With the understated modesty that has long characterized Creative Loafing and Weekly Planet, this is how editors described (on the cover, no less) the inaugural Best of the Bay edition on Aug. 11, 1990:
“…the first-ever, totally free, once-in-a-lifetime, tell-all, required reading rhapsody on the hippest, hypest, hottest there’s to be found in the Bay Area. We know what’s best for you — don’t be afraid — it’s inside.”
That bold pronouncement, made just two years after CL launched, would prove to be less than prescient. The Best of the Bay turned out to be an annual event, not just a once-in-a-lifetime thing — and the next edition, to be released Sept. 24, 2015, will be our 25th.
In the weeks leading up to publication of BOTB25 (and the big party to celebrate it on Sept. 23), we’ll be reviewing each of the BOTB issues from the last two decades-plus. We’ll highlight the Bests that are still making Best lists, remember others that are gone but not forgotten — and look at some of the people, places and issues that rose to the top or sank to the bottom each year, in the eyes of CL editors, readers and opinionators.
It’ll be the hypest!
Here's what we were talking about in 1990:
STILL THE BEST
At least 50 of the BOTB 1990 winners are still going strong, among them:
Best Gourmet Pizza: BELLA’S TRATTORIA (now known as Bella’s Italian Cafe). Bella’s margherita pizza placed in the top 10 in CL Food Critic Jon Palmer Claridge’s 2015 Pizza Marathon.
Best Singer/Songwriter: ED WOLTIL. His “terrific melodies and complex yet catchy music” won him this award when he was with Mad for Electra. He went on to win a BOTB with bandmates the Ditchflowers for 2007’s Carried Away, and last year he performed a solo set in CL’s offices as part of the BOTB-winning Listening Room Festival.
Best Jukebox: THE HUB. “Where else can you hear the Cramps, the Pogues, Elvis Costello, R.E.M., the Style Council and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins?” CL asked in 1990. The Hub’s box of juke has been winning BOTBs ever since.
Best Local Actress: LISA POWERS (now known as Lisa Powers Tricomi). Acclaimed in 1990 for being “as versatile as she is ubiquitous,” she’s shown her versatility in recent years as a director as well as an actor, and she was quietly spellbinding in a recent staged reading of Listening to the Silences: Stories of A Teacher’s First Year, USF prof Charles Vanover’s fascinating theatrical/pedagogical project at The Studio@620.
GOOD & GONE
Some Bests of 1990 that aren’t around anymore include:
Best Record Store: VINYL FEVER. Closed, alas, in 2011.
Best Radio Program: THE DRIVETIME NEWS, WMNF 4:30-5 P.M. “…the most useful and intelligent listening to pass the rush-hour crawl,” said CL in 1990. Anyone nosing for ’MNF news in 2015 has to listen at lunchtime, not drivetime.
VIDEO STORES: Not just one store, but this entire category has gone the way of Netflix.
YBOR: Or at least the Ybor of yore. A striking number of restaurants and other businesses on the 1990 Best list are no longer with us, including Rosario’s, J.D.’s, Slide Inn, Margaret’s, Cafe Creole, The Cauldron, The Rainbow, Three Birds Bookstore and more.
BEST OF THE BAD
2015 saw the triumphant return of Tampa Pride, but 1990 was still the bad old days for gays. In other areas, things haven't changed much: See Best Waste of Public Funds.
Best Homophobe: TAMPA CITY COUNCILMAN EDDIE CABALLERO. He won this dubious distinction for casting the lone “no” vote on whether a gay pride march should be allowed on Kennedy Blvd.
Best Homophobic Act: ST PETE BEACH CITY COUNCIL, TAMPA CITY COUNCIL AND HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY COMMISSION for declining to include protection for gays and lesbians in human rights ordinances.
Best Cold Feet: TAMPA TRIBUNE PUBLISHER DOYLE HARVILL, whose promotion to publisher was named Best Step into the 18th Century, was cited for declining an invite to walk “an entire three or four blocks” to take part in an anti-hate-crimes march “attended by representatives of virtually every other organization in town.”
Best Political Relics (Up For Re-Election In 1991): THE ENTIRE TAMPA CITY COUNCIL EXCEPT LINDA SAUL-SENA. Apparently we liked Linda even before she left politics and became a columnist.
Best Waste Of Public Funds: FLORIDA SUNCOAST DOME. CL had this to say about the boondoggle building now known as the Trop: “Built on a toxic waste dump, the precarious dome roof has leaked, it fell short of being wheelchair-accessible and an unsettled beam is cracking at the base, all while its long-term debt will carry into the 21st century, baseball or no baseball.” Maybe this one should get the award for Best Prediction.
COMEBACK KIDS
You loved ’em in ’90, and now they’re coming back:
Best Milkshake: GOODY GOODY. Richard Gonzmart and company have been teasing us for months about the imminent return of this beloved Tampa shake shack.
TWIN PEAKS. David Lynch’s then-buzzy TV show inspired a whole section in 1990’s BOTB, imagined in the form of memos sent by Special Agent Dale Cooper to his assistant, Diane, during a trip to Tampa Bay: “The trees, Diane, they’re incredible!” Now, Twin Peaks and Agent Cooper are set to return to the tube in a nine-episode arc on Showtime in 2016.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2015.