Illustration by Andy Rementer

Where can you find the city’s top dog groomer? Last-minute tailor? Beef tongue? Yes, it’s that time of year again—the time when we eat, drink, dance, shop, shvitz, and trampoline our way around the city, not to mention poll scores of in-the-know colleagues, hard-partying friends, opinionated family members (you’d be surprised how ardently a 6-year-old will campaign for his favorite toy store), and, this year, a team of guest expert bloggers to bring you answers to all of the above questions, and hundreds more, in the form of our annual “Best of New York” issue. As always, there’s a heavy bias toward the new, and however encyclopedic and exhaustively researched our list may be (and it is), it is still, in the end, deeply subjective. Do you know of a better plate of beef tongue?

Contributors: Joshua Bernstein, Christopher Bonanos, Rebecca Dalzell, Julie Earle-Levine, Randi Eichenbaum, Jason Feifer, Rachel Felder, Matthew Giles, Nicholas Gill, Hannah Goldfield, Christina Han, Robin Hilmantel, Tory Hoen, Molly Langmuir, Lauren Levinson, Crystal Martin, Hugh Merwin, Keith Mulvihill, Andrew Parks, Rob Patronite, Adam Platt, Robin Raisfeld, Rebecca Ramsey, S. Jhoanna Robledo, Kate Rockwood, Jordana Rothman, Vanita Salisbury, Kayleen Schaefer, Alex Scordelis, Beth Shapouri, Jessica Silvester, Raven Snook, Kurt Soller, Benjamin Solomon, Sharon Steel, Carl Swanson, Alexis Swerdloff, Alan Sytsma, Elizabeth Thompson, Alexa Tsoulis-Reay, and Mary Jane Weedman.