Goods & Services >>

• BEST EXCUSE TO PLAY HOOKY
  Boulder Arts and Crafts Cooperative
  One February day, would-be customers of the Boulder Arts and Crafts Cooperative encountered this sign on the entrance: "We will be closed Tuesday, 2/21, for Feng Shui adjustments." Where there's a will, there's a shui. More >>
• BEST FREE SERVICE (1 Comment)
  Easter Sunrise at Red Rocks
  If you only go to a church service once a year, make it the Colorado Council of Churches' Easter Sunrise at Red Rocks. For 58 years, Denverites have been hauling their blankets, parkas, umbrellas and Thermoses up a huge sandstone hill to find religion in the world's most beautiful amphitheatre.... More >>
• BEST FREE SERVICE -- SECULAR
  RTD schedules downloadable to PDA www.rtd-denver.com
  There's nothing worse than lugging around RTD bus schedules: The right one is never at hand, and when you do find it, hiding at the bottom of a bag, it's crumpled and expired by months. Time to go paperless with RTD's wireless services. At rtd-denver.com, you can download the schedule viewer... More >>
• BEST FREE SERVICE -- UNOFFICIAL
  Capitol Hill trash pickup
  The combination of high-density apartment buildings in Capitol Hill and the high number of homeless, indigent and cracked-out folks who roam the corridors around East Colfax Avenue creates at least one harmonious, if accidental, civic service: free trash pickup. The City of Denver restricts... More >>
• BEST FREE RESOURCE
  Household Hazardous Waste Swap Shop Curbside Inc. 1-800-449-7587
  In addition to its once-a-year, door-to-door hazardous-waste pickup service, Denver also has a drop-off facility, the Household Hazardous Waste Swap Shop, where you can take up to 125 pounds of oil-based or latex paint, moth balls, solvents, hobby supplies, fluorescent tubes, car batteries --... More >>
• BEST FREE HELP
  Sky Ridge Medical Center
  Nearly every hospital in the area has volunteers on site to assist patients in any way possible. But Sky Ridge takes this service to a new level: Rather than just a handful of volunteers at the facility, there's a veritable legion of them, and they're consistently the nicest, kindest,... More >>
• BEST WIFI DOWNTOWN -- FREE
  Taki's
  Taki's has long been a favorite among bargain-minded Denverites seeking great, healthy food at stunningly low prices; this Colfax mainstay even has free delivery. In keeping with that Japanese-flavored generosity, Taki's began offering free WiFi to customers in 2005. So now you can cruise... More >>
• BEST WIFI DOWNTOWN -- PAID
  Hyatt Regency Denver
  The new Hyatt Regency by the convention center is pretty fly. But while rooms can be pricey, anyone with a laptop and ten bucks can spend 24 hours in the lap of this luxury hotel, thanks to its T-Mobile Hot Spot. Settle into a cushy chair in the spectacular lobby or bar area, hold your cell... More >>
• BEST WAY TO GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS
  Denver Maps www.denvergov.org/denvermaps/
  Denver Maps puts Google Maps to shame. Not only can you get aerial photos, but you can ask the online mapper to show Denver City Council districts, police stations, golf courses, future streets, a Wastewater Management Platmap Index, Enterprise Zones, schools, polling places, bike paths and more... More >>
• BEST WAY TO GET THE DIRT ON YOUR NEIGHBORS
  www.cbirecordscheck.com
  Murder, drugs, arson, rape, sexual assault, armed robbery, shoplifting, burglary, DUI, arson, larceny, assault, menacing, prostitution and soliciting a prostitute -- it's all at your fingertips, thanks to cbirecordscheck.com. For a mere $6.85, you can get the criminal history of anybody who's... More >>
• BEST BUSINESS NEIGHBORHOOD
  Microbusiness Development Center
  Small businesses hatch and grow at the Microbusiness Development Center, a one-stop non-profit business resource that helps low-income entrepreneurs through micro-loans, skills programs, a computer lab and general boosterism. Clients who've gotten a jump start from the organization include a... More >>
• BEST START FOR SELF-STARTERS
  SCORE 721 19th St., #426 303-844-3985, ext. 213 www.scoredenver.org
  For 42 years, the non-profit SCORE has offered free confidential counseling and low-cost workshops for entrepreneurs trying to start, operate or rescue a small business. The Denver chapter (there are offices in Longmont and Steamboat Springs, too) has more than eighty counselors -- mostly... More >>
• BEST WAY TO TAKE OFF -- GROUND
  Luxury Lowrider www.luxurylowrider.com
  Tyler Stans knows sweet rides. To see him tooling around Denver on one of his custom lowrider bicycles, his dreads trailing behind him, is to see a man who understands style. Stans started chopping Schwinns three years ago after a friend pulled three old bikes from the trash and sold them to him... More >>
• BEST WAY TO TAKE OFF -- AIR
  Cheap, Non-Stop Flights to Mexico Denver International Airport
  Used to be the only ways to get to Mexico were to sign on for some cheesy tour or sit at the Colorado Boulevard on-ramp to I-25 South with a "Mexico or Bust" sign, a handful of pesos and a willingness to do anything the trucker who picked you up demanded. Anything. A few selective-memory... More >>
• BEST RIDES -- LEGAL
  Rocky Mountain Rastacar Transportation 303-815-2442
  Keith-David Hammock works seven days a week, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., shuttling the city's inebriated in a converted RTD Access-A-Ride van that was gifted to him by the Bianchi brothers, owners of Sancho's, Quixote's, Cervantes' and Dulcinea's. In exchange for driving Bianchi bar customers... More >>
• BEST RIDES -- ILLEGAL
  G-Ride
  The Jester, a gypsy cab driver, has weathered some turbulence this year. But he recently rescued his storied lime-green Chevrolet Impala from hock and is once again rolling around D-town in style, offering clandestine rides to the stranded and the impatient. In the plus column, he picked up... More >>
• BEST RIDES -- UPSCALE
  Central Car Service 303-866-0123
  Taxis are not glamorous. They're temporary and transitory, the mobile equivalent of a phone booth: meant for quick use and quick turnaround by lots and lots of people. But with Central Car Service, being driven around town can be damn near classy, thanks to a fleet of newer Cadillacs outfitted... More >>
• BEST RIDES -- IN YOUR OWN CAR (1 Comment)
  NoDuiDenver.com 1-877-NODUIDEN
  NoDuiDenver.com has done the barflies of Denver an immeasurable service by eliminating the morning-after "Where did I leave my car?" game. For just a little more than the cost of a cab, NoDui's drivers -- a plucky, sober, background-checked army -- will drive you home in your own car when the... More >>
• BEST USED-CAR OPTION
  Precision Auto Diagnostics
  You can rely on all the dealership blather about their certified "pre-owned vehicles" -- or you can invest a modest sum in an independent inspection before sinking your insurance settlement into that white-smoking clunker. Precision's Leo Russ has taken on dealers on behalf of extended-warranty... More >>
• BEST WHEELING AND DEALING
  The Import Warehouse 235 Broadway 303-629-0966
  Recently moved to a better showroom and expanded to include broker services, the Import Warehouse is an oasis of decent used-car deals amid a desert of hide-burning dealership experiences. The inventory is European (mostly Volvo, Audi and Volkswagen) and no-haggle priced, the staff is low-key... More >>
• BEST PARKING-METER VALUE
  1400 block of Wynkoop St.
  The best parking value downtown is the meters lining the west side of the 1400 block of Wynkoop Street. Though they face one of LoDo's spendiest lots, these babies dole out a half-hour per quarter -- for up to five hours. That's right, mathematicians: For a scant fiddy cent, you get a whole hour... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO NOT GAS UP
  Denver BioDiesel www.denverbiodiesel.org
  Nobody believes in biodiesel as the fuel of the future more than north Denverite Lorance Romero, who mixes his own vegetable-oil-based B100 brew under the aegis of the Clearing House collective and Denver BioDiesel. It takes a lot of space to both fill and store barrels of the clean-burning... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO BUY ANTIQUES, EAT GELATO AND CATCH A SHOW WHILE CHASING OFF BUMS
  Upper Larimer St.
  Jack Kerouac and friends would surely be surprised to find what the past twelve months have brought to their skid row. Early pioneers such as Architectural Antiques and the Larimer Lounge stood watch over gang turf wars and armed robberies, but now Espo's Gelato Shop & CafŽ, the Barkway,... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO GET YOUR HAIR CUT, DRINK COFFEE AND LOOK AT ART WHILE CHASING OFF HOOKERS (2 Comments)
  Bluebird District
  The latest entry in the pantheon of "new" -- new country, the New West, the New South -- is New Colfax, and its epicenter is the Bluebird District, named for the iconic theater at Colfax and Adams Street. Over the past eighteen months, Cafe Star, Hooked on Colfax, Babooshka salon and ism Gallery... More >>
• BEST NEW STORE ON COLFAX (1 Comment)
  Steve's Snappin' Dogs
  Colfax Avenue is hot -- hot dog! You may have seen Steve and Linda Ballas before, in their popular, dog-slinging pooch coach at farmers' markets and other outdoor events around town, or at the Corporate Deli, which they used to run downtown. (And here's food for thought: Linda is the daughter of... More >>
• BEST NEW STORE ON BROADWAY
  Cargo 210 S. Broadway 303-733-2909
  Like a true traveler, Ivy Morgan's Cargo comes and goes, sometimes packing up in the night and leaving an empty space behind. And now Cargo has returned, this time to a funky South Broadway storefront, but it's selling the same sort of reasonably priced Nepalese, Thai and Indian imports as... More >>
• BEST STORE IN CHERRY CREEK
  Tattered Cover Book Store 2955 E. 1st Ave. 303-322-7727
  You could write a book on what the Tattered Cover and its principled owner, Joyce Meskis, have meant not just to Denver, but to lovers of literature and free speech everywhere. That book begins in Cherry Creek North, where a pre-Meskis Tattered got its start in a little cubbyhole in 1972. Under... More >>
• BEST STORE ON BOULDER'S PEARL STREET MALL
  Installation
  Often the hottest-selling items at Satellite Boardshop weren't the skates and snowboards, but the shoes. So owners Raul Pinto and J.G. Mazzotta opened a second Boulder store devoted entirely to street footwear, particularly special-release shoes by Adidas, Nike, I-Path and Vans. Though the... More >>
• BEST STORE AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (3 Comments)
  The Colorado Collection Concourse B, Gate 44 303-342-7878
  The Colorado Collection is a hard-to-find sanctuary in a land of cheap, tacky souvenirs. Before the locally owned boutique took off with DIA in 1995, the Colorado Collection was located downtown, and owner/goldsmith Lauren Wahlstrom sold her work out of the shop. Wahlstrom has since passed away,... More >>
• BEST STORE IN BELMAR
  Ricochet 7166 W. Alaska Dr., Lakewood 303-937-7733
  New urbanism, you're looking good! And in Belmar, the classy development that took over the former home of Villa Italia, Ricochet could be the main reason why. This great, girly store got its start on South Gaylord, then pioneered Lakewood's new-urbanist outpost, making the area safe for cool... More >>
• BEST STORE ON LITTLETON'S MAIN STREET
  CreARTive, the Studio
  Creative impulses abound in the 'burbs. For proof, just take a walk down Littleton's Main Street, a century-old strip now filling with chic shops, good restaurants and upscale services. Inspired by what you see? Step around the corner to CreARTive, a bungalow staffed by artists and filled with... More >>
• BEST STORE IN OLDE TOWN ARVADA
  Misty Hills Books
  Even when Denver was a wild frontier town, it had a public library, and bookstores remain a major hallmark of civilization in the area. Even as big chains gobble up much of the market across the country, niche stores hold on tight to the hearts, minds and wallets of loyal customers. Over the... More >>
• BEST STORE ON WEST 32ND AVENUE
  West Side Books
  West Side Books has been a part of the Highland community since before "community" became a buzzword. The expansive used-book store feels like walking into a friend's old-school loft, with its concrete floors, rough walls and high ceilings. There are chairs and carpets everywhere, and the books... More >>
• BEST STORE ON THE 16TH STREET MALL
  Aveda Institute
  The Aveda Institute is like the Vassar of beauty schools, and its rigorous fifty-week program turns out students ready to coif the most fashionable heads around. Until then, the grasshoppers charge a mere $12 for a haircut, which includes a shampoo, wash and style, and facials can be had for... More >>
• BEST STYLE FOR THE MONEY
  Emily Griffith Opportunity School
  The salon services at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School's student salon are so cheap you might be tempted to get your hair done twice in one visit. Outside of a Third World country, where else can you find a $5 haircut, a $7 facial or a $4 manicure? Staffed by students enrolled in the... More >>
• BEST LATE-NIGHT HAIRCUT
  Woonoh's Hair Salon 705 E. 6th Ave. 303-839-1843
  A cheap wooden sign outside Woonoh's Hair Salon sums up the bare-bones barbershop in three perfectly hand-drawn words: Nite Hair City. Stylist Woonoh will gladly take appointments at nearly any hour, especially late into the evening. With only one chair and one sink, there may be some waiting,... More >>
• BEST NON-SURGICAL FACELIFT
  Eden II Spa
  Looking for a little nip-tuck without the nasty side effects of the scalpel? Try Eden II Spa's Four-Layer Facelift. The gentle peel hydrates the skin, working over time to fight the effects of city living with all its smoke, pollution and booze. Aesthetician Ceara Quintanilla brushes a dose of... More >>
• BEST NON-SURGICAL LIPOSUCTION
  Seams Like Magik www.seamslikemagik.com
  Do contemporary women really want to squeeze all of the air out of their lungs just to be skinnier and sexier? Yes -- and no: Corset-maker Jane Campbell gives them the hourglass look without all the pain of lacing up a corset. Campbell fashions her modern, steel-boned waist-cinchers from... More >>
• BEST BOOB JOB
  SOL
  SOL should be a rite of passage, a secret world that aunts open up for their nieces. It would prevent long-term scarring from harsh department-store lights and help end the unfortunate phenomenon of ill-fitting bras. Owners Jeanie Peterson and Cindy Johnson have been running SOL in Cherry Creek... More >>
• BEST METROSEXUAL HANGOUT
  MetroBoom 1550 Platte St. 303-477-9700
  Metrosexuals, you no longer need skulk into women-oriented salons to get groomed. Jung Park, an MBA candidate at the University of Denver, has come to your rescue with MetroBoom, a place where you can get a real salon haircut as well as upscale grooming products, titanium cuff links, button-down... More >>
• BEST SPOT TO SCOPE HOTTIES
  Whole Foods
  She's gazing intently at the nutrition label on a box of Melba Rounds. She's slender, with short hair, and wears her pants rolled up around her calves like she doesn't even care. If she were at a Safeway, she'd be the most beautiful girl in the store -- hell, in the zip code -- but at Whole... More >>
• BEST SPOT TO SCOPE SMART HOTTIES (1 Comment)
  The Apple Store Cherry Creek Shopping Center
  The inhabitants of the Apple Store -- a Mac user's Zion -- are just as sexy as those shoppers at Whole Foods across the street, but here there's a good chance that they're hot and smart. Maybe it's just their proximity to the Apple "geniuses" -- those geeks-in-a-good-way trouble-shooting... More >>
• BEST WOMEN'S BOOKSTORE (1 Comment)
  Word Is Out
  Owners and life partners Louise Knapp and Spider Kornblith have womanned Word Is Out for nearly twelve years, and at their place, you find obscure books on any famous or semi-famous woman, from H.D. to H. Clinton. The sunny shop also carries music, jewelry, T-shirts and posters by feminist... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO BUY THE BOOK BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
  Relatively Wilde
  Category Six was a Denver institution for more than twenty years, and now the bookseller is ready to start on its next twenty as Relatively Wilde, renamed in honor of Oscar Wilde by life partners Ron Metz and Marc Crouch. Bringing in their quilts, crocheted hearth rugs, Roman busts and two dogs,... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO RENT BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN AND BAREBACKING MOUNTAIN
  Videotique
  Videotique celebrated its twentieth anniversary last year, and the independent renter is still going strong. The compact shop may be shoehorned into a tiny strip-mall corridor, but it's also packed wall-to-wall with more than 10,000 rentals. Though LBGT titles are the house specialty, you'll... More >>
• BEST BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN ROLE-PLAY OUTFITS
  CJ's Leather 212 S. Broadway 303-715-1157
  Carlos Larranaga is a master tailor and designer who's been creating hot custom leather garments for the LBGT/BDSM community for 35 years. He first fashioned his cutting-edge kinky couture at storied San Francisco leather shop Image, then moved his material to Denver in 1997, where he's been... More >>
• BEST TOYS FOR GROWNUPS -- BEDROOM
  Hysteria Sex-Positive Boutique
  Denver's newest sex-toy store also happens to be its classiest. The husband-and-wife team of Elizabeth Hauptman and Pete Yribia opened the bodacious boutique last April to give this town some sex-positive vibes. Modeled after the feminist sex shops Good Vibrations in San Francisco and Toys in... More >>
• BEST TOYS FOR GROWNUPS -- LIVING ROOM
  Plastic Chapel
  The Peter Pan syndrome has been in full force in Denver since last fall, when Dea Webb and David Wendt opened Plastic Chapel, their closet-sized toy store for adults. Come in for the urban vinyl figures normally found by collectors at Kidrobot stores, and stay for the always-changing inventory... More >>
• BEST GIFT SHOW
  Spring Fling Denver Turnverein www.springflingdenver.com
  First came Gifts for Yule, an absolutely yummy holiday gift show that's run for several seasons at the Denver Turnverein, bringing cool stuff -- folk art, vintage linens, pottery, lotions, jewelry and clothing new and old, antiques and all kinds of whimsical what-have-yous -- together under one... More >>
• BEST HIPPIE TRADE SHOW
  Conscious Creations Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom www.eclecticgroovetherapy.org
  There's only one place in town where you can barter with hippies for handmade crafts, partake in drink specials, listen to spaced-out music and enjoy homemade chocolate-chip cookies on a leisurely weekend afternoon: Conscious Creations, the flea market/ art bazaar that takes place at Cervantes'... More >>
• BEST BRIDAL SHOW
  Wedding Wednesdays Old South Pearl www.weddingwednesday.com
  We love Old South Pearl Street, a homey stretch in the 1400 and 1500 blocks of South Pearl where you can meander from store to store, stop for coffee, grab a meal and gab with the neighbors. There are no bright lights or hard-sell vendors -- which means this is also the perfect environment for a... More >>
• BEST HIGH HOLY DAYS ALTERNATIVE
  Judaism Your Way 303-320-6185 www.judaismyourway.org
  Many modern Jews would rather eat glass than set foot in a stuffy shul on Yom Kippur, but they still want to connect with their Jewish culture and customs. For them, there's Judaism Your Way, which hosts religious events in unconventional surroundings. Last fall the group offered free,... More >>
• BEST SANTA SUIT RENTALS
  Englewood Recreation Center
  You never know when you're going to need an emergency Santa suit. The two available at the Englewood Recreation Center are luxurious crushed-velvet jobs, complete with everything required to ho-ho-ho it up, right down to the flowing beard. And even Mr. Claus himself could borrow one in a pinch,... More >>
• BEST PLACE FOR DEADLY STYLE (1 Comment)
  Rave's Oh My Goth
  Denver has its own unchallenged Mistress of the Dark -- and it's not Elvira (who grew up in Colorado Springs, after all). No, it's Raven, Mistress of Mootown. After debuting in 1995, Rave moved four times and went through numerous incarnations before finally settling into the old Enigma space... More >>
• BEST POTIONS
  MoonDance Botanicals
  Tonja Reichley calls herself an alchemist, and it's easy to agree when you watch her mix her signature potions and lotions in the back room of MoonDance Botanicals. Before setting up shop in the Golden Triangle, Reichley studied in Ireland with an honest-to-God Celtic herbalist and learned to... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO DECOMPOSE
  Prairie Arts League/Prairie Wilderness Cemetery project www.prairieartsleague.org
  The national eco-friendly movement toward green burials has a new friend in the Denver-based Prairie Arts League, which aims to preserve a large tract of Colorado prairie as a wildlife refuge. To finance the project, the group is selling space in a cemetery that will be a final resting place for... More >>
• BEST DOGGY DRESS-UP
  macymacy 1612 E. 17th Ave. 303-320-1161
  Any excuse for dog owners to set foot into macymacy is a good one. Owner Macy Matarazzo runs the cleverest, most pet-friendly shop in town, if not the universe, offering a fine array of pet paraphernalia, goodies, outrageous doggie togs and greetings from the store's tiny Chihuahua... More >>
• BEST FUR ON A CELEBRITY DOG
  Larry El Salon 265 Detroit St.
  How can you not know Larry? Sugar, everyone who is anyone knows Larry. Larry is not just some metrosexual mutt; he's hunky hairdresser Steve Trujillo's beautiful bichon frise -- as well as Denver's most famous celebrity dog. It's a well-known fact that Larry eats more gourmet meals, dresses in... More >>
• BEST SHOP DOG
  Eliot T-Trove Asian DŽcor
  The staff at T-Trove is quite capable of helping you find what you're looking for in Asian furniture and home accessories, from humongous antique leather drums to delicate silk table runners, carved teak screens, cloisonne vases, tea sets and jewelry. Still, it's nice to have Eliot, a... More >>
• BEST SHOP CAT
  Vincent Mona Lucero 2544 15th St.
  In the confines of this oh-so-au-courant boutique, nobody is hipper than Vincent, the gray-and-white feline who bounds to the door to greet visitors, appraise their footwear and, occasionally, escort them to the counter to peruse the shop's fresh and stylish clothing, jewelry, cards and... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO FIND YOUR PLACE IN THE PACK
  Ohana Care Center
  Dr. Mary Mich is a massage therapist extraordinaire and chiropractic goddess, but it's Jake, her adopted Australian shepherd/Border collie mix, that makes her service undeniably special. Jake carefully inspects the personality and temperament of each patient Mich sees to determine the best... More >>
• BEST NEW PET SERVICE
  Online pet licensing www.denvergov.org/petlicense
  Pet licensing is a doggone drag, no doubt about it. First, there's digging up the dog's rabies-vaccination information, then finding the time to get down to the Denver Municipal Animal Shelter on Jason Street -- not an easy site to locate. Still, it's a worthwhile endeavor, especially since... More >>
• BEST PET BEDS (3 Comments)
  BuddyBeds 303-744-0424
  Got a dog or cat with aching bones? Slip them into one of Debra Holte's high-quality, memory-foam pet beds, which offer orthopedic benefits similar to those enjoyed by two-legged hospital patients. What started as a home business has gone through the roof, with residents of the country's most... More >>
• BEST DOG PORTRAITS
  LuLu Bella www.lulubellaart.com 303-455-6943
  Local artist Julia McClurg has a way with pet portraits, and the proof is in dozens of commissions she's received since setting up shop. She captures the personality of her subjects instead of just reproducing their images, and as a result, her whimsical paintings are far better suited to the... More >>
• BEST ALL-COLORADO BANDWAGON
  Colorado Cupboard
  Sisters Dayna Nixon and Shari Triche are natives of New Orleans, but that hasn't stopped them from becoming some of this state's most vociferous "Buy Colorado" boosters. They opened Colorado Cupboard almost two years ago, filling it with only certifiably Colorado goods: candles, organic honey,... More >>
• BEST ONE-STOP BARGAINS
  Central Park Center S. Rosemary St. and E. Iliff Ave.
  It's not cost-effective to drive all over town when you're shopping for bargains; what you pay in gas is likely to offset any real savings. What you need is a single spot with numerous stores for the frugal-minded -- a spot like Central Park Center, a thrifters' paradise in southeast Denver.... More >>
• BEST GIRLY GEWGAWS
  Pandora Jewelry
  Pandora Jewelry carries much more than just jewelry. There's Angel Snot (sticky, gooey, sparkly stuff that comes in an egg), Dress-Me-Jesus dolls, hula-girl dashboard ornaments and bacon-strip band-aids, just for starters. And who can live without tater-tot pencil toppers? If kitsch isn't on... More >>
• BEST BRAZILIAN JEWEL
  Arco-Iris Designs
  Rosi Macedo is a diminutive gem of a jewelry designer with a monstrous talent. After years of study and designing in Rio de Janeiro and New York City, the Brazilian native moved to Denver and opened a shop here in 1993, where she creates gorgeous custom jewelry using semi-precious and precious... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO BAG A BAG
  The Pink Purse
  A cute bag is a girl's best friend. And, like girlfriends, you need more than one: Each bag in your collection should fulfill a specific need, appeal to a certain facet of your ever-changing, sparkling personality. The Pink Purse celebrates such diversity with a selection of hip pocketbooks that... More >>
• BEST FRESH FOOTWEAR
  The 400
  Staying on the cusp of urban-sneaker culture is a tough mission that involves a constant dialogue between the word on the street and the drafting table. But Kris Fry and brothers Randy and Mark Kleiner decided to give it a shot last year, opening The 400 as a real working retail laboratory.... More >>
• BEST SPECTACLES FOR LIBESKIND WANNABES
  DisRespectacles
  What you put on your face has to be carefully considered, since that's where people look first, and the glasses you wear should speak for you. If you want your face to say "hip" and "cutting-edge," head to DisRespectacles, the only outpost of this big-city-style store outside of New York. For... More >>
• BEST POKER TOGS
  PokerMade Apparel www.pokermade.com
  If you're gonna play poker, you're gonna have to dress poker. If you were a bulldog, a visor and cigar would be all that you'd need. But two-legged folk like a fuller house. That's what area tournament player/ real-estate investor/Vegas hustler Michael Turnbull banked on when he created... More >>
• BEST UPSCALE CONSIGNMENT
  Your Best Friend's Closet
  If you can squeeze into something smaller than a size fourteen, Ranelle Gregory's inviting vintage, thrift and consignment clothing shop is a bargain paradise. Fittingly, Your Best Friend's Closet is best experienced with a friend, so take one along who enjoys stroking fabric, eyeing jewelry and... More >>
• BEST DOWN-SCALE THRIFT STORE
  Safari Seconds Thrift Store
  Safari Seconds isn't the biggest, the cleanest or even the most discerning thrift store in town, but it supports a very good cause: The shop is a fundraising venture of the non-profit African Community Center and employs immigrants in need of social acclimation and job experience. Tucked behind... More >>
• BEST VINTAGE SELECTION
  Eras Vintage
  Eras Vintage is everything a good vintage store should be: cozy, cluttered and brimming with surprises. Every time one layer is excavated, another trove of treasures is uncovered. Proprietor Bobbi Boynton opened her shop last May and filled it with hats and shoes and bags and clothes and... More >>
• BEST FANCY-PANTS BOUTIQUE
  Swank
  Located in super-hip Highland is the equally hip Swank. On the scene for just a year, Swank has the quintessential elements of a successful independent clothing store: itty-bitty clothes; oversized, crystal-encrusted jewelry; sequin-adorned everything; and no more than three of one item. Jeans... More >>
• BEST LAUNDRY-DAY ESCAPE
  Clean Green Coin Laundry 4301 W. 38th Ave. 303-480-1861
  Michael and Susan Mote believe that doing laundry doesn't have to be boring. So when the couple bought Clean Green nine months ago, they went with an atypical look for laundromat decor. They decorated the outside with lodgepoles, boulders, trees and a rustic welcome sign; on the inside they hung... More >>
• BEST CHEAP WALL ART
  Photoswest.org
  Denver's evolution from a vast prairie to a bona fide big city has been closely chronicled by photographers. Shutterbugs started snapping in the mid-1800s, and they haven't stopped since. And an exhaustive archive of their work -- more than 600,000 historical images -- has been compiled by the... More >>
• BEST CREATIVE CLASS DECOR
  BetterWall.com
  Can't afford a real Monet, Chuck Close or CŽzanne? BetterWall.com has you covered: Instead of a cheesy framed poster by an Old Master or modern maestro, BetterWall.com specializes in museum-exhibit banners. Remember the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art's controversial show Will Boys Be Boys... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO PIMP YOUR PAD
  Room
  Whether you like Ike or hang with the Rat Pack, Room is the perfect introduction to mid-century style -- like a trip to the set of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Vintage credenzas, new-but-retro chrome-and-glass coffee tables, overarching floor lamps suitable for Beat-poetry jams, sprawling sofas,... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO PIMP YOUR SOUND SYSTEM
  National Speaker and Sound
  Whether it's pimpin' out your house or turnin' out your club, National Speaker and Sound has set the standard for sound quality in Denver for more than two decades. Head salesman Neil Grudzen has sold, cajoled, referred and deferred advice to the brightest lights on the Denver music scene since... More >>
• BEST ASIAN INSPIRATION (1 Comment)
  CaShi Gallery
  Carolyn Shaver and Steve Thurston have been in the Asian import business for years, traveling to the Orient and shipping back trunks, wardrobes, ginger jars, old baskets and more. They took their passion a taste further, however, when they opened their small store on South Broadway and added a... More >>
• BEST ASIAN TREASURES -- CHEAP
  Truong An
  Truong An is a humongous jumble of Asian imports that spill out of the doors and onto the sidewalk, everything scented with the exotic aroma of smoky fountains, peculiar herbs and stacks of fragrant joss sticks. Kids love picking through the origami kits, puffy stickers and Pucca and Mashimoro... More >>
• BEST ASIAN TREASURES -- MODERATE
  T-Trove Asian Decor
  T-Trove Asian Decor is the kind of place people visit just to hang out and relax. Buoyed by the sweet odor of incense and the sound of trickling indoor fountains, this is an oasis of calm. And if you're there to buy, T-Trove encourages you to think grandiosely large or infinitesimally small,... More >>
• BEST ASIAN TREASURES -- PRICELESS
  DecorAsian
  There are a million stories to be told at Boulder's DecorAsian, where the artifacts breathe with history. Owner Rusty Staff stocks the place with a traveler's eye -- he owns Asia Transpacific Journeys, after all -- personally bringing back much of his stock from the exotic places he visits.... More >>
• BEST ITALIAN TREASURES
  Vario of Cherry Creek
  Italian majolica pottery is like a priceless drug. Oh, to own a wall of classic Deruta platters hand-painted with roosters and peacocks and patterns done in such vivid colors they'll make you cry. Vario is majolica central, simply brimming with grapevine-encrusted bowls, lemon-embellished... More >>
• BEST TIBETAN TREASURES
  Tibetan Sisters Art 2817 E. 3rd Ave. 303-320-9400
  Tibetan refugee Palden Yangsto Hester is the real thing, a forced emigree whose heart still burns with love for her birthplace, even though her family was persecuted and some members killed. Now settled here, Hester imports wares from Tibet, Nepal and India, selling them in a richly appointed... More >>
• BEST GARDENING TREASURES
  Maxine's Market
  Maxine's isn't so much a garden shop as a shop that speaks to gardeners. Megan McNeish has created an indoor/outdoor theme, with sweet-smelling sachets, French glassware and luscious ripple-edged dishes cohabiting with birds' nests filled with tiny blue eggs, glass cloches housing sprays of... More >>
• BEST BOTANICAL SHOP
  The Apiary
  Walk into Jean Snow's Apiary and you'll find every nook and cranny loaded with untold stories of long ago. The aroma of orange blossoms emanates from a tree in the window, and Snow's motto -- "Nature makes the most amazing things" -- manifests itself on every shelf, as it has for more than... More >>
• BEST GARDEN GNOMES
  Mile-Hi Statuary
  Saints and pigs, gargoyles and gMile-Hi Statuary 5048 Morrison Rd. 303-934-3244reyhounds, dragons and geese, lions and tigers and bears -- oh, my! Mile-Hi's amazing selection of fountains and yard ornaments outpaces that of the garden stores, many of which offer similar products at a higher... More >>
• BEST TOOTH-FAIRY PILLOWS
  Starlet 3450 W. 32nd Ave. 303-433-7827
  Not much has changed in the world of the Tooth Fairy since you were a kid, except maybe the rate of exchange -- and the packaging. Kristi Howard crafts Tooth Fairy pillows for her store, Starlet, sewing them in bunny-soft chenille with pockets just the right size for a bitty tooth, quarter or... More >>
• BEST BABY SHOWER GIFTS (1 Comment)
  Bella Sera Baby
  Walking into Bella Sera Baby, there is no doubt that owner Courtney Lupe is the kind of mother who marches to a different drummer. It shows in every detail of her sweet baby bedding and accessories, which she sews mostly by herself. Lupe, who was originally a wholesaler, recently went retail... More >>
• BEST BAR/BAT MITZVAH GIFTS
  JCC Gift Cards Robert E. Loup Jewish Community Center
  Give the newly fledged little man or woman in your life the gift of the Jewish Community Center. Cards are available in any denomination and can be used toward any of the services offered at the JCC, from a free back float to tennis camp. Today you are a mensch! More >>
• BEST GIFT FOR PARENTS (1 Comment)
  Family Flex
  Kids are a pain in the ass. They demand to be fed, and they take all your shoe money. Thank goodness for Family Flex, where parents can drop the youngsters off and spend a worry-free night on the town. Family Flex's daycare program has been wait-listed for much of the year since Marie Hueston... More >>
• BEST GIFT FOR DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
  Highland Water 303-922-5555
  What self-respecting desperate housewife would be able to resist a delivery boy dressed in a kilt? Those cute kneesocks are to die for! Keith Warner of Highland Water knew you'd feel that way, which is why he sends his boys on their water-delivery rounds wearing kilts. It worked for the Colorado... More >>
• BEST PURVEYOR OF BOOZE AND THE WISDOM OF HOMER SIMPSON
  The Wine Seller and Spirits Too
  The Wine Seller and Spirits Too is staffed with quirky, friendly, knowledgeable liberal-arts-major clerks who are intimately familiar with the store's impressive selection of wines (from swill to swank), respectable stock of beers (both micro and industrial), and expansive liquor cabinet. What... More >>
• BEST DENVER-MADE WINE
  Colorado Syrah, 2004
  At $24 a bottle, the intense, complex syrah made (in small quantities) by the family-owned Balistreri Vineyards is no everyday pour. But it might be Colorado's biggest, richest red wine. The grapes are grown in the Horse Mountain Vineyard on the Western Slope, and the final product is vinted... More >>
• BEST AFFORDABLE WINES
  Corks
  Not versed in the language of Sideways? Rest easy when shopping at Corks: Any decision by the knowledgeable staff will be a good one. The intimate shop doesn't overwhelm customers with selection, and the global offerings are labeled in categories that could describe what you'd like the evening... More >>
• BEST WINE ACCESSORIES
  Wine Complements
  We're a wine-crazy society, all sniffing and swirling and sipping our way through dinner. That's why Sheryl Czipott took a chance on Wine Complements, a wine-accoutrements store conveniently located next to Corks. Czipott carries everything from stylish wine racks to hors d'oeuvre accompaniments... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO GET SMASHED
  Stomp Them Grapes
  Brian Carter and Richard Berkey stock just about every kind of press and grape-crusher in the vineyard. When people come into Stomp Them Grapes, they don't actually make them take off their shoes and socks and squish, but short of that, they do everything in their power to grow winemaking... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO HIT THE SHEETS
  University of Colorado at Boulder Music Library ucblibraries.colorado.edu/music/ smp/index.html
  In 1913, a composer named J.R. Shannon published a song titled "Good Old Denver Town," just one in a rash of Colorado-centric ditties that popped up on pianos in the early 1900s. Thanks to the CU-Boulder Music Library, 21st-century players can tune into the 150,000-plus treasure trove of titles... More >>
• BEST STRINGED THINGS
  Denver Folklore Center
  A veritable museum of acoustic instruments, the Denver Folklore Center is stocked with used and vintage banjos, mandolins, dulcimers, autoharps and guitars from floor to ceiling; it's a sight to make the city's string players sing. A new generation of players can also find inspiration among the... More >>
• BEST CD STORE
  Twist & Shout
  Twist & Shout is planning to relocate from its current home as part of the ambitious Lowenstein Redevelopment Project -- but this news shouldn't concern longtime supporters of the store. Indeed, the expansive new space should help the Twist & Shout team provide even more of what's always made... More >>
• BEST USED-CD STORE
  SecondSpin.com
  With the music industry's transition from platters to downloading proceeding at a frantic pace, shops specializing in used CDs are an endangered species. But SecondSpin.com is still here, and how. The firm's Denver branch is 12,000 square feet and offers a killer selection of more than 70,000... More >>
• BEST USED-VINYL STORE
  Wax Trax Vinyl
  Once upon a time, the competition for Denver's best vinyl haven was fierce -- yet Wax Trax usually came out on top. Today, most of the also-rans are history, while Wax Trax's vinyl branch remains. The reasons are simple: Wax Trax Vinyl inspires intense loyalty among knowledgeable collectors of... More >>
• BEST URBAN OUTPOST
  Independent Records and Video
  Let's face it: Denver's still pretty damn white -- a city with umpteen wine bars and rock venues but just a handful of halfway-decent jazz or hip-hop joints. Independent Records and Video -- the store with the big, beautiful display windows filled with big, beautiful photographs of... More >>