Best Store on the 16th Street Mall 2012 | H&M | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
Navigation
Support Us
Search

Best Store on the 16th Street Mall

H&M

We're all for shopping local, but there is and long has been a demand among city-dwellers for stylish and affordable garments of the sort sold by the Swedish-owned department store H&M, which was, after all, the Holy Grail for thousands of Denver fashionistas before the retailer opened last year in the downtown mall. So let's celebrate that, too. H&M brings a certain savoir faire to our civic image and keeps folks with little cash looking like a million bucks to the rest of the world.

Readers' Choice: H&M

Best Store on the Pearl Street Mall

Sweetbird Studio

Though technically not on Pearl Street proper, Sweetbird Studio is right around the corner, and we're glad it is: Dedicated to the "wearable shrines of intention" created by Boulder jewelry artist Nancy Anderson, the shop is home to one-of-a-kind retro-cowgirl pieces she crafts from found objects, stones and sterling silver. They have to be seen to be believed, and lucky for us, Anderson has a retail shop. That's worth turning the corner for!

Readers' Choice: Peppercorn

Best Strip Mall

Tigalo

The banding together of hip resale giant Buffalo Exchange and the Fancy Tiger empire of clothing and craft stores on this half-block of Broadway, complete with a small parking lot, is a perfect example of new urban merchandising. It gives people a reason to stop, shop and — just maybe — continue down the street to see what else is there. Dubbing it Tigalo, a whimsical name that combines Tiger with Buffalo, gives it even more curb appeal. These three stores, after all, were made for each other; together they create a kind of funky multiplex that brands the rest of the neighborhood. And by moving its two shops next door to each other in a larger space, Fancy Tiger also made way for the new boutique SEWN to join the Broadway lineup. All that moving around is creating a stronger retail district, and we think Tigalo is its strongest link.

Readers' Choice: Arvada Marketplace

Best Sugar High

Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop

Forget Proust's madeleine. For many of us, a search for things past is a quest for a candy-soaked childhood, and Rocket Fizz has all those elusive treats, from Zagnut bars to giant wax lips to those fake cigarette packs of gum that set you on the road to hell. The impressive chain opened a spacious store in Writer's Square earlier this year, and independent operator Patrick Evans has the place well-stocked with vintage signs, rare sweets, exotic sodas, taffies and suckers, and an astonishing array of Japanese strangeness. Bacon soda, anyone?

Best Thrift Store

Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver ReStore

Home renovation materials, large appliances and furniture aren't cheap, but Habitat for Humanity's metro Denver thrift store lets customers pick and pull everything from lumber to light fixtures at huge discounts. Since 1979, store profits have made it possible for all donations to fund Habitat's homeownership program for low-income families. Donations of cash, materials or appliances to the store are tax-deductible, and there's even a deconstruction team that will travel to homes or businesses to take salvage items at no charge. The store itself is a treasure trove of inexpensive building materials, home improvement and decor items, tools, vintage and newer washers, dryers, refrigerators, dishwashers and the occasional convection oven. Inventory changes every day, and the staff is always willing to help load or unload the heavy stuff.

Readers' Choice: ARC

Best Upcycled Furniture

Revampt

This fresh Cherry Creek North storefront is all about going green: A forward-thinking lost-and-found of furniture and other items crafted from reclaimed materials of all kinds, the project of owners Daniel Louis and Keir Myers opened last spring, and it'll make you rethink everything you ever thought you knew about home decor and design. The pair has found uses for just about anything under the sun: marble countertop remnants, tin ceiling tiles, compressed wood scraps, old window frames, barn wood, wine barrels and fence pickets — you name it, they've used it well. And that's just the furniture. On a smaller scale, you'll also find handbags fashioned from vintage car upholstery, coasters cut from vinyl records and chairs hammered out of old street signs; they also offer patio furniture made from construction-site scraps. In the 21st century, what's old is new.

Best Wallpaper

Covered Wallpaper

In case you haven't noticed, wallpaper is making a comeback, and that truth wasn't lost on wallpaper aficionados Ashley Allen and Carrie Dailey, who were blogging about the home-design tool long before they opened Covered. They also discovered that the kinds of modern wall coverings they preferred — clean, easy, natural prints and updated retro looks — weren't easy to find in Denver showrooms. Much like the fabrics carried at stores like Fancy Tiger, the artful new-look wallpaper designs come more often than not from independent sources. Obviously, the two saw a niche, and Covered was designed to fill it. Which it does, beautifully and with a nod to folks willing to do their own work in order to produce a fresh new look. The small shop's walls, lined with a mixture of vintage and contemporary patterns, are guaranteed to get ideas flowing, and catalogues are provided to help DIYers in their searches; Allen and Dailey are there primarily to give and take as folks dream, and they hope you'll drop in and stay a while. For now, Covered is open only on weekends or by appointment.

Best Way to Tell If Your School Deserves an F

ColoradoSchoolGrades.com

Want to know if your kid's school is top-notch or bottom-rung but don't speak the lingo required to sift through weighty reports? ColoradoSchoolGrades.com takes that data and translates it into easy-to-read snapshots that rank schools on a scale of A to F. Started by a coalition of education advocacy groups, the website is clean and simple. A-plus.

Best Way to Tune In While Tuning Out

iCannabis Radio Network

When it comes to marijuana radio in Denver, the team at iCannabis has the market covered. Current shows include The Marijuana Report with Vincent Palazzotto; Sex Pot Radio with Jenny Kush and Hemptress December; and Thunderdome Radio with Scott Greene, for you Occupiers. With shows ranging from two stoners talking issues to attorneys giving legal advice, iCannabis Radio is a valuable resource for Colorado patients...if you can remember to tune in, that is.

Best Wine Shop

Mondo Vino

Courtesy Mondo Vino Facebook page

Shopping for wine can be unbelievably intimidating. Do points matter? And exactly how the hell are you supposed to decipher dozens of bottles whose labels are in French? (No, we can't remember our eighth-grade conjugation, either.) Mondo Vino removes all the fear from the process by delivering a user-friendly experience that'll make you feel as comfortable as if you were browsing for books or scouring record crates in search of your favorite beats. Practically everyone we know has a Mondo story, and heaps praise upon the store's crazy-good selection and near-fanatical dedication to customer service. In search of a special sparkler to present to the host of Saturday night's dinner party? Mondo has a bottle for that. Thirsty for something cheap and uncomplicated to pound after a tough day at work? Mondo has a bottle for that, too. The staff is full of wine wizards who routinely reel off as many (or as few, if you're just not into it that day) obscure facts as you can absorb about practically every product in the store. Mondo delivers, it offers free tastings and, oh, yeah — it's about to launch a series of wine tours, crisscrossing wine regions from the Western Slope to Europe.

Readers' Choice: Mondo Vino

Best Of Denver®

Best of Denver

Best Of

Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our terms of use, our cookies policy, and our privacy policy Westword may earn a portion of sales from products & services purchased through links on our site from our affiliate partners. ©2024 Denver Westword, LLC. All rights reserved.
Do Not Sell or Share My Information
Powered By Foundation