{"id":15965,"date":"2016-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metroactive.com\/best-of-silicon-valley\/2016"},"modified":"2016-03-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T00:00:00","slug":"the-best-of-silicon-valley-2016-features-columns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metrosiliconvalley.com\/the-best-of-silicon-valley-2016-features-columns\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best of Silicon Valley 2016 – Features & Columns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n
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\nSilicon Valley’s chatter about sending a human to Mars reached a fevered pitch in 2015 with the cinematic release of Andy Weir’s The Martian<\/i><\/a>. The same year, another rocket-shaped innovation took the valley by storm when it landed on Palo Alto’s University Avenue. We are talking, of course, about the sushi burrito.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe crunchy, high-protein and cleverly-branded Sushirrito<\/a> fused two dominant California cultures with food tech to create a lunchtime phenomenon. Sidewalks were roped off and cut into concrete turf traditionally reserved for people camping out for a just-released iPhone.\n<\/p>\n

\nWe expect these kinds of changes in a region that put supercomputers in our pockets and brought waffles to our toasters. “Eggo”\u2014originally marketed under the clunky portmanteau “Froffle”\u2014was the Tesla of the midcentury, completely disrupting the waffle iron industry.\n<\/p>\n

\nWe’ve been covering these seismic shifts in consumer behavior for three decades now. We’ve seen white tablecloths give way to communal dining and wine coolers evolve to flavored Belgian-style ales.\n<\/p>\n

\nMetro<\/i> pioneered the Best of Silicon Valley, which began as the Best of Santa Clara Valley in 1986. It’s the longest continuously running guide to local discovery in this strategically important part of the world.\n<\/p>\n

\nWe’re proud to recognize the hard working people, businesses and amenities that improve our collective well-being. Our “Best Of” began in the early days with staff-selected “bests,” later crowdsourcing readers with a mail-in ballot. Now it’s an online survey.\nWe are continually impressed by our savvy readers’ selections, and occasionally disappointed, but more often than not they’re spot-on. They cover a lot of ground, from Beltramo’s Wines and Spirits<\/a> in Menlo Park to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Popular favorites like Opa!<\/a> are more likely to beat one-percenter hangouts like Evvia<\/a> in the Greek restaurant category. That’s the nature of a reader-driven system.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis year, we added the Gold Awards, which recognize standouts who’ve exhibited enduring appeal in “Best Of” issues over the past three decades.\n<\/p>\n

\nIt’s hard to believe we’re still at this 30 years on, but our mission of finding the valley’s best things and sharing the results is a privilege we’re humbled to accept.\u2014Dan Pulcrano<\/i>\n<\/p>\n

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This is Metro’s 29th go-around of the original Best of Silicon Valley. We track the ramen joints and the Michelin star recipients, the local traditions and the new arrivals. We survey our readers and draw upon our own experiences to compile a useful roadmap to many of the valley’s noteworthy offerings. And, in a nod to the culture of invention, we built this year’s logo with the Tesla font by Lexi Griffith, and the script used in this issue is a typeface based on Nikola Tesla’s handwriting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14575,"featured_media":15966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[1916],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n