Trying to pin down the best of anything in a city is a fool’s errand. Best coffeehouse? There are countless new ones, and most of them are hawking the same organic beans. Best bar? What is a bar, anyway? Are we talkin’ oxygen? Booze? Who’s to say? And what happens, as in our case, when we have to throw in a second city? It’s chaos. Here at Vita.mn, we couldn’t handle the pressure of having to decide the bests of anything.

That’s why we came to you, dear readers. We opened up more than 100 top-10 lists at www.vita.mn, and you delivered.Thanks to your hard voting work, we’re closer than ever to officially identifying the best pizza joints, the nicest hair salons and the kitschiest bars in the Twin Cities.

You gave us what we needed, not simply what we wanted — which yes, we admit was a frozen steak from a downtown mega-restaurant. Your sophisticated palates led us all over town and taught us that the newest, smallest and apparently weakest really can triumph in the end — or was that just aggressive Facebook campaigning?

Unhappy with the winners? Didn’t vote this year? No worries. There’s always 2014. For now, here’s a snapshot of who, where and what’s happening in the Twin Cities.

The List of Lists 2013