Shopping & Services

If you’re a Colorado hipster, then it’s high time you ponied up for some Wild West wear for your offspring. Founded in 1989, Cry Baby Ranch is still the best place in town to score Western-style boot(ie)s, rancher onesies and bibs with Texas stars. The colorful cow-kid clothes are mostly handmade, and you’ll even find leather-on-suede jackets, along with themed gifts for your buckaroo: sippy cups and cutlery, blankets, books, stick-on mustaches, and some seriously cuddly rancher-themed stuffed animals. Make sure to spend a few minutes moseying through the store’s adult section; we wouldn’t blame you if you ended up lassoing a pair of boots for yourself, too.

At the height of shopping-mall popularity, these centers for socializing and commerce also specialized in entertaining the masses. But the town-square aspect of the modern mall is all but lost today, save for the action you can find at Denver Pavilions, which hosts smart activities and performances throughout the year. ArtStir is the retail plaza’s signature event, a Memorial Day weekend festival of live art demonstrations, outdoor exhibitions and a market featuring dozens of local creators (which last year raised money for VSA Gallery, an organization that supports disabled artists and advocates for art space). But the Pavilions doesn’t leave the community out in the cold in the winter: At the end of the year, it hosts the annual pop-up Holiday Carousel, a whirling, twinkling slice of carnival fun that raised $5,000 through ticket sales for Food Bank of the Rockies in 2016. And then there’s the shopping, of course — the best you’ll find downtown.

Sophisticated, modern and always on the cutting edge of consumerism, Cherry Creek Shopping Center has consistently stood apart from its mostly suburban counterparts. Barely a year goes by without another sleek update to the retail mecca’s interior architecture; Cherry Creek is always adding new stores and updating the plush seating in its living-room-like gathering spaces (with TVs!). And every few seasons, of course, the lauded children’s play area gets a makeover (and we hope a decontamination). But it’s the purchasing hub’s ability to build whole new corridors within its urban infill-locked geography, taking out anchor stores once thought to be immovable objects and replacing them with sparkling monuments of retail, that keeps those cash registers ringing. Now if they would just bring back the free parking….

Everything an outlet shopper could want comes together at Castle Rock. The complex is huge, with multiple pods easily accessible from jumbo parking lots fore and aft. The variety of stores is vast, representing major national chains, local stand-alones and everything in between. Athletic-shoe junkies will be especially sated thanks to separate Nike, Converse, Puma, Vans, Adidas and Under Armour shops jammed with the latest styles as well as recent remainders that often go for a fraction of the original price. The outlets are in a great location, making them a fine place for a stroll, too — but bring your wallet, just in case.

A few years back, large sections of Broadway were crowded with antiques stores of every description. Now, many of those spaces are occupied by dispensaries, and a lot of the antique shops that remain specialize in oversized furniture that can sometimes cost as much as a used car. The Annex boasts some of these items, too, but its collection is broad and eclectic, encompassing oddball artifacts large and small: Think vintage swizzle sticks, a teapot and interlocking cups that stack up to look like the tower of a castle, and quirky metal yard animals. Not that the store is dominated by kitsch; indeed, the stock is governed by a guiding aesthetic that embraces mid-twentieth-century design rather than looking down at it. Oh, yeah: The prices are among the most reasonable on Broadway, making the Annex well worth exploring.

Readers’ Choice: Decade

Life in Colorado is casual, but sometimes you want to dress to impress. For thirty years, Denise Snyder and her staff at Mariel have helped Denver women look their best, helping them choose one-of-a-kind “fit to flatter” outfits that they can wear to work, to a wedding…or even to their own wedding. Like women of a certain age, Mariel knows how important it is to emphasize your assets, and the boutique has done some updating over the years, moving from Larimer Square to Cherry Creek, then transferring to elegant new digs earlier this year that reflect both the shop’s upscale surroundings and this city’s increasing interest in fashion. Looking good, Denver!

Readers’ Choice: Lush

As more and more chain stores stomp over Colfax, Herbs & Arts helps keep the street cool by providing a wide array of witchy goods, herbs, jewelry, pagan art and more. The shop’s deceptively small library is loaded with everything from books about crystals and herbs to old grimoires (classic magic textbooks). The staff is friendly, stylish and always willing to guide you to a fanciful sarong, a mystical sculpture or a tiny talisman, providing advice for how to conduct a ritual, how to use herbs to heal minor ailments and how to bring spirituality into your life. Whether you’re a neo-pagan, a devout witch, a connoisseur of mystical decorations or just looking for a shopping adventure, this store is pure magic.

Readers’ Choice: Twist & Shout

For years, the 16th Street Mall was a vast wasteland for shoppers, but recent moves at the Denver Pavilions has been turning that around. And when Uniqlo — a legend in Japan for its casual yet chic, minimalist, affordable clothing — opened in October 2016, the revolution was complete, at least in this two-block merchandising mecca. The Pavilions now offers one-stop shopping for cool Colorado-produced gifts (I Heart Denver), sassy grown-up fashion (Rosey’s) and sassy less grown-up fashion (H&M), with other specialty stops scattered in between. And with Uniqlo, it has a true star — not just a spot where you can browse away a lunch hour, but a real destination for savvy shoppers from all over Denver.

Readers’ Choice: I Heart Denver

The commitment here is commendable: Gone for Good has a stated mission of “reduce, resell, recycle,” and it follows through by hauling away your junk and garbage for a fee. Workers will even carry the stuff out of the house. The company then either sells it all at the store or disposes of what can’t be reused in the most non-toxic and environmentally friendly ways possible, including breaking things like wood, electronics and metal items down to their basic components for commercial use. But most of the items are sold whole: On any given day at the store, you can pick through amazing things that Gone for Good has gleaned from around the state. There’s very little organization, and the place is a bit dusty, but that’s part of its charm: In the midst of the clothes, furniture and knickknacks, you might pick up a velvet Elvis and find underneath it a set of Depression-era dishes, at prices way below those at other local thrift stores.

Readers’ Choice: ARC Thrift Store

The small but definitely sweet Sweet William Market in Stapleton is a triumph of quality over quantity, with a weird and wonderful mix of vintage, antique, retro and hip new merchandise, and just three dates planned for 2017: June 3, September 2 and a holiday market December 2-3, when it will be held at Northfield’s new indoor events center. Laid-back and welcoming, the market has a true community feel, something that founders Kim Kouba and Lizzie Kienast — Kouba still runs it — were shooting for when they started the humble flea eleven years ago. Wander among the handpicked vendors to find one-of-a-kind items, from funky jewelry and interesting clothes to found-object art and upcycled furniture. Food stalls and live music make it even easier to stick around; fortunately, there’s plenty of parking in surrounding lots and on the street.

Readers’ Choice: Denver Flea

Since it materialized less than a year ago, Witch Collective has popped up everywhere from the Mercury Cafe to the Botanic Gardens at Chatfield Farms, bringing with it handmade goods, hand-stitched art, organic snacks, spells, tinctures and herbal potions. The Witch Collective sees its mini-economy as a community connector, a way for artisans to get low-fee booth rentals, for patrons to find high-quality merchandise at affordable prices, and for both groups to work together. It’s also a socially conscious operation: Each edition of the pop-up market gives 10 percent of the proceeds to such causes as the OneOrlando Fund, Standing Rock and Black Lives Matter.

facebook.com/witchcollective

“Protest is the new brunch” in the age of Trump, according to one pundit. Indeed, it seems like every weekend, there’s a major demonstration going on somewhere in metro Denver. Not all of them have been permitted or gone smoothly, however, and that included the first protest against the new president’s “Muslim Ban” in the Great Hall at Denver International Airport, when cops threatened demonstrators with arrest because they hadn’t obtained a permit. (Protesters say they tried, but weren’t able to because the rules called for a week’s notice.) But now you can take advantage of a recent ruling in federal court that requires DIA to honor expedited permit requests. Outraged by a new executive order and want to demonstrate the next day? No problem: File for a permit with DIA and then head for the airport. Not only will you be able to reach thousands of members of the traveling public while you enjoy the comfort of the all-weather facility, but you can also grab some beer or food from one of the terminal’s eateries during a break in the action.

Readers’ Choice: Civic Center Park

Parents looking to clothe their offspring in something more durable, conscientiously sourced and distinctive than what the big-box stores have to offer might want to check out Park Hill Design’s online store. The company’s sweaters, outerwear, dresses, leggings and hats are handmade right here in Denver, using quality textiles to produce one-of-a-kind pieces. It’s all factory-free, guilt-free and stylish.

parkhilldesign.com

You won’t find any copycat projects here! Drawing on elements of Montessori education and TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior), the founders of artSPARK concocted a community-based lab where burgeoning artists of all skill levels can receive top-notch training that’s taught in context. Each of the program’s weekly classes begins with a lesson on technique; from there, students are challenged to create a unique project with their own ideas. From 45-minute parent/tot classes to longer drop-off sessions, an after-school club and tween and teen evenings, there’s something for everyone in your family. Classes work like a yoga studio’s: Purchase a package, and come in when it’s convenient for you.

Mother/daughter duo Sydney and Cornelia Peterson brought the wild spirit of the garden with them when they opened Sacred Thistle, a florist shop and cabinet of curiosities in the Golden Triangle. Their artistic, asymmetrical arrangements of overripe blossoms and elegantly curved stems and strands of greenery look like Dutch Master paintings in the round, while the rest of the shop unlocks precious secrets right and left, in the form of housemade sage bundles, syrups and bitters hand-bottled by Colorado-based Dram Apothecary, along with magnificent geodes, beeswax candles and fine silver jewelry. Because the next step after purchasing flowers is often selecting a gift. Go in beauty.

Women friends have a way of sharing stories intuitively and with love — trading lore, so to speak, while enriching one another’s lives. And Lore, which began as a craft-market vendor before moving into a Five Points brick-and-mortar in the fall of 2016, follows suit. The boutique emphasizes the same give-and-take philosophy of sharing, whether it’s over a curated cup of tea; in a class, while you’re making anything from sourdough loaves to linoleum prints; or by way of the handmade, thoughtful and restorative wares on its shelves. Lore invites you to come visit for a while and share your story, too.

At Yore, quality is definitely more important than quantity. Created by Longmont couple Ryan and Savannah Johnson, Yore makes the most of minimalism, offering home goods that are simple, functional and ethically well made. In other words, you can expect less plastic and more real materials, such as wood, stainless steel and natural fibers. You can also expect these items to be slightly pricey, but also long-lasting — and very pleasing to the eye.

Whether you’re embarking on a one-night camp-out with your family, hiking a Fourteener or touring the backcountry on your skis, you’ll need reliable and quality outdoor gear. Enter Topo Designs, a local line putting out a wide range of trendy, simple products made with Coloradans in mind. Bags, activewear and accessories reflect the sleek aesthetic inherent in the company’s flagship RiNo store, which is constructed entirely of reclaimed shipping containers. Once you’ve shopped Topo’s bags — choose from dozens of duffels, totes, messengers, daypacks, briefcases and more — stuff your selection with gear: tech Ts, popovers, flannels, puffer jackets and fleeces, along with belts, hats, footwear and accessories like tumblers, camera straps and snap wallets. Check out Topo’s blog, In the Wild, for inspiration.

The success in Colorado of such Swedish imports as IKEA and H&M boded well for Fjällräven, a respected outdoor outfitter known for its functional, durable and dependable products that opened a flagship store last fall just off the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. Not only does the store have a cool name — fjällräven means “arctic fox” in Swedish — but it also has a concept that’s easy to get behind. Since founder Ake Nordin began to market his old-fashioned innovation back in 1960 in northern Sweden, Fjällräven has spread around the globe, bringing with it good-looking garments made from recycled and sustainable materials, not to mention the company’s signature wood-frame backpacks, which are crafted to fit comfortably and distribute weight effectively.

Jewelry maker Christy Lea Payne’s reputation precedes her. Payne’s rustic, hand-stamped, impeccably styled — and often imitated — work has long flourished in established Denver boutiques like Kismet, Talulah Jones and Decade. Each and every piece is unique, which can rarely be said even of handmade jewelry in an assembly-line world. Now Payne has added her own South Broadway store to the list of local outlets, where you can go directly to the source to search for pieces that fit the wearer like a favorite old T-shirt. Hot right now at CLP: “What’s Your Word?” bangles engraved with the words “resist” or “nasty,” necklaces dangling precious stones and shamanic charms, personalized bracelets and CLP dog tags — the real kind, for your dog.

In African-American communities, barber shops and beauty salons have long served as gathering places to discuss issues of importance without fear of censorship — or worse. In Denver, an organization called Shop Talk Live is keeping that tradition alive, holding multiple meetings each month in barber shops and beauty salons around Aurora. The discussions are deep, inclusive and topical; recent examples are “President Trump. Now what?” and “Race and Islamophobia: the Intersection.” Two of the monthly meetings are co-ed and moderated by Theo Wilson, who broadcasts them live; another meeting is female-only, allowing for exploration of gender-related issues. All of the gatherings are free and open to all, with an emphasis on respecting people’s opinions, no matter what their views.

shoptalklive.org/denver

Does your life feel about as exciting as watching grass grow? Don’t underestimate that! Alek Komarnitsky, an Air Force vet and former systems administrator whose 1992 MBA thesis was titled “The Internet: The Information Superhighway of the 21st Century,” has turned the lawn of his suburban Denver home into an international superstar via watching-grass-grow.com. Komarnitsky first installed his webcam during the very dry summer of 2002 to monitor his grass while he was on vacation. He soon began leaving it up for Halloween and Christmas, and by 2005 it had become a permanent fixture at his home; he started his grass blog the next year. Today, people avidly track (and comment on) the action in Komarnitsky’s front yard — not just the growth of the grass itself (“1/25th of an inch/hour,” the website advises, “that would be hard to see in the webcam”), but also visits from the mailman, passing cars, shoveling missions and special holiday displays. Sometimes the action is so intense that Mr. Grass, as he’s known, adds other videos, including “December 14, 2016 — my son learning to parallel park.” Bonus: The theme to Rocky plays throughout (but you can also switch to bluegrass).

Watching-Grass-Grow.com

Blame it on the legal weed, the constantly growing music-festival offerings or Denver’s proximity to Boulder, but the Mile High City is quickly becoming infested with wooks. Don’t know what a wook is? Imagine every bad, mooching quality possessed by a stereotypical hippie, and there you go. Fortunately, Colorado has a Facebook group of rangers who protect us from this growing horde of dreadlocks and corndogs: Colorado Big Game Trophy Wook Hunters. Admission into the selective online hunting squad is by member invitation only, and group administrators still check your profile afterward to make sure you don’t exhibit any wookish behavior. Bagging and tagging (photographing) these beasts in the wild can become addicting after your first catch, and the group’s hilarious captions only up the ante. Hunters don’t tolerate laziness: Photos taken at wook breeding grounds, like String Cheese shows and Sancho’s Broken Arrow, are too easy and strictly prohibited. But if you have a camera and half a joint at Civic Center Park, you’ve got the makings of a perfect wook trap.

Our city is changing so fast that if you blink, you might miss a new development going up or an old spot going down. While many lament the rapid growth, it’s caused at least one happy accident: While you’re stuck in the traffic created by that massive construction project along South Broadway just past I-25, look to the west. With the Gates Rubber Factory now wiped off the map, you have a block-wide view of Denver’s back yard, complete with purple mountains and, at sunset, some pretty amazing colors to offset the kindergarten decor of the building to the east. Enjoy it while you can.

DRCOG’s Denver Regional Visual Resources Project, accessible from its website, is more than just another grab bag of obscure statistics and fun facts. It’s an online repository of interactive data and infographics that locals can use to look at land-use trends and glean the demographic details of their own neighborhoods; you can even see what rush hour will look like in 2040. Denver is changing rapidly, and this is one of the best tools available for trying to keep up with what’s happening down the block or on a regional level.

drcog.org/services-and-resources/denver-regional-visual-resources

Enjoy the exhibits at the volunteer-staffed visitors’ center, then take a short stroll up the hogback to one of the most important dinosaur-track sites in the country. Dinosaur Ridge is a trip back 100 million years in time, to an ancient seaway populated by carnivorous megafauna. But it also offers a stunning view of the metro area’s past and future: the remnants of the historic Rooney Ranch in the foreground, burgeoning suburban growth and Green Mountain open space battling for primacy beyond that, the city and the plains in the distance.

Poet Mathias Svalina says that his Dream Delivery Service “allows me to do my three favorite things: write all day; bike around town in the middle of the night, when the streets are empty; and be weird without consequence.” But that’s only part of the story. Svalina does, indeed, deliver dreams — individually written prose poems with a surreal and dreamlike quality — to the doorstep of a client nightly for a month, for a reasonable fee. Svalina’s own dreams aren’t usually very interesting, he says, so he takes extra pains with yours. Since last fall, Svalina has been on the road, taking his service to a handful of other cities, but he’ll be back in Denver this summer, making your dream of hand-delivered dreams come true.

dreamdeliveryservice.tumblr.com

You think cops live on the wild side? You haven’t really seen the seamy underbelly of the city until you’ve shadowed one of the city’s public-health inspectors as they check out whether restaurants, tattoo parlors and swimming pools are meeting required safety standards or investigate the source of a neighborhood noise complaint. You must apply in advance (and pass a background check if you’re interested in child-care facilities) and there’s no guarantee what kind of inspection you may be in for, but the agency tries to accommodate the curious public. Just be sure to follow the rules, like the one about no free treats from restaurant owners.

denvergov.org

Scotland raised him, Denver pays him. Scott Wilson’s high-flying photos of downtown Denver have propelled him to the top of the Instagramming pack in 2017. Wilson has the advantage of working from one of the highest office buildings in the city, on the 46th floor, and many of his stunning photographs are taken from there. “Very rarely am I shooting once the sun is up,” he says. “It’s always dusk and dawn.” See more work by Wilson at the Denver Photo Art Gallery in the Art District on Santa Fe, where he is a resident artist.

@wilsonaxpe

Readers’ Choice: @1000thingstodoindenver

The Central branch library’s digital-media lab has mics and mixers, keyboards and guitars — and you don’t even need a library card to make use of the facilities. Sessions are walk-in and limited to one hour; the studio has become so popular that the library has launched a second recording space in its Community Technology Center. The Corky Gonzales branch library also has a well-equipped studio, suitable for virtual deejaying, beatmaking and podcasting.

denverlibrary.org/idealab

It’s ironic that CATS — the Canine Airport Therapy Squad — is all about dogs, but there’s no question that airports can be stressful places. Sometimes you work your way through the TSA line with your bare feet and plastic baggie full of toiletries only to find that your flight’s been bumped back by three hours. When that happens, you just want to stare into a puppy’s eyes and get a little of the lovin’ that only man’s (and woman’s) best friend can deliver. And there’s nothing ironic about that. Over the past year, the Denver airport’s squad of certified therapy dogs and their volunteer handlers have roamed the concourses, offering harried travelers dog hugs and sweet relief. The program has been so successful that it’s been expanded…to more dogs, not cats.

Changing Denver is well named. The podcast, helmed by Paul Karolyi, does its best to make sense of the explosive growth currently taking place in the Mile High City by examining its impact through a historical lens. Recent topics include the roots of Lakeside Amusement Park and Denver’s Civic Center, the persecution of the homeless community in the Arapahoe Square area, an update on Stoner Hill and an interview with Denver city planner Courtland Hyser. Karolyi sets the tone with a polite but persistent interviewing style that doesn’t settle for easy answers. After each episode, listeners will feel smarter even as they learn a little more about the rapidly evolving place where they live.

changingdenver.com

Readers’ Choice: Jon of All Trades

Waze and other phone apps can be absolute lifesavers (or at least time-savers) when it comes to navigating Denver’s streets. But a lot of the information from which most of these services draw is collected by city agencies — and why not go straight to the source? Go Denver, from the City of Denver, lets users choose their preferred ways to travel to assorted destinations, compare alternate routes, plan trips to new places, see detailed views of how to get there, and even track commute history to find out if what once seemed like the best approach has gotten worse.

godenverapp.com/app

Readers’ Choice: Google Maps

Coloradans love hitting the road, but there are plenty of factors that can turn a freewheeling adventure into a nightmare, including road construction, changing conditions, storms that overstay their welcome — and did we mention road construction? To help drivers avoid such issues, the Colorado Department of Transportation’s COTrip provides free e-mail and text-message alerts plus route information and interactive maps complete with access to live cameras located across the system that let folks see in real time the pitfalls they’re about to encounter.

cotrip.org/home.htm

Readers’ Choice: Google Maps

Like most daily newspapers, the Denver Post has been hit with an onslaught of economic challenges that have caused its staff to shrink. But it remains the largest news operation in the state, and its outreach via Twitter is truly impressive. The Post has dozens of Twitter accounts beyond @DenverPost, including @DenverPostBrk (breaking news), @TheSpot (political news), @DpostSports (sports news), @DenverEntertain (entertainment news) and even @DenverPostLite, for those who only want to get information about the biggest events of the day and would rather not be burdened with the other stuff. At this time in history, we need a strong media more than ever, and supporting the Post with follows and clicks is one way for Coloradans to do their part.

denverpost.com/twitter

For a while, Complete Colorado didn’t seem long for this world. When driving force Todd Shepherd stepped down late last year in favor of a position with the Washington Examiner in the nation’s capital, plenty of fans feared the site would go the way of so many other Internet destinations. But, no: Under Justin Longo, Shepherd’s longtime partner, Complete Colorado remains a great one-stop destination for anyone who wants to know what’s happening in this state. The frequently updated assemblage of links, from media sources of every description, includes plenty of politics. And while many of the voices come from a conservative perspective, the results are hardly one-sided: No fake news here.

completecolorado.com

Readers’ Choice: Denverite

Many major media outlets in Denver offer weather apps, and all of them do the basics of letting users know when the atmospheric conditions are about to get ugly. But our favorite is Pinpoint Weather, from the combined forces of Fox31 and CW2, which is designed for practicality: It’s clear, straightforward and easy to navigate, and the alerts that go out follow suit. Users aren’t flooded with extraneous “breaking news” about the third day in a row with a forecast of sunny and 75 — but when something major is actually about to happen, Pinpoint Weather is ready.

Readers’ Choice: 9News

Kyle Clark, a longtime 9News anchor currently helming the weeknight program Next With Kyle Clark, is not only a frequent tweeter, but a hilariously snarky one. Recent examples include, “Not saying we always see eye-to-eye, but at least @AdeleArakawa has never pulled a gun on me on set,” “I’m told being the #1 show in your time slot is overrated” and “Come for the journalism. Stay for the passive aggressive commentary on the state of the media.” That’s one invitation you won’t regret accepting.

@KyleClark

Even those who may not be as politically progressive as Boulder-area rep Jared Polis will find plenty to like in his Twitter conversations, which address current events and developments in a notably lively and plainspoken way. In response to a tweet quoting a source who claimed that if the House failed to pass its replacement for Obamacare, President Donald Trump would go crazy, Polis tweeted, “Too late, he already is.” After Moonlight scored a surprise triumph at this year’s Academy Awards, he responded, “Yeah, but La La Land won the popular vote.” And after news broke that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had used the name “Wayne Tracker” as an e-mail alias, Polis slipped in a coy Anthony Weiner reference: “What I really want to know is did Wayne Tracker catfish Carlos Danger?” That last joke is a lot hipper than anything that would occur to most politicians, which is argument enough to follow Polis’s lead.

@jaredpolis

Ironwood left a hole on South Broadway — and in our hearts — when the boutique’s owner, Alyson Two Eagles, shut the shop’s doors on New Year’s Eve. But before she did, she made sure the space would live on with suitable replacement: the different yet vaguely similar Rosehouse, a plant store, gift emporium and apothecary conceived and run by Lynn Flanagan-Till, an herbalist and co-founder of the R.L. Linden line of natural beauty products. If you ever wanted to really know the secret lives of plants, Rosehouse is the place to learn: Flanagan-Till and her educated staff will sell you ready-made botanicals or give you tips on how to use plants to mix your own lotions, oils and remedies. Look for the shop to spill out onto the street with greenery when planting season begins in earnest, and don’t forget to wander indoors to look at changing art exhibits, gifts, garden supplies, teas and potions.

Read it and reap: We haven’t found better deals on flower in the Mile High City than the ones at Colorado Harvest Company. For the past year and a half, this dispensary has made a practice of picking a special strain out of a selection of up to twenty, then selling that strain for only $120 an ounce. And recently, Colorado Harvest made a good deal even better by dropping the price of these special strains to $109 an ounce. That’s the same price that some places would charge for a quarter of an ounce, and it’s an incredible bargain considering the quality of the bud, which is every bit as impressive as many of those on the top shelf.

Readers’ Choice: The Green Solution

The name is layered with meaning, as is every tattoo created in this space. Bound by Design is a veteran tattoo and piercing shop that’s definitely made its mark on Denver. Nearly twenty great tattoo artists — including Travis Koenig, Alissa Kendall, Kyle Porter, Jonathan Love, Corey Strange and Harry Catsis — use Bound by Design as their home base, and the staff is welcoming and friendly. You’re bound to have a good experience here.

Readers’ Choice: Black Voodoo Tattoo Parlour

Want to get that tattoo before you lose your nerve? Head to Landmark Tattoo — quickly. This Capitol Hill tattoo parlor has five full-time tattoo artists, who create some of the most stunning, wildly imaginative black ink and American traditional tattoos in the city. And although many fans book appointments with the artists months in advance, the shop also takes walk-ins. You might have to wait a bit to sit down with an amazing artist like Seth Brown, Ben Thompson, Josh Ford or Nikolas Pew, but you can always pass the time chatting with owner and veteran graffiti artist Jher Seno.

Readers’ Choice: Black Voodoo Tattoo Parlour

Picking the best strain Denver developed last year is like a grandmother picking her favorite grandkid: Everyone walks away with hurt feelings. Gorilla Glue had one helluva 2016, the Girl Scout Cookie family tree only grows larger, and strains with the word “Alien” continue to invade our dispensaries. Yet for all-around quality, none of them topped Tiger’s Milk, a resin-glazed delicacy that our strain reviewer described as “the perfect send-off” and “one of the most nurturing strains” he’s ever tried. Bred by Bodhi Seeds and now available around Denver, this sweet-loving indica balances Appalachia and Bubba Kush genetics into a deep indica high without the drowsy debilitation. Its delicious blend of hash, vanilla and lavender notes makes it an even rarer breed, so pounce on a nug whenever you can.

In the early days of recreational sales in Colorado, a few companies popped up to show pot tourists around town. Colorado Cannabis Tours did such a good job that it’s now added six more locations, including Washington, D.C, Oakland, San Francisco, Portland and Las Vegas. Founder Michael Eymer and co-owner Heidi Keyes have contracted with a series of hotels that allow tourists to use cannabis (but don’t advertise it), but that’s just the start of the fun. Their tours load a thirty-person bus for a bud-filled bash that includes a visit to a dispensary and a grow operation, a glass-blowing demonstration, mid-trip munchies and gravity bong hits aboard the bus. And after a long day of smoking weed and touring the town, Colorado Cannabis offers even more options for weed-friendly fun, including such world-renowned classes as Puff, Pass and Paint, Cooking With Cannabis, and Puff, Pass and Pottery. All aboard!

coloradocannabistours.com

Readers’ Choice: My 420 Tours

Coda Signature is named after a defining moment in music, and this company, founded in April 2016 in an already saturated area of the marijuana industry, defines quality in edibles. With music as the inspiration and chocolate as the medium, head chocolatier Lauren Gockley, who studied with Valrhona Chocolates, has created some marijuana marvels. There’s the Crescendo Collection, with three flavors of ten-milligram chocolates (Juniper Lemon, Earl Gray and Burnt Caramel Truffles), and a Forte collection, with Hazelnut, Passion Fruit Szechuan and Tiramisu truffles. Each piece of chocolate is a mini-masterpiece, with intricate designs decorating the exterior. This is some of the best chocolate we’ve ever tasted, and it will definitely have you hearing beautiful music.

codasignature.com

Readers’ Choice: NectarBee

Over the past year, a parade of celebrities have slapped their names on cannabis lines that now sell at recreational stores around Denver. Among other moves, Snoop Dogg paired up with LivWell and Willie Nelson purchased Denver Relief. But the most impressive celebrity-endorsed cannabis has to be the Tommy Chong line grown by Verde Naturals, Chong’s Choice. Unlike so many big companies, Verde Naturals specializes in small-batch bud that’s brilliantly executed. Chong’s Choice doesn’t rely on flashy packaging or gimmicks; the bud, which you can find at a handful of dispensaries around town, speaks for itself. The three Chong’s Choice strains are Grape Stomper, an indica; Durban Haze, a sativa; and Blue Dream, a hybrid — but all are definitely choice!

chongschoice.com

Support for legal marijuana is growing among this country’s senior citizens, and chances are good your grandmother won’t be put off by weed — just by some of the seedier parts of town where dispensaries are located. But Good Chemistry, a welcoming and non-intimidating place, should put Grandma at ease. At both of its locations, including the classy Aurora space, the staff doesn’t simply throw “Indica” and “Sativa” on the jars; it breaks down the feeling of each strain into four categories: sleep, relief, stimulation and relaxation. Those are terms even Granny can get behind.

Readers’ Choice: The Green Solution

Your choices are somewhat limited in metro Denver after 7 p.m., the current closing time for all dispensaries in the Mile High City. But at least some suburbs have taken advantage of Denver’s constraints. Aurora, Edgewater, Glendale and Mountain View are all within a few minutes’ drive of Denver and allow their dispensaries to stay open until late in the evening. Still, you’ll pay the price for their extended hours — so be sure to go to a place where you’ll get your money’s worth. Open until midnight in Glendale, Kind Love provides the late-night convenience of Carl’s Jr. with a strain lineup that’s much more Ruth’s Chris. Its powerhouse menu of Alien Rock Candy, Durban Poison, Ecto Cooler, Cookies and Cream, Sherbert, Tiger’s Milk and more are sure to impress any weed snob before dirt-napping them, and its clones provide home-growers with some of the best genetics in town.

Readers’ Choice: The Green Solution

If it weren’t for the word “cannabis” in the title, you might think Oasis Superstore was some giant wholesale pool-supply store from both the name and the size of the locations. But while the products and smells are very different from styrofoam noodles and chlorine, this two-shop homegrown dispensary group has taken the big-box concept to a whole new big-bud level. The indecisive may have a hard time choosing just one strain from the 200-plus available; Oasis definitely has a bud for every occasion. And with stickers designating which of Oasis’s dozen wholesale growers provided the flower you’re smoking, you can start watching for your favorites at other dispensaries that sell wholesale strains. Trust us: There are a lot more out there than you think.

Readers’ Choice: The Green Solution

We love it when shops team up in a space; as with co-working facilities, food courts and coffeehouse offices, it squeezes more good into a building, encouraging more meaningful conversations and better shopping. RiNo’s Backyard on Blake is one of those places, with its blend of retail, restaurants, services and entrepreneurial studio spaces. And the marriage of Judith & Joe and La Lovely Vintage within its walls makes things that much cozier. At Judith & Joe, you can shop for new USA-made, sustainable, casual duds for him and her (and used records, btw!), while at La Lovely Vintage, the brick-and-mortar offshoot of a traveling boutique, you’ll find curated vintage clothing and antique objects. Be hip, be retro: Suite 100’s got you covered.

judithandjoeshop.com

lalovelyvintage.com

At its spot in northwest Denver, Doctor’s Orders stocks an entire fridge full of products from such heavy-hitting companies as Craft, Chronic Creations, Viola, Cannabis Maximus and more, which typically provide Doctor’s Orders with several different types of concentrates, including wax, shatter, live resin and even distillate. The staff is friendly and knowledgable, and all concentrates are $10 off if you get to the shop between 8 and 10 a.m. At Doctor’s Orders, the early bird gets the dabs!

Frosted Leaf has three locations in Denver, and all of them boast a huge selection of concentrates, with selections from Mahatma, O.pen and O.pen Craft Reserve, Rosin by Verde Natural, Rockin’ Extracts Sugar Wax, Quest Concentrates, Pax Era pods from the Lab, Mary’s Medicinals bootlegger CBD distillate, Harmony concentrates, GH Labs, Evolabs, moonrocks, kaviar, Craft Concentrates, Concentrate Supply Company and Chronic Creations. It’s the largest selection in the city, and while Frosted Leaf might not have the cheapest prices, most things are well worth the cost. Besides, the stores will always have some kind of deal on three grams in addition to the most impressive wax lineup you may ever see.

frostedleaf.com

Readers’ Choice: The Green Solution

Olio was the brainchild of concentrates guru Wade Sanders, one of the founders of 710 Labs, who split off from the 710 brand last year and decided to create a new company. Based in Colorado and selling only small batches of its insanely high-quality concentrates — live resin, sauce or distillate — to select dispensaries, Olio has quickly gained momentum. The Olio team is dedicated to perfecting terpene flavor and achieving high THC percentages; try the products for yourself at Silver Stem, Colorado Next Buds, Good Chemistry and THC Boulder.

dabolio.com

Readers’ Choice: NectarBee

When new owners took over an early dispensary in northwest Denver last year, it changed the name to something short and simple, something that perfectly captures the mission of the quaint storefront. The Joint isn’t the kind you smoke — but it certainly sells plenty of these. The Joint was voted the number-one dispensary in Denver by Leafly in 2016; it has a friendly staff and a killer selection of bud. Be sure to try Voodoo, the signature strain, and ask a budtender for a look at the kaviar. Don’t pass this Joint!

Readers’ Choice: Fresh Baked

Headrush Smoke Shop keeps its head down compared to other cannabis-related enterprises around the city, but that’s part of its charm. The humble one-room storefront harks back to the days when head shops kept a low profile, but the quality here is high. Glass and water pipes are stacked on shelves that extend the entire length of the shop, and you’ll find a wide array of lifestyle items including rolling papers, incense, detox products and grinders. Since it opened in 2009, Headrush has become a staple in Capitol Hill, known for its affordable prices and exceptional customer service. You could say it’s on a roll.

Readers’ Choice: Purple Haze

A welcoming atmosphere is perhaps the most understated yet crucial characteristic of a good barber shop, and Steel & Lather Barber Co. has achieved the perfect mix of comfort and coolness. The LoDo location definitely has a business-casual vibe, while the Capitol Hill space is a little more neighborly, but both treat customers like old friends. Patrons are treated to a cold brew while they wait, and the conversation is constantly flowing as Steel & Lather’s classically trained barbers mix modern styles with time-honored looks. Owned and operated by brothers Moses and Michael Lucero and their good friend Sean Martinez — all born-and-raised Denverites and proud graduates of Emily Griffith’s barber program — Steel & Lather stays on the cutting edge of style without being pretentious, maintaining a true local barber shop vibe. Still, this ain’t your grandpa’s barber shop: While walk-ins are welcome, appointments must be booked online.

Thirteenth Avenue — once a beacon for weirdos and a magnet for suburban teens aching to rub elbows with bona fide punks — has lost many of its eccentric tenants over the years, but Wax Trax remains. The record shop doesn’t need to try hard to be cool: It embodies cool, with racks and rows of hand-picked albums, brand-new releases and collector’s items expertly organized and resting comfortably in well-kept but ephemera-strewn rooms. Like any good music-selling institution, Wax Trax is staffed with knowledgeable, fairly approachable clerks, most of whom are in bands or were in bands (maybe even as an original member of your favorite band). Growth be damned: Wax Trax is a tried-and-true neighborhood record store that stays true to cool, despite the modernization all around it.

We see a transformative psychic experience in your future, if you make a date with tarot-card reader, priestess, witch and spiritual guidance counselor Rory Lula McMahan. After nearly twenty years of tarot-card reading using the most classic form of cards, the Rider-Waite deck, McMahan will quickly tune in to your energy. Get a reading from her at Spirit Ways, RitualCravt or by scheduling a private appointment; she also runs Psychic Beauty, a metaphysical business that hosts classes on weekends.

720-218-5781
thesacredtable.com

Longing for a full hand sleeve tattoo, but don’t have the pain tolerance to get one? Henna Luna to the rescue! She specializes in temporary, safe henna tattoos that are as intricate and intensely vivid as the real thing — but they hurt less and last only a week or two. Henna Luna can take any tattoo design and make it her own; her portfolio includes everything from traditional Indian wedding hand tattoos to mandalas, animals, sacred geometry, flowers, all-seeing eyes and more. Henna Luna can be found Monday through Thursday at All Sacred Tattoo in Edgewater; she does private parties, too.

720-612-7782
hennaluna.com

Unlike so many cities around the country, Denver is blessed with a plethora of great places to purchase music on new and vintage vinyl. Too bad the prices at the trendier joints can take some of the fun out of the process. Angelo’s isn’t on the radar of most hipsters, but it should be. The mini-chain has four stores in the metro area, including outlets in Capitol Hill, at 937 East Colfax; in Aurora, at 16711 East Iliff; and in Wheat Ridge, at 3350 Youngfield. Our favorite, though, is the South Broadway location, in part because of the deals offered on used 45s. The outlet has stacks and stacks of seven-inch wax, with the vast majority of the offerings priced at 99 cents — and if you buy three, you get the fourth one free. It’s a great way to feed your vinyl habit without breaking your budget.

After years of building up her line of organic, chemical-free botanicals and sweet-smelling beauty products and gaining a national reputation, Brandy Monique finally opened her own Fig+Yarrow storefront in Highland. Even though some of her products are now available at Target stores, this is a sweet spot where you can check out the merchandise on a more human level. Choose from all-natural body scrubs, masks, complexion waters, moisturizers, mists and balms in this tidy shop.

All is not lost for metro-area model railroaders: Caboose Hobbies, which closed its doors last year, has been resurrected under new ownership as simply Caboose and relocated to Lakewood, near the Federal Center. Retooled to be more inviting to enthusiasts old and new, with a bigger presence online and on social media, the new Caboose strives to keep an old-fashioned hobby alive, up to date and vital in the age of bullet trains, jet airplanes and rockets to Mars. Whether you’re three years old and ready for your first Thomas the Tank Engine toy or an old hand with a cool setup in the basement, Caboose is still the local go-to.

Sew as you go: Sewing teacher Tish Gance created Sewbago, a mobile version of her HISS Studio (a previous Best of Denver winner), and now she’s taken her show entirely on the road, bringing sewing classes directly to private parties or parking lots and street corners all over the metro area. Gance’s classic ’72 Winnebago Chieftain is outfitted with sewing machines (you can also bring your own) and space to accommodate three students at a time; classes include such basics as Introduction to Sewing and the Doomsday Class, where you’ll learn to sew on a button, fix a hem and other skills needed to make it through the zombie apocalypse. Course registration closes 24 hours ahead of each class; visit the website for more information.

sewbago.com

Hygge fits the crafty hipster crowd like a colorful, hand-knit glove, and that’s what this site is all about: the handmade, the cozy, the palpable evidence of human comfort in a loving household. A Danish import as soft as a sheepskin rug, the homey design philosophy plays up cocoa and candles, fresh flowers and a relaxed lifestyle. Denver-based online emporium Hygge Life has it down, thanks to careful research by founders Alexandra Gove and Koen van Renswoude, who’ve rounded up European handwoven blankets and pillows, fringed kilim-print Turkish towels, adorable baby mocs, candles galore, sheepskins and other Hygge-esque merch, all in one place for your slow, happy approval. Don’t worry — we won’t bother trying to tell you how the name is pronounced. Skaal!

hyggelife.com

Got a hankering to hammer nails into something? Now apartment dwellers and other Denverites lacking tools or pinched for space can bang away all they like at I Made It, a fully outfitted community woodworking space that you can use for a per-project fee. Familiarize yourself with the shop and its tools during an orientation session, then book shop time if you choose to take on your own pet project (with one-on-one help as needed) or take a class (projects vary from cutting boards to coffee tables). It’s all no muss, no fuss, and you can leave the sawdust behind.

Craft workshops are a mixed bag, and sometimes all you have to show for your time and money is a misshapen ashtray or, worse, a plate you painted with the same design everyone else tried. But everyone can use another T-shirt, especially if it’s one you printed yourself. Ink Lounge, a working screen-printing studio run by pros Stu and Nicky Alden, encourages teamwork during a couple of hours of good, messy fun that leave you with up to eight shirts (or tea towels, totes, pillow shams or whatever). Workshops are tailored to all age groups, plus parties or private lessons, and you go home with something you’ll use again and again.

29 South Fox Street
303-321-7101
inklounge.com

Readers’ Choice: Fabric Bliss

Since Fancy Tiger opened its doors on Broadway more than ten years ago, Jaime Jennings and Amber Corcoran have built it up to be the gold standard of Denver craft stores, bringing a modern DIY spin to the handiwork of the ages while also creating a safe space where the new crafting community can meet. Fancy Tiger is your one-stop shop for design-savvy fabrics; the latest yarns, patterns, notions, books and kits; and an ongoing slate of classes where you can put your purchases to work and improve your crafting skills.

Readers’ Choice: Fabric Bliss

Yes, there is such a thing as a thrift store for craft supplies. Golden’s Craft Box gathers its wares at estate sales and from individuals liquidating collections of fabrics, yarns, rubber stamps, card stock and more, then offers it to you for quilting, sewing, scrapbooking, card-making and just about any other kind of crafting you can think of. An appointment is necessary if you’re aching to rid yourself of your own crafting scraps, but be prepared for a wait list; once the staff gets to your pile, they’ll compensate you for whatever’s salable and donate the rest to charity. Instead of a big box, try the Craft Box the next time you’re looking for cheap craft supplies.

Crafted Life no longer operates a brick-and-mortar in Lafayette, but you can still find it on the Internet, where beginners can purchase DIY kits with all they need to knit an octopus or embroider a mermaid, and more seasoned crafters can find supplies for embroidery, knitting, needle felting, sewing and other crafts of choice. And just to make sure those living the crafted life in real time have an outlet for their handmade goods, Crafted Life hosts a series of craft markets in Old Town Lafayette every last Saturday of the month from May to August; it also has vendor space at Lafayette’s second-Friday Art Night Out events, in Old Town from May through September. Live it, make it, love it.

720-580-3240
crafted.life

If you’re contemplating your first ink, there’s nowhere better to get comfortable than Ritual Tattoo & Gallery. Owned by William Crandall and Sandi Calistro, this shop, hidden away on Jason Street in Sunnyside, boasts a roster of nine talented artists — Rochelle Marion, Rachel Paton, Sal Tino, Casey O, Jake Diamond and David Robinson among them — who all bring special points of view to tattoo designs. The space is decked out with original artwork by the artists, and a tiny pop-up of its witchy sister shop, RitualCravt, sits at the entrance, filled with talismans and charms that will help fortune smile on your new tat. Fair warning: Many of these artists, including Crandall and Calistro, are booked out six months in advance or more. But while you wait for your appointment to come up, you’ll have plenty of time to decide on the perfect design. You can call for a consultation on that, too.

Readers’ Choice: Black Voodoo Tattoo Parlour

RAFT Colorado touts itself as a resource for teaching, and that’s undeniably true. But it also stocks an amazing collection of weird stuff at ultra-reasonable prices that imaginative instructors can turn into teaching tools — like old coin receptacles from Colorado casinos that make great stacking cups, or VHS tape boxes that can be given new life as pencil containers. The list goes on and on and on, and because donations come in every day, the stock is constantly changing. As a bonus, the staff is filled with creative thinkers who can help educators overwhelmed by the many odds and ends arrayed before them come up with new, out-of-the-box ideas for how to take their classrooms to the next level.

Clean and uncluttered seems like a new and unexpected concept in Denver’s gritty vinyl-record-shopping scene, but Austin Matthews’s Recollect Records, which opened last year in a former Golden Triangle gallery space, is all that and more. Specializing in vintage funk, soul, jazz and R&B platters, the pristinely white-walled shop is a veritable treasure chest for discerning collectors seeking the really good stuff. Sure, that means some of it is pricey, but here’s the spin: There’s a $3 used/as-is room in back, where you can pick and choose to your heart’s delight without breaking your budget. Happy hunting.

If you’re the sort who counts the days until the next Denver Public Library used book sale, you were thrilled when the DPL opened a year-round store at the Denver Central Library. Red Chair Bookshop takes its name from the Donald Lipski public-art sculpture “The Yearling,” which looms outside on the library lawn; it gets its stock from donated books, CDs and DVDs, and even markets a few library-related gift items, including little red chairs. Check it out: Red Chair is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Vintage shop Curating the Cool could be the coolest store in Colorado — but you don’t need to drive to Lafayette to understand why. With its Box of Cool program, you can go online, choose a price and a theme (choices include Colorado-made, art and decor, oddities, music and LPs, as well as other scintillating niches) and Curating the Cool does the rest: It will pack up a box tailor-made to your request, containing handpicked, one-of-a-kind items curated according to your taste, as discerned from a quick survey you fill out when you order. Take a chance: Serendipity is so very cool.

For quirky gifts that give back in a big way, head to Hope Tank, where owner Erika Righter hawks a wide range of items: one-of-a-kind T-shirts, jewelry, men’s gifts, and books for kids delving into timely issues surrounding the environment, women in history and more. A healthy portion of Righter’s inventory is locally sourced — she works with about thirty Denver-area businesses and makers — and art by locals is for sale, too. In addition, cuts of all purchases made at this social enterprise are donated to one of the nonprofit partners in Hope Tank’s network — and everything has a sticker on it to let gift givers and receivers know which organization they’ve impacted. Whatever you buy, you’ll walk out of this boutique feeling doubly blessed.

This town’s museums and cultural facilities are as careful when stocking their gift shops as they are when booking their shows, choosing items that will expand on the institution’s core mission…and maybe make some cash, too. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science gift shop does both, with a comprehensive library, a captivating collection of objects that encourage further exploration, and a wide selection of toys for all ages. Prices are reasonable — you won’t break the bank buying a kitschy but educational item to quiet your kid, and maybe a little something to stimulate your mind, too. And you don’t have to worry about breaking things, either: The staff lets you play with the toys, crack open the books and shop in a hands-on, brains-on sort of way.

Readers’ Choice: Denver Art Museum

Ready to fly the coop for a drive out of Denver? You couldn’t do better than journey to the charming Boulder County town of Niwot, where you’ll find Little Bird, jewelry-making townie Liz Gould’s pretty boutique on the Old Town drag. This is the ladies’ shop of your dreams, strewn with beautiful and handmade things in just the right arrangements. Bring a friend or two and browse together through displays dripping with jewelry, scarves and wearable art. You can make a day and a night of it, too: Niwot’s got enough fine dining, galleries and boutiques to do so, and the little town also hosts monthly First Friday artwalks. Go forth and discover.

Whether it’s clothing or canvas, Vanessa Barcus, the owner of Goldyn, knows how to curate. For nearly a decade, she’s filled her boutique with art-minded pieces, including cutting-edge jewelry from the Woods, minimalist apparel from Shaina Mote, the classic modes of designer Helmut Lang and American-made denim by Simon Miller. But the real secret to Goldyn’s upscale but approachable vibe comes from its connection with the local creative community: Painter Katy Zimmerman has designed a window display for the store, and her prints are always in stock and available for purchase, as are Kristen Hatgi-Sink’s black-and-white photos and the meditational drawings of Gemma Danielle. Special shows and parties round out Goldyn’s offerings. This place is dressed for success.

Stepping into the 5 Star Salt Caves can feel like an out-of-this-world experience: Here you are on South Pearl Street, but the soft pink glow of the place looks like the surface of another planet, complete with a fine, sandy salt floor. The state’s first-ever salt cave is packed with the purported healing benefits of — you guessed it — salt, which is said to neutralize the electromagnetic radiation emanating off of our phones and computers and help to clean pollutants out of our respiratory system. The most immediate and gratifying perk of this healing zone is its calm: Each fifty-minute session at the 5 Star Salt Caves feels like it flies by, leaving frazzled patrons refreshed and recharged after a mid-day meditation in the briniest of seclusions.