When friends would visit Wayne Berkowitz in Tokyo, he would meet them at their hotel bar and mark up whatever free local map was available with insider info about the essential places to check out. But his system was flawed. Language barriers, constant location changes and general urban congestion made it difficult to get his buds to half the cool spots he wanted them to experience before they left town.

And thus superfuture.com was born.

Today this former magazine art director's site features over 4,200 "brutally honest independent reviews" of shops, restaurants, bars and what have you in over 150 cities around the world, including San Francisco. But what makes it different (and possibly more user-friendly for the geographically challenged) than something like Citysearch or Yelp is the fact that the reviews come paired up with well-designed, printable neighborhood maps.

And it's not just for out-of-towners to use. Looking for a spider roll spot in the Mission South-area? Superfuture will remind you that there's usually a wait at We Be Sushi on the weekends, so seared scallops and subtitles at Foreign Cinema might be a better bet. Want to take your new flame shopping in a laid-back environment that won't have him running for the hills? The review for Villains points out that the service there is "cool, surprisingly accessible and helpful." Translation: Boy friendly.

You're too busy to stay on top of everything that's going on in the Bay Area—especially when guests come to town. Do yourself a favor and get schooled by his site today!

- Caroline Stanley

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