Best Hole-in-the-Wall Comics Store 2009 | Kilgore Used Books and Comics | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Hole-in-the-Wall Comics Store

Kilgore Used Books and Comics

The local comix community is small but dedicated, and you could say the same of Kilgore's, the tiny used bookstore shoehorned into a space along 13th Avenue. Opened last summer by Capitol Hill Books veteran Luke Janes and his pal, Dan Stafford, Kilgore — named for the iconic Kurt Vonnegut character Kilgore Trout — fills a much-needed niche. Featuring a carefully handpicked selection of books, especially those with a classic sci-fi or underground bent (think Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick and Charles Bukowski), it also specializes in comix, graphic novels and zines, both local and esoteric. Janes and Stafford have also hosted special events showcasing Denver cartoonists such as John Porcellino and Noah Van Sciver. And you always get something for your trouble at Kilgore: They give away a comic-art bookmark with every purchase.

Best Home Tours

Denver's Old House Society

Older homes are typically loaded with character, and some people love nothing better than to stroll through a neighborhood and check out the architecture. For them, there Denver's Old House Society and its guided walking tours. The outings are hosted by Denver homeowners and designed by the nonprofit's boardmembers (who collectively have architectural, construction, historic preservation and zoning experience), and there are refreshments afterward. There's no better way for the old-house lover to spend an afternoon. It's good to be home.

Best Indoor Flea Market

Oh, So Charming Cottage

Behind the quaint pink door of this, well, charming shop, you'll find an ongoing flea-full of quality antiques and vintage decor. But like any true flea market worth its dust, Oh, So Charming only opens its pink door for one weekend monthly, offering the same kind of changing selection you'd find on the street, under an umbrella, at one of the town's periodic outdoor markets. Co-owners Melissa Bragg, Gwen Arnold and Marianne Baldwin began their business at outdoor fairs and decided to try a more permanent outlet after hearing the same old question — "Do you have a shop?" — asked over and over again. This alternative, housed in a renovated mouse-gray bungalow, offers the best of both worlds, every second Friday and Saturday of the month.

Best Ladies' Bike Accessory

Betty Basket Liners

Once Betty Basket Liners creator Tara Thomas Byrnes got her first cruiser bike, she couldn't wait to accessorize. So she sewed herself the first Betty Basket Liner, and damn if it wasn't as cute as a button! Marketing them was a no-brainer: Currently available online-only in a few patchwork combinations of cheery fabrics, the well-stitched, fully-lined bike accessories come in two sizes — square to fit traditional wire baskets and oval to fit wicker and mesh versions — and include extra pockets, a cell-phone cubby and a built-in key ring. With a Betty Basket Liner, you'll really be on a roll. 

Best Literary Survivor on the Move

Fahrenheit's Books

We had doubts when one of the most enjoyable used bookstores on the Broadway scene headed a few blocks south last year, into a smaller space. But fear not. The stock isn't quite as wide-ranging as in the former locale, but Fahrenheit's remains one of the most eclectic, surprising and offbeat places to browse away an afternoon, whether you're hunting for an Edward Bunker first edition, a Selby softcover or a romp through medieval history. Thankfully, many of the vintage paperbacks from the 1950s and 1960s, rich in hard-boiled and quasi-Beat writers, have survived the move, too.

Best Literary Survivor Staying Put

The Hermitage Bookshop

Adam Steininger
So if print is dead, how has Denver's most venerable antiquarian book dealer managed to hawk his fine leather wares — in upscale Cherry Creek digs, no less — for all these years? Opened in 1973, the Hermitage has survived the rise of amazon.com and the death of countless publishing houses, as well as a stint on one of the less-lovely blocks of East Colfax, and now boasts one of the city's most reliable inventories of first editions, fine art books, Western Americana, military history — and, of course, books on books. Proprietor Robert Topp heads a knowledgeable and friendly staff that keeps true bibliophiles coming back for more.

Best Masks

ArtsMyths

Fire eater, belly dancer and mask maker Tiffany Smyth is young in years, but her skills as a craftsperson seem as old as the Renaissance, which is a clear influence for her. And it's a potent combination of youth and wisdom that goes into creating the flights of fancy she builds from leather, feathers and beads — from the most realistic elf ears you've ever attached to your head to larger-than-life black-light dragon masks with fiery haloes of flame. Lightweight and absorbent, they are also as comfortable as they are impressive to look at. This is your go-to, the next time you need to look smashing at a masquerade.

Best Milliner

Go Go Chapeaux

Hat-making is one of those old arts that, in the age of mass production and cookie-cutter style, are fast becoming lost. But that didn't stop milliner Erin Saboe from breaking the mold. Her impetus? Flat-out love. Saboe, who studied the milliner's craft at FIT in New York, loves hats and wants the world to know how wonderful a good one really is, which is why she opened Go Go Chapeaux. Here, she sells her own headwear — from popular newsboys to wide-brimmed pool hats in cheery fabrics — reshapes and customizes old ones, and continues her one-woman crusade to put a hat on every head.

Best New Store on Broadway

Sweet Action Ice Cream

Danielle Lirette
This hoppin' stretch of Broadway has been more than ripe for an ice cream store for a long time, and finally, Sweet Action, with its open-air storefront and funky flavors, delivers the goods. Creamery mavens Samantha Kopicko and Chia Basinger start with some fresh basics — milk and cream from Diamond D Natural Dairy and scintillating spices from Savory Spice Shop — and then throw everything for a loop by creating new tastes you never heard of in ice cream. Vanilla Porter, for instance (made with Breckenridge Brewery's dark brew), Horchata, Garam Masala and Brown Sugar Banana. More imaginable flavors include a dreamy White Russian, Chai Tea, Baklava and antioxidant-rich Pomegranate Sorbet, along with a vegan-friendly Coconut that will fit right into the neighborhood.

Best New Store on Colfax Avenue

Blue Sky Collective

There used to be a typical antique mall jammed into this warehouse-like West Colfax building, but that was before Jen Schafer and her Blue Sky Books and Media took it over. Now it's a diamond in the rough: Essentially a community gathering place in progress, it's not only home to Schafer's sprawling used bookstore, which donates a percentage of all sales to Doctors Without Borders, but it also offers basement space to KGNU's Trust the Dust non-profit used CD and vinyl record store and Skull Gate Games, a haven for role-playing gamers looking for more of the same. Upstairs, there are artist studios, a gallery and a dance studio; until this month, the Free Boutique clothing exchange also held forth in part of the space, and the Holistic Business Center, an organization giving workshops for small business owners, is in the process of setting up an office. But Schafer is also trying to show it off as place to hang out without spending a lot of money, by encouraging artists, musicians, authors and poets to perform, meet, jam and otherwise make use of the space in a community-building way.

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