels at Full Cycle, for some first-rate sustenance. “Sweets, Sandwiches, Salads, Soups” are part of the offerings, Sweets include the usual brownies…
Best Middle Eastern
Readers’ Pick: Sinbad’s occupies the southernmost cottage in the University Boulevard-fronting Geronimo Hotel complex, which has seen plenty of restaurants come and go. Sinbad’s has endured, favored by natives of the Middle East and UA faculty and students alike for its low prices, sizable portions and excellent quality. Try such delicacies as shawerma (the Arabic…
Best Salsa
Reader’s Pick: At the dawn of time, we like to think, a jaguar headed god appeared above the green fields of Mesoamerica and commanded that mortals should thereafter enjoy a concoction made of fresh tomatoes, chiles, cilantro, and other goodies. La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grill has lived by the god’s commandment, and devotedly: it’s salsa…
Best City Stargazing
STAFF PICK: This 16-inch scope is the only free telescope open to the public in the state of Arizona. Open Wednesday through Saturday nights, 7-10 p.m., the telescope is staffed by volunteer operators who are well trained and passionate about watching the sky. On any given night visitors can get a good look at planets,…
Best Night of the Year
STAFF PICK: This is the city’s most vibrant spontaneous explosion of creative energy. Hundreds of people come out of the woodwork after spending anywhere from the last 10 minutes to the last year making costumes, puppets, mobile shrines and floats. Tucson Puppetworks makes extra puppets for people who show up empty-handed and want to participate.…
Best Local TV Newscast
Reader’s Pick: Sure, Guy Atchley’s new ‘do is the coiffure equivalent of a booger hanging of the tip of somebody’s nose–you just can’t help but stare at it–but once you get past that, hey KGUN has something going on. Just how has KGUN unseated the once-unbeatable KVOA, channel 4, in the ratings? The local reporting?…
Best Place to Buy Original Affordable Art
READERS’ PICK: More than just a music venue, Solar Culture is also the most interesting gallery in town. Steven Eye invites all artists who want to show work. This makes for a rich, complex stew of skill levels, intentions, visions and media. The work is crowded together salon style on the walls, and it’s up…
Best Tools
STAFF PICK: Tool wonderland! Giant screwdrivers to make you feel tiny, tiny screwdrivers to make you feel huge and omnipotent. In addition to the standard stuff, Kent’s has big tubs of rare extinct tools for collectors, every tool imaginable: If you’re looking for a set of double action ratchet powered coordinated cram-notch tweezepliers in metric…
Best of Tucson™ 2001
It is absolutely amazing how much our lives are influenced by myths and legends. Tales that happened, tales that might have happened, and tales that never could have happened have all found their way into our language, our customs and the way we look at our world, our past and each other. Greek and Roman…
Underfunded Masterpiece
STAFF PICK: In Mexico, as November’s elaborate All Souls’ Day celebration approaches, it is customary for people to offer, alongside candles and full suppers and even beer, scrumptious cakes, pounds of chocolates and shelf after shelf of sweetbreads and cakes. Your mouths may water, children, but be patient: These goodies are for the altar of…
Best Supermarket
Reader’s Pick: Imagine this, if you can: There are sizable cities scattered throughout the United States that do not have a Trader Joe’s outlet. The San Diego-based chain has plans to get to them eventually. This is a good thing. While other corporations have cast the gloomy pall of globalism across the land, bringing cookie-cutter…
Best Café for Coffee
Readers’ Pick: An absolute Tucson institution, Bentley’s was serving great coffee back when Starbuck was just the name of a pioneer whaling family on Nantucket Island. (Yeah, we read In the Heart of the Sea.) Who knows how much homework has been written and graded there? Who knows how much caffeine has been consumed over…
Best Native American Food
Staff Pick: This is home cooking at its best. Everyday at lunch time a fleet of pickup trucks, station wagons, and vans pulls up in the gravely parking lot and sets up shop. Local cooks sell their specialties to the crowd that spills out of tribal offices and shops. There’s lots to choose from: red…
Best Carne Seca
Staff Pick: They do so many things well that its hard to single out just one honor for the venerable El Charro, but the carne seca is truly transcendent. Dried slowly in racks above the restaurant and then seasoned with secret ingredients, this is beef worth risking Mad Cow disease. Wrap some up in a…
Best Piece of Tucson History
READERS’ PICK: Centuries ago, Hohokam people founded a village on the site of Fort Lowell Park, farming the fertile floodplain. That village had long disappeared among the reeds and grass by the time the U.S. Army established a cavalry post there to guard Tucson’s eastern approaches from Apache attacks. Decommissioned after less than 20 years,…
Best Botanical Garden
READERS’ PICK: The name means “desert corner” in the language of the Tohono O’odham, Tucson’s first people, and it’s just right: Tohono Chul Park, a privately owned garden attached to one of the town’s best and most scenic restaurants, is a rare oasis in the city’s asphalt-covered northwest side. Stocked with both common and rare…
Best Radio Station for the News
Reader’s Pick: While they don’t really have any competition and could therefore coast, they still do a good job at KNST. Local news is covered about as well as you can expect it to be by a radio station (although they do have a tendency to get stories directly from print media). Mike Rapp does…
Best Bookstore
READERS’ PICK: Borders is everything a public library should be. In fact, it’s much more peaceful than any public library we’ve visited. It’s well lit and spacious with enough comfy chairs and quiet nooks so that you could really disappear into the pages of the latest Oprah book. They even have those tall ladders with…
Best Sporting Goods
READERS’ PICK: Do the folks at Sports Authority deserve the name? Absolutely! This place has anything and everything for male and female athletes. Whether your thing is hockey, tennis, basketball, volleyball, golf, rock climbing, football, baseball or soccer, this is the place to go. The ceilings are high, the prices are low and the employees…
Best Secret Fiesta
READERS’ PICK: This profoundly Sonoran celebration commemorates the feast of San Francisco Xavier, patron of the mission. He’s the guy you’ll see reclining in the west transept of the church most of the year, his beautiful wooden head rubbed smooth by centuries of loving hands, his gown covered with photos and milagros and little locks…
Best Specialty Shop
Readers’ Pick: See best supermarket. Readers’ Poll Runner Up: Time Market, 444 E. University Blvd. One of Tucson’s most charming establishments for specialty grocery items and takeout is none other than the historic Time Market, on University Boulevard East of Forth Avenue. The moment you walk through the front door past folks sitting at the…
Best Café Hangout
Reader’s Pick: Epic has always been a great place to hangout, drink coffee and munch on soups, salads and sandwiches. New renovations make it that much more spectacular. The back wall has been knocked out, adding a lot more space for seating and for the omelet bar. There’s also a nice high ceiling with new…
Best Nouvelle Cuisine
Readers’ Pick: We punched “nouvelle cuisine” into our pocket French-Arizonan translator and it gave us “killer grub.” The funny thing is that we’re sure that Janos Wilder wouldn’t mind that at all. The unpretentious Wilder is one of the most famous chefs in the entire country, but he’s down to earth and likable as can…
Best Chile Relleno
Staff Pick: Our friend Ana looked high and low for a great chile relleno in this town. One that’s not too eggy, nice and fluffy stuffed with flavor and one that doesn’t linger in a negative way. She found lots of good ones, but the truly great one is at El Charro. This place has…
Best Vanished Monument
STAFF PICK: A few years ago, on the busy southwest corner of Grant and Country Club roads, stood a strange monument to the past: the blocked shell of an old airplane that might have seen service with the Flying Tigers in China, or with the Confederate Air Force out Texas way. Local shopkeepers claimed not…
Best Place to Feel Like You’re Not Really in Tucson
STAFF PICK: You might head out to Green Things nursery on a scorching Tucson Saturday to pick up a lush Tahitian Bridal Veil plant for a hostess gift. In the endless dry heat of June, you might simply want to spend a bit of your afternoon enjoying the temperate humidity of the enormous greenhouse. When…
Best Radio Station
Reader’s Pick: If you look left on the dial to 91.3 FM, a music mix of legendary performances will greet you! You will be blessed with goodness-well, you will find yourself blessed if you are a true fan of music. We’re not talking about music that is major-label carrying, no-talent having, over produced mindless crap…
Best Used Books
READERS’ PICK: Once again, our readers pay homage to benevolent Bob Bookman, ruler of the Olympus of used bookstores. Bookman’s carries hardbacks, paperbacks, records, tapes, CDs, computer games, comics and a snazzy line of Bobwear, mostly at half the price you’d pay new. Plus, musical acts and other entertainment make for high-brow browsing. And there’s…
Best Outdoor Recreation Store
READERS’ PICK: Some people buy SUVs they’ll never take off-road in an effort to recast themselves as bold explorers. We like to go to Summit Hut and buy travel gear, safari clothing, climbing gear, packs, tents and more. There are shoes that repel water and shoes that stick to rock. There are tents for one…
Best Civic Improvement
STAFF PICK: We know, we know. There are too many people and too many cars and too many cars with only one person in each. But after struggling to get around the northwest side for years on two-lane Orange Grove and gridlocked La Cholla, this is like heaven. We absolutely dare you to drive the…
Best Supermarket Sushi
Reader’s Pick: In the mythology of Greenland, fish is such a powerful food that eating certain fish women and even men pregnant. The Yuchi and Menominee Indians honored fish with a dance that mimics the movement of fish in water. Well!!! Everybody wave your arms like fins; Wild Oats makes supermarket sushi worth dancing for.…
Best Casual Dining
Staff Pick: There is no better deal in town than the bar food menu at Capriccio, with items like veal ravioli and duck sausage offered at fast-food prices during happy hour. All that will make you want to move over to the dining room for the real stuff, from steaks and ribs to a great…
Best Seafood
Readers’ Pick: The clientele is eclectic, the attire casual, and the atmosphere is reminiscent of a northwoods nightclub in Paul Bunyon Territory. But the seafood at Kingfisher’s is simply fabulous. When we stopped by recently, entrees, all priced under $20, included grilled ahi tuna in a peppered black bean sauce, and pecan crusted Atlantic Salmon.…
Best Flan
Staff Pick: You know the flan that most Mexican food restaurants serve that seems to be made of gelatin and milk and yellow food color? Well, the flan at Taqueria Pico De Gallo isn’t like that at all. This is the real stuff, homemade egg custard cooked down to a dense creaminess, bordering on chew…
Best Place to See Ghosts
STAFF PICK: On dark nights, legend has it, the ghosts come out to play on West Simpson. The downtown street winds its way past buildings where strange and unpleasant things have happened through time, and apparitions emerge from time to time to remind residents of their sad fates: here a weeping woman who died at…
Best Bike Riding
STAFF PICK: This crosstown route is the best way to beat rush hour traffic on Broadway or the facetiously named Speedway. Stretching more than 10 miles from Wilmot on the east to the main Pima Community College campus on the west, it sports a fancy new crossing at Country Club before passing through Sam Hughes,…
Best Country Station
Reader’s Pick: This station (and its predecessor, KCUB, 1290-AM) have dominated the ratings in Tucson for more than 40 years. The Beatles came and went, as did disco, punk, grunge and “The Pina Colada Song.” But country rules in Tucson and KIIM rules country. Max and Mary provide a lively start to your mornings, and…
Best Retail Music Store
READERS’ PICK: Craving the latest offerings of the boy band of the month or, say, Britney Spears? Then head to the mall. If you’re looking for grown-up music meant to last beyond the current season, then you’ll want to spend your allowance at Hear’s Music, whose 15,000-odd-disc inventory includes treasures from around the planet: Malian…
Best Bike Shop
READERS’ PICK: When we signed up to write this little paragraph, we were already big fans of Ordinary Bike Shop for the occasional tune-up, new tire or accessory purchase. But between that moment and when we sat down to write, our bike was stolen and we got an opportunity to put our admiration to the…
Best Bird Watching
STAFF PICK: It’s not the roadside pullout near Patagonia that environmentalists are trying to protect, nor the aviaries at either the Desert Museum or the local zoo. No, we prefer the cool comfort of watching a few feathery fliers occasionally zooming above our heads at one of our favorite grocery stores, the Albertson’s at Campbell…
Best Delicatessen
Readers’ Pick: The first class centrally located delicatessen has been serving us since 1926 and is a favorite place to stop after work for something great for dinner; or if you prefer, they will deliver. The deli meats and cheeses are top choice USDA and the selection is endless. Planning a party? They cater and…
Best Chinese
Readers’ Pick: The Yu family’s Rose Garden has grown in only a few years from a neighborhood enclave to one of the town’s biggest restaurants. It’s not just that the dining room is big; the menu offers more than 100 Cantonese and Szechwan entrees. Central to the buffet scheme is a Mongolian-style grill. There your…
Best Friday Night Fish Fry
Staff Pick: For those who grew up in the Midwest, which seems to be half of Tucson, this is a real treat. At the Lilliputian price of $3.95 you get fried fish, French fries and coleslaw served in a plastic basket, and it’s all-you-can-eat. So go hungry and go early, because there is usually a…
Best Horchata
Readers’ Pick: We watched the guy at the counter sell a customer eight quart-size Styrofoam cups of horchata to go, and grew a little nervous as the enormous industrial container of the milky rice drink became emptier and emptier as his order was filled. Thankfully, the taqueria is armed with back-up supplies, and in due…
Best Moat of Eternal Peril
STAFF PICK: There aren’t any crocodiles in this one, and in fact it doesn’t repel invaders, it invites them. It’s just the wildlife and untouched desert that are in danger.
Best Local Athlete
READERS’ PICK: When our voters tabbed Jennie Finch as best local athlete, we heaved a sigh of relief. Perhaps her NCAA Softball World Series heroics were still fresh in their minds. We prefer to think that our readers are just smart enough to realize that Finch is an overwhelmingly better athlete than our runner-up in…
Best Pop Music Station
Reader’s Pick: The longtime champion in this category is being chipped away at from all directions, but it maintains its hold on the center of popular music. Reader’s Poll Runner-Up: The Point, 104.1 FM Of Mythic Proportions: KGMG MEGA 106.3-FM. Just like the pimply faced teens in The Commitments, we are disciples of soul, and…
Best Music Store
READERS’ PICK: Rainbow continues to be the best full-service music emporium in town. It is a licensed distributor for the best brand names of musical instruments of all varieties, which translates to rows and rows of Fender strats and teles, Gibson Les Pauls, Martin guitars and Fender and Marshall amplifiers. Rainbow also has a big…
Best Toys
STAFF PICK: Five years ago an electronics store miraculously appeared, rescuing Tucson from the evil clutches of a lack of choice. The construction of Best Buy provided those of us with a modest budget the capability of buying top-of-the-line products at sensible prices. Before 1996, opportunities of shopping for TVs, VCRs, computers, stereos, video tapes…
Best Indoor Venue
READERS’ PICK: Like Lazarus, this 1927 landmark was raised from the dead. Anchored as the Tucson home of Arizona Theatre Company, it also boasts increasing importance as a concert and special-event site. The pitched floor plus balcony in the 620-seat Holsclaw Theatre keeps the stage action up close and personal. Whichever muse you choose (except…
Best Ice Cream
Readers’ Pick: What all those phony “50s” diners are trying to copy, Austin’s has been doing since 1959-cranking out great basic food and wonderful real house-made ice cream. On a good day they’ll produce a hundred airless gallons of the wonderful stuff right there in over 40 flavors. They even have pickle and jalapeno, if…
Best Custom Cakes
Readers’ Pick: At a mid-season get together of ours attended by some local baseball fans, a butter-pecan ice-cream cake from the Santa Barbara Ice Creamery was a big hit. It was swallowed up as quickly as Jonah was by the whale, and we were soon left with only crumbs. Priced from $9 for a mini…
Best Steakhouse
Readers’ Pick: Located in touristy Trail Dust Town, Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse is the place to introduce your in-laws to some outlaws. We always get our name on the waiting list and then hang outside where there’s plenty of spitting and gunplay and trot-by shootings. The kids will enjoy riding the little train or, fir the…
Best Tourist Attraction
READERS’ PICK: It’s been known as La Paloma Blanca, the White Dove of the Desert, for generations. Until a couple of years ago, however, the Spanish colonial mission’s feathers were looking a little frayed. Thanks to a vigorous restoration project funded by heritage-minded Tucsonans and involving Italian and Tohono O’odham art restorers and artisans, the…
Best Billboard
STAFF PICK: If only every billboard advertiser would hire artists to promote their businesses, Tucson would be a much more beautiful place. Kingfisher’s billboards are by turns witty, delicate and beautiful. Our favorite is the Oceanlinerfishboat, an original artwork that Kingfisher commissioned from a Phoenix artist. This is one way that business can support public…
Best-Liked UA Athlete
READERS’ PICK: Sports fans have tricky memories. Some can remember minutiae about games from 20 years ago, while others can’t seem to recall what happened last season. Apparently, most people forgot all about the ugly incident early in Eugene Edgerson’s career, where a cheap-shot elbow to the face basically ended a BYU player’s career. Since…
Best Rock Music Station
Reader’s Pick: It gives longtime youth leader KRQ on the right with a well-defined playlist with the likes of Incubus, Mudhoney and Staind. Wacky and raunchy morning show.
Best Men’s Fashions (locally owned)
READERS’ PICK: The name is Greek, but you won’t find togas here; they’ve been out of date since, oh, the 1970s. Specializing in items that say “I’m hip to the ways of big-city fashion,” Zoe also carries pieces that say “I know enough to pick out good, solid basics that look appropriate and won’t embarrass…
Best Contemporary Architecture
READERS’ PICK: The renovation of Park Place, formerly known as Park Mall, is a complete success. The addition of Spanish tile floors, sunlit ceilings, a spotless men’s restroom, leather chairs and sofas give the mall a certain Southern mystique that softly accommodates the Old Pueblo. In addition to the ambience, Park Place hosts a few…
Best Live Music Venue
READER’S PICK: Say what you will about the varying sound quality (it takes a wiz soundman to alchemize this tough room into a clean-sounding one), but downtown’s historic Rialto garners mention for the constant and wildly varied schedule of touring acts (and the occasional local one) it has maintained since its doors reopened six years…
Best Fresh-Baked Bread
Reader’s Pick: At the dawn of time, the gods created manna from heaven, proclaiming it through the land with yeasty aroma of fresh-baked bread. In Tucson, the best place to partake of the food of the gods is Beyond Bread. This busty little bakers/café serves up no fewer than 27 different styles over the course…
Best Desserts Under $5
Readers’ Pick: For once, Weekly readers agreed with senior writer Jim Nintzel about something. They overwhelmingly selected the Santa Barbara Ice Creamery as having the finest chilly concoctions in town. Whether it’s a scoop of delicious huckleberry in a sugar cone or a way-cool sundae made with the very popular chocolate fudge truffle, the packed…
Best Thai
Readers’ Pick: While there’s a decent assortment of restaurants with Thai offerings (four by our count), Char’s is almost inarguably Tucson’s standout. You, gentle readers, have picked Char’s for seven years running now, and it’s easy to see why. From the nearly perfectly rendered soups and curries to the more exotic dishes that you’d expect…
Best Tucson Destination with ‘Ghost’ in the Title
STAFF PICK: It’s easy to miss the Ghost Ranch Lodge, tucked away as it is under shady trees in a part of town made nondescript by seemingly unending highway construction and abandoned box stores. The Ghost Ranch is a well-kept secret, but it’s the kind of place you’ll want to recommend to out-of-town guests as…
Best Local Hall of Fame
STAFF PICK: You may have trouble absorbing what we’re about to tell you. It turns out Tucson is one serious hotbed for handball enthusiasts. The United States Handball Association started its hall of fame in Chicago in 1951. When the individual proprietor of the original facility ran into financial difficulties, the whole thing was moved…
Best Bank
STAFF PICK: Nobody except bankers likes to do banking, but if you have to, why not do it at a place that doesn’t treat you like they’re doing you some big damn favor taking your money? This place has the nicest and most professional crew in Tucson by a mile. From Elvia to Vanessa, Stephanie…
Best Radio Personality
Reader’s Pick: The reigning king of Tucson radio and perhaps the coolest man ever to walk the streets of the Old Pueblo. Dude knows EVERYTHING and apparently has every record ever made. Reader’s Poll Runner-Up: Betsy Bruce (formerly of KRQ). Boy, did KRQ screw up when they let this local radio icon go. Not only…
Best Shoe Repair
STAFF PICK: Pat must fix the heels and resole all the boots in northern Sonora. He’s fast and good, a real craftsman who also can fix fancy loafers and all sorts of women’s shoes. It’s now a little farther for some of his old customers who remember him downtown on Scott and then on Church.…
Best Local Brew
Reader’s Pick: Nimbus wins for the for the second straight year for giving folks what they want- quality products in an friendly, spirited environment. Nimbus has a huge following in this community and shows no signs if slowing down in its secret plan to conquer the beer world. Reader’s Poll Runner-up: Gentle Ben’s Brewing Co.,…
Best Fine Art Gallery
READERS’ PICK: Don’t you dare groan! Ted DeGrazia was Tucson’s own Norman Rockwell. His art might not have been avant-garde or dangerous, but it’s absolutely beautiful in its sentimentalizing of Christian mythology, and our readers love it to this day. READERS’ POLL RUNNER-UP: Etherton Gallery, 135 S. Sixth Ave.
Best Movie Theater
READERS’ PICK: Like Adam West (and then Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney), Century El Con 20 has persevered using strength, technology and the almighty dollar. Eight-dollar tickets! Zap! Pow! Bam! Worth every penny, El Con supplies the most courteous staff, cleanest floors and air conditioning cold enough for Mr. Freeze himself. Twenty viewing…
Best Fries
READERS’ PICK: Sure, they’re addictive. Sure, they’re a heart attack in a sack. Sure, the cooking medium remains a source of mystery, a particularly troubling matter for those who like their pommes frites innocent of animal fat. Sure, Americans eat too much junk food. Sure, the potatoes that go into Mickey D’s fries could feed…
Best Desserts over $5
Readers’ Pick: In the midst of Tucson’s most urbane shopping and dining strip, patrons of this establishment can indulge themselves with tantalizing ice cream pies and roll cakes, or take home a 24-ounce container of the cold stuff. But they better come with a King-Kong sized appetite, because the portions are large. The choices are…
Best Sushi
Readers’ Pick: Is it just us or does it seem like the smaller the sushi portions get, the higher the bill goes? And somehow your pockets get empty before your stomach gets full. Allow us to suggest Sushi Ten. We’re not sure what the “ten” stands for, but we assume it’s for “great” and “big.”…
Best Annual Festival
READERS’ PICK: This free festival, coming up on its 17th year, is the crowning achievement of the all-volunteer Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association. Now up to three stages stretching from Presidio Park over to the Tucson Pima Library plaza, the two-day lovefest the first weekend in May has developed a well-deserved national reputation among performers. Mixing…
Best Local High School Athlete
READERS’ PICK: People are understandably impressed with the fact that Strohm has won three straight Class 5A state tennis singles championships and has a great shot at becoming the only four-time winner in Arizona history. But that’s just rich-white-people-hangin’-at-the-country-club stuff. What we’re impressed with is her kamikaze style on the basketball court. Tennis stars aren’t…
Best Radio Talk Show Host
Reader’s Pick: Rapp, the former hard-rock DJ at KLPX-FM, has made a seamless transition to morning troublemaker. Occasionally a tad too far to the right for our taste, his show is still lively and provocative and he generally lets callers have their say. Not much more you can ask for. Reader’s Poll Runner-Up: John C.…
Best Cowboy Boots
STAFF PICK: Think of the great mythical shoes: the winged sandals of Hermes, Cinderella’s slipper, the seven league boots of Norse legend. Legendary among cowboy boots are those made by Stewart Boot. A venerable institution on a side street of South Tucson, Stewart makes by hand the softest, comfiest, most beautiful boots ever, anywhere. We…
Best Sports Bar
Reader’s Pick: This is the 21st century version of Yogi Bera’s old line, “Nobody goes there anymore- it’s too crowded.” Mention Famous Sam’s to some people and you’ll elicit an audible groan. But go into one on any given Sunday during the NFL season and just try to find a seat. And really, what’s not…
Best Museum
READERS’ PICK: Through turmoil and controversy, the TMA perseveres. And it not only survives, it thrives. READERS’ POLL RUNNER-UP: Tucson Children’s Museum, 200 S. Sixth Ave. OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS: Mr. K’s BBQ and Afro-American Heritage Museum, 1834 S. Park Ave. At first it seems only one small room of the building is devoted to the…
Best Seat at the Century El Con 20
STAFF PICK: This is heaven-in-midtown. On a hot day, nothing’s better than sitting in the chill of the auditorium, enjoying your special rocking-chair seat, feet up on the railing, savoring your smuggled-in homemade popcorn with no one directly in front of you to spoil your experience with running commentary or cell-phone conversation.
Best Burger
READERS’ PICK: Once again Fuddruckers has been voted as the best place to order a hamburger in Tucson, and we can see why. An enjoyable place to go with the family or friends, Fuddruckers has a good quality of service and a fun atmosphere. With prices even teenagers can afford, it’s a great place to…
Best Diner
Readers’ Pick: Grill is the place. The place for great food any time of the day or night, and the place for live music in the Red Room Thursday through Saturday nights. It is also the place where the few remaining smokers can light up at their table in the Red Room instead of 15…
Best Vegetarian Sushi
Staff Pick: Tucked in a rather unlikely location-the not-so-inviting shopping center on First and Grant-Yamato is regarded by sushi fans in know as the place to dine. Noboru, the amazing sushi chef, creates the most beautiful and delicate meal around. Unlike most sushi joints, Yamato offers its flesh-eschewing guests more than just kappa maki (cucumber…
Best Spectacle for Charity
STAFF PICK: This spectacle, traditionally held on Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for our favorite charity. The Sean Elliott Steak ‘n’ Burger Dinner, held during the summer, is strictly to recognize the top youths of the year. The charity auction is where the real bidness is taken care of.
Best Local High School Team
READERS’ PICK: Nothing epitomizes Tucson prep sports like the undersized, undermanned and overachieving Panthers of Amphi High. Coach Vern Friedli is in his 25th year at the midtown school and his squad is favored to win the 20th conference crown of his tenure. While monster-sized Phoenix schools boast enrollments of 3,500 or more (Mesa Mountain…
Best-Run Youth Sports (K-12)
Reader’s Pick: Every kid gets a shirt, every kid gets to play. Every kid gets a semi-nutritious snack after the game. And almost every parent understands that its all for fun. What’s not to like?
Best Graphic Designer-Artist
Staff Pick: A rare combination of artistic ability and pop-style consciousness, Dave Starbuck is legendary for his distinctive designs, be they business logos or youth league T-shirts. Active in everything, from the Boys & Girls Club to being president of the UA women’s basketball team booster club, Starbuck is a tireless worker for his community…
Best Resale Clothing
READERS’ PICK: Savers stands apart from the crowd of ragpickers by its compulsive sorting of merchandise. All used-clothes-fiends know the hair-pulling agony of finding the perfect Betsey Johnson party dress that turns out to be three sizes too small, but this doesn’t happen at Savers, where clothes are sorted by size. They’re also sorted by…
Best Lesbian Bar
Reader’s Pick: There is a complex myth among the more horny bucks of our confused species that while on the dance floor, if a male hisses and rubs and bumps and grabs and plays jackhammer at the posterior of females with dogged uninvited desperation, said females will (a) find pleasure in watching his manic buck…
Terrorists in Tiny Town
Tucson is both cosmopolitan and isolated enough to shelter violent subversives-in-the-making.
Breaking the Mold
Rampaging microbes are driving some people out of their homes, and nobody agrees on how to fight back.
Objective: Sustained
Participants in a conference agree that sustainable living is a good idea, but what next?
Rapid Response, Part 2
High schoolers react to the September 11 attack.
Newsreel
One of the greatest dangers we’ve faced since September 11 is the inflated rhetoric of a nation that feels under siege. The terrorist attacks were mentioned at the three cultural events I attended last week, but each performing group responded in a different way. At Invisible Theatre, head honcha Susan Claassen made a brief statement…
Cheap Thrills
Fun things to do that won’t cost a fortune.
Country’s King
Kenny Rogers returns with a rose in his teeth.
Soundbites
New CDs make it party time… Mr. Boogie Woogie is quintuple-booked… And more.
Eliza’s Awakening
Revealing the neurotic passions of a new-ager.
Stone’s Throw
“Glass House” is short of shattering.
Long-term Developments
Terry Etherton celebrates 20 years of purveying photos.
And Baby Makes Trouble
Invisible Theatre follows in the footsteps of young parenthood.
Evil a-Plenty
Eerie tales reveal adults wreaking havoc on kids.
Mailbag
Howls of outrage and squeals of delight from our astonished fans.
City Week
Ballet gets the Continental touch… Coltrane is one of Jon Mayer’s favorite things… There’s magic in the Rose Garden… And more.
The Skinny
South Tucson saves the Teamsters… Northwest has a fire sale… And more.
Border Bust
The Border Patrol has made Douglas a boom town, but new foreign policy could make the city fizzle.
