Ask HN: Options for modern development with Node.js?

I'm sorta new to Node.js and want to write some rather simple applications. I know there is Express and a bunch of frameworks built on Express, some in Coffee and some in JS. I'm wondering which are "the best", still active and worth looking into.

I had looked at Zappa a year ago and liked what I saw, but it seems it hasn't been active this past year.

Care to share experiences with various frameworks and some good options on where to start?