Best Place to Buy a Creche
Galeria Mexicana
3615 W. 32nd Ave.
Galeria Mexicana carries imported handmade pottery, needlework and wood carvings all year long, but it's especially fun shopping there at Christmastime, when owners Rod Wagner and Kim Newberry stock up on nativity scenes of all shapes, sizes, materials and price ranges. Look for the hand-painted tin creches that come stowed inside matching metal boxes--a holiday steal at about $10.
Best Ticket-Stub Promotion
Manos
101 Broadway
Sure, you can use your ticket stub from the Rockies games to garner free admission to a small army of area strip clubs. But does it truly enrich your life? Manos, just across Broadway from the Mayan Theatre, sells glorious folk-art imports from south of the border and offers a 10 percent discount to anyone holding a Mayan ticket stub. So even if the flick is a complete stinker, you can still recoup a portion of your losses--and refine your cultural sensibilities--with a reduced-price Oaxacan fantasy animal, painted clay candlestick or great garish retablo.
Best Southwestern Crafts
Casa de Santa Fe
3966 S. Broadway, Englewood
Those ubiquitous howling coyotes of a few years back would slink off in shame if they caught a glimpse of what real Southwestern crafts look like. Furniture maker Ned Skinner has collected the work of forty artisans in his Casa de Santa Fe shop. Prices are low, and the quality of the assembled wares--everything from pottery to Native American jewelry to rugs to folksy furniture--is high. And there's not a coyote in sight.
Best Craft Gallery
Show of Hands
2610 E. 3rd Ave.
Whimsy reigns at Show of Hands--from the Greeks and Romans chessboard to the fabulous cloth dolls and sweet knitted wool teddy bears--but if you're looking for elegance, you'll find that as well. Endless displays of handmade jewelry--beautiful strands of turquoise with brass ornaments on woven twine cords, neon porcupine pins, collaged metal work and beaded scroll pins--can be found within the long display cases. Handwoven scarves, fine wood, stylish pottery and sleek glass pieces all have their place here, too.
Best Wall Mart
Barry's Paint and Wallpaper
3305 S. Broadway, Englewood
Tired of staring at the same four walls? Change 'em. Unlike those jumbo, impersonal home-improvement places, venerable Barry's Paint and Wallpaper is downright homey. The huge selection of wallpaper is always discounted (and there's a bargain bin of remnants with even better deals). But Barry's real brush with greatness is in the paint section, where its expert mixologists can match any color you have in mind.
Best Art Supplies
H.R. Meininger Co.
499 Broadway
Since H.R. Meininger left downtown and stretched out in its airy, modern digs on Broadway, this local institution has blossomed into an even better art store than it was before. They still have just about anything you're looking for--sable brushes, pigments and paints, writing instruments, fine papers--only now it's a lot easier to find. The winding Meininger mazes are gone and the selection is, if anything, more diverse.
Best Snap Judgments
Robert Waxman Camera and Video
1545 California St.
If bigger is indeed better, then Robert Waxman's new superstore in the refurbished Denver Dry building is the picture of perfection. The spacious store is a shutterbug Valhalla, with miles of Nikons, Minoltas and the rest of the pack, as well as every accessory under the sun. The merchandise doesn't stop with cameras but also includes video equipment--from camcorders to big screens. Once the able staff has helped you pick out your machine, the professorial staff at Waxman University will help you figure out how to use it--and someday your prints will come.
Best Place to Buy Someone Else's Old Snapshots
The Gizmo Shop
424 E. Colfax Ave.
Some call it junk, some call it antiques--in the Gizmo Shop, there's a bit of both. But the most charming find here is an old box of family photographs (don't ask whose family), dog-eared but strangely poignant. The collection is a field day for collagists and busybodies.
Best Delivery of Oversize Packages
Bulk Male magazine
P.O. Box 300352
Denver 80203
Bulk Male magazine, published by Denver's own Big Bull Inc., is laid out like an all-you-can-eat buffet. The main dish? A mass of glossy black-and-white photographs of rotund men accompanied by fascinating descriptions of their lives. The fatty feast is rounded out with many tasty entrees: articles about the National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance, photo spreads of big bearded guys romping in the woods, erotic stories about sumo wrestlers ("His thighs were as big around as a sixty-year-old oak") and a celebrity column that says of Rush Limbaugh, "Yes, I Know He's a Prick, but He's Cute." For those who like big cakes and want to eat them, too, there are always the personals.
Best Delivery of Undersize Packages
Ken Whelpdale
Zoom Delivery of Denver
Bike messenger Ken Whelpdale, who wins plenty of road races in his spare time, holds the company record of 62 deliveries in one day to destinations in downtown Denver. A true pro who says he won't allow himself to flirt with secretaries, Whelpdale flies around on a fixed-gear track bike, maneuvering past reckless drivers and clueless pedestrians (he's only hit one so far, never been sued) to get the job done. He's the guy in the purple shirt with green polka dots, plaid shorts, beat-up green Puma sneakers, hexagonal shades, scruffy goatee and helmet with a sticker that reads "Irritant." Next time you see him, say hi. Then get out of the way.
Best Used Bookstore
Books Books Books
2070 S. University Blvd.
Nothing's more important to professional browsers in a used bookstore than turnover, and Books Books Books has them all beat. An astonishingly high volume of books passes through here, and many of these tomes are lovingly handled, their jackets nicely preserved. Hard bargaining by the owner keeps the prices within reach.
Best Place to Find Out Whodunit
Murder by the Book
1574 S. Pearl St.
A mystery book store must be owned by someone who loves the genre; that usually means a person who likes to sink into a big old armchair with an enigmatic page-turner and stay there for a long, long time. Murder by the Book, run by Shirley Beaird, a woman who knows her stuff and likes to chat about it, is cozy, well stocked and a bit macabre--as it should be. You'll always find the very latest stacked to the rafters in this tiny Pearl Street house--and from Chandler to Mosley, Christie to Highsmith, you'll be able to track down old favorites, too.
Best Community Bookstore
Park Hill Book Store
4620 E. 23rd Ave.
Community is the key word here: Small-scale and friendly, the Park Hill Book Store is member-run and tailored to the needs of the surrounding neighborhood. Anyone can shop here--the stock includes a selection of new and used fiction, mysteries, children's titles, cookbooks and more--but members get a discount. If they volunteer to work in the store, they get an even bigger discount. And their kids can stop in and find a book to keep--free of charge.
Best Christian Bookstore
The Ark Book Store
399 Federal Blvd.
What better place to go on a rainy day than to the Ark? Offerings in the recently expanded video section range from James Dobson's screed against petting (Sex, Lies...and the Truth) to old reliables like David Wilkerson's Cross and the Switchblade. The place is swimming in books, too: futuristic novels about gay takeovers, practical financial guides for Christians, biographies of Corie Ten Boom and Aimee Semple McPherson, priceless Jack Chick religious tracts and every version of the Good Book you can think of. When the Rockies' latest losing streak hits double figures up the street at Mile High, you might find a little solace here for your bruised soul.
Best Books on Tape
Reel Books
Writer Square
Commuters get more words to the gallon when they pop a book-on-tape into the cassette deck, and Reel Books has a large inventory of audio tomes for sale or rent that take you places without turning a page. Rentals run anywhere from $1.50 to $25, depending on how many tapes the book requires and how long you rent it for. What a great way to catch up on your speed reading.
Best African-American Bookstore
Hue-Man Experience
911 Park Ave. W.
Hue-Man Experience isn't just the best place to find books on the African-American experience, it's an experience in itself. Founded ten years ago by Clara Villarosa, the store has become a cultural center for Denver's black community. Although books remain Villarosa's main stock-in-trade, she now also sends out a quarterly newsletter, offers monthly story hours for kids and sponsors visual- and performing-arts events.
Best Hispanic Bookstore
Cultural Legacy Bookstore
3633 W. 32nd Ave.
The north Denver couple who opened Cultural Legacy Bookstore have made their modest shop part of the surrounding community. On the shelves you'll find both English- and Spanish-language works, art books and a nice selection of children's books, also in either language (not a surprise, since the owners' little boy often plays in the back). Top that off with a series of culturally inspired book signings and lectures, and you've got a bookstore that really lives up to its name.
Best Reviews You Can Use
Boulder Bookstore
1105 Pearl St., Boulder
The staff at the Boulder Bookstore aren't shy about telling you what they think about the books they've been selling--and you should listen. The staff's written mini-reviews aren't confined to a low-traffic corner; rather, they're interspersed throughout the store so shoppers can get a bead on what to read. Staffers are encouraged to focus on small-press efforts by unknown authors, so count on finding a few unexpected treasures.
Best Bookstore for Superheroes
Mile High Comics
9201 N. Washington St., Thornton
Pouring oneself into a latex leotard every morning and going out to save the world from evil is a demanding job. And the last thing a caped crusader wants to waste his super powers on is locating last week's issues of Marvel and DC Comics. Thankfully, the boy wonders at Mile High Comics are diligent in their quest to serve our crime-fighting reads--and the chain's Thornton store is the best place to do it. Comics up to four weeks old are displayed in separate racks; once the deadline rolls around, remainders are slip-covered and sold as mint-condition back issues. And as if that isn't enough, the store is also packed with comic compilation books, collectible memorabilia, movie posters and more.
Best Bookstore for Antiheroes
All in a Dream
2901 E. Colfax Ave.
After a hard day of cable TV and corporate deceit, not every comic-lover wants to read about muscle-bound demigods overcoming injustice. So the truth-sellers at All in a Dream carry the finest in adult underground comics and graphic novels. More than half the store is devoted to Denver's finest selection of cartoons that tell it like it is. The store also stocks the superhero genre for teenagers and others not able to handle reality.
Best Modern First Editions
Bella Luna Books
P.O. Box 260425
Highlands Ranch 80126
From deep in the heart of Highlands Ranch, Bella Luna Books searches out the rare and wonderful, then tantalizes the readers on its mailing list with descriptions of its finds. These modern first editions come with a lifetime guarantee, as well as the owners' motto: "Our goal is to place orphaned or displaced books with owners who'll show them the care and respect that they deserve."
Best Midnight Copy Service
Kinko's
1555 S. Colorado Blvd.
The smashing success of Kinko's proves that 90 percent of all paperwork is done at the eleventh hour. All locations of this lifesaver franchise offer self-service copy machines, printing assistance, office supplies and computer rental 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Copying and printing prices meet or beat the competition, and Kinko's offers amazing sales on discontinued paper. In addition, the Colorado Boulevard store will do all the copying and printing for you from your 3.5-inch floppy, as long as it's written in MS Word. So go ahead, stay up late fiddling with your desktop publishing project, then take a nap while Kinko's prints it out--and makes your deadline.
Best Time to Browse at the Tattered Cover
Monday nights
Everyone everywhere knows that the Tattered Cover is the best bookstore in the entire world. So popular is this local institution that checkout lines form early on Saturday mornings and last until closing time Sunday. Now those weekend crowds have spilled over into Friday, Thursday and even Wednesday. We're glad to know people are reading so much, but we can barely find a comfy chair to read the books we have no intention of buying! That was until we discovered Monday night at the T.C., when browsers have free reign over an uncrowded store. Snowy, winter Monday nights are even better yet! Bring a comforter and snuggle up with some good reading.
Best Downtown Newsstand
Johnny's Newsstand
1555 Champa St.
Small, dank and low-down--a few steps down from the street, anyway--Johnny's Newsstand is bursting with good news. Just a hundred feet from the mall shuttle line, it offers a surprisingly wide array of magazines and newspapers. And it looks like a newsstand, too.
Best Suburban Newsstand
Newsland of Aurora
2390 S. Chambers Rd., Aurora
How many other newsstands are there in the Denver area where you can pick up a copy of the Albany Times Union or the Richmond Times-Dispatch? Newsland's Aurora outlet carries Sunday editions of papers from all over the country. You can also find the Sydney, Australia, Morning Herald, Germany's Welt am Sonntag, more than 5,000 magazine titles and a generous collection of smut.
Best Public Library
Park Hill Branch Library
4705 Montview Blvd.
Most of Denver's libraries either have received or are slated for makeovers, but the newly restored Park Hill branch has returned to its former elegance with particular aplomb. Those features in the reading room were always there, just hidden for years by earlier "renovations" and "modernizations." Now reappearing: fine wood trim, original masonry, beautifully sunlit diamond-leaded windows and what is perhaps the piece de resistance--a working gas fireplace you can curl up in front of with a good book. Check it out.
Readers' choice: Denver Public Library, central branch
Best Language Instructor
Dawn Sprouse
Hamilton Community School
Sprouse makes the richness of American Sign Language (the preferred mode among the deaf) come alive to hearing persons. Patient, funny and never condescending, Sprouse strays from the textbook to give her students the vernacular form of this expressive language. Along the way, she also dishes out a healthy dose of deaf culture.
Best Mail Bonding
U.S. Post Office Merchant Station
16th and Welton streets
When the May D&F at Zellerbach Plaza shut down last year, so did the charming little post office tucked away in the store's basement. Services were temporarily relegated to a trailer, but those makeshift days are over. A brand-new facility was signed, sealed and delivered this spring: the U.S. Post Office Merchant Station, which is located a block down the street and isn't just a post office. Fashioned after venues in other U.S. cities, it's a postal store. Along with expanded customer windows and an after-hours Quick Post self-service center, there's a retail shop where you can zip through a sizable assortment of commemorative stamps and collector's items.
Best Way to Tick Off Coloradans for Family Values
The Darwin Fish Bumper Plaque
P.O. Box 26523, Dept. 6
Colorado Springs 80936
Entrepreneur Gary Betchan didn't invent this evolutionary takeoff on the fish symbol used on born-again-Christian cars. Instead, he saw the creature emblazoned with Charles Darwin's name in a brochure, tracked down the maker and set up shop in unlikely Colorado Springs, where he's marketing the fish to kingdom come. Betchan, who takes mail orders and ships out of his basement, says the plaques are a hit with doctors, biologists, paleontologists and all the other skeptics.
Best Folksy Advice
The Denver Folklore Center
1893 S. Pearl St.
Harry Tuft's newly revived Denver Folklore Center was and is the Denver connection to American acoustic roots music. Tuft is knowledgeable, friendly and engaging, and his store stocks an artful collection of new and used acoustic instruments from affordable to astronomical, including custom, hand-built beauties. The selection doesn't stop with what's hanging on the walls, either; there are fine old guitars stuck under tables and counters. Just ask Harry.
Best Free Advice
Denver Bar Association Legal Clinics
Maybe lawyers can't stop talking, but at least the meter's not always running. The DBA offers free legal clinics covering everything from bankruptcy (for debtors or creditors) to ways of collecting child support.
Best Free Advice for Tourists
Grand Junction Visitor and Convention Center
1-800-962-2547
The Colorado Tourism Board is gone, but if you're headed to the Western Slope, you won't miss it one bit. Not only does the Grand Junction Visitor and Convention Center publish an excellent free guide to the city and surrounding areas (and mails it out for free, bulk or first-class, depending on the timing of the visit), it also runs its own 800 information service. And unlike the old tourism board's 800 number--which rang in a national telemarketing office whose workers knew as much about Colorado as they did about Pluto--this one leads right to Grand Junction, where it's answered by helpful center staffers who'll gladly answer any and all questions. Here's one: Just how do they stay so cheerful all day?
Best Low-Cost Therapy
Professional Psychology Center
University of Denver
2460 S. Vine St.
The Professional Psychology Center at the University of Denver offers therapy for children, adolescents, adults, couples, parents and groups--all on a sliding scale. Staffed by supervised psychology grad students, the clinic doesn't handle mental-health emergencies, but it's ideal for people who can't afford a private practitioner or who aren't covered by insurance. Initial intakes are confidential and done over the phone; if the clinic can't provide the needed service, a referral will be made.
Best Do-It-Yourself Gynecological Examination Kit
Personal Insights
Enterprising Women
4500 E. 9th Ave, Ste. 310
Denver 80220
What you don't see can hurt you. Concerned that women will examine their own breasts but often have no idea what's going on Down There, Denver gynecologist Deborah Gussman created her own do-it-yourself gynecological exam kit so that patients could check for changes between office visits. It wasn't easy: She had to hunt for a speculum that wouldn't intimidate women--"Most of the office speculums are metal and the size of New Jersey," she says--and she even had to design a mirror that could clip to a flashlight for easier viewing. The result is the Personal Insights self-examination kit--and at $24.99 (plus $4 shipping), it could be a literal lifesaver.
Best Free Service
Birth Coach, Inc.
Giving birth can be a wondrous experience--ask the man whose wife has done it. She may have a different opinion, though, particularly if she didn't know about Birth Coach, a nonprofit group that strives to make pregnancy and delivery as bearable as possible. Forty volunteers--all women--help prepare mothers-to-be for what to expect in the delivery room. And on the big day, a Birth Coach assistant selected by the woman in need will meet her at the scene to offer hand-holding assurance, advice and encouragement throughout the blessed torment. Talk about a labor-saving device!
Readers' choice: 16th Street Mall shuttle
Best Free Service for Dogs
King Soopers meat department
If you've run out of neighbors for your dog to chew on, don't despair. Hustle down to King Soopers for a bag of fresh bones. The folks in the meat department don't even charge for this merciful service. Fido will thank you--and so will your neighbors.
Best High-Tech Animal Communication
Dog NetBBS 830-1113 Watch out, Rover! Don't get hit on the information superhighway! Instead, have your master dial up Dog Net, a computer bulletin board that caters exclusively to dog owners. The brainchild of Linda Cawley, a local attorney who specializes in dog law, the BBS features a consumers' corner for trading pet tips, as well as fast advice from vets and, of course, lawyers. It's a ruff job, but someone's got to do it.
Best High-Touch Animal Communication
Janet Dreifus
The Thoughtful Alternative
Sure, your pet understands your moods--but do you understand your pet's? Janet Dreifus can help you get in touch. A self-styled specialist in animal communication, she uses Reiku and Tellington Touch techniques in both classes and private sessions. Whether the animal is present or not, Dreifus says she can tune in, serving as interpreter and relaying information. "Animal communication is the telepathic bridge which goes straight to the heart of any difficulty," explains the not-kidding Dreifus, "whether it's health issues like asthma, eating disorders or allergies, or behavior or socialization problems like running away, fighting or inappropriate chewing, barking, scratching and soiling."
Best 24-Hour Veterinarian
North Metro Animal Hospital and Boarding Kennel
1050 W. 47th Ave.
Not only does this animal hospital charge the same rates no matter what time of the day or night you bring in your ailing animal, but once there, you get two Garcias for the price of one: vet Edward A. and his daughter Theresa, who runs the business while working her way through law school. This is the kind of place where they remember your pets' names, let them run around loose for fun and worry about them as much as you do. At 3 a.m., that can be a reassuring thought.
Best Horseshoe Sense
Doug Butler
Don't even think about challenging Doug Butler to a game of horseshoes. The Colorado State University professor has forged quite a reputation as the only American in the 638-year-old Fellowship of the Worshipful Company of Farriers and as the author of The Principles of Horseshoeing, the world's top-selling book on the subject.
Best Hog Heaven
Clemenswine Memorial Potbellied Pig Sanctuary
Sedalia
Yesterday's fad is today's pig-in-a-poke--and make that pig potbellied. Although potbellied pigs were the hottest pets going a few years ago, demand shrank as quickly as the pigs themselves grew, sometimes to well over a hundred pounds. Owners abandoned their pets or treated them horribly. That's when Judy Kayton, Ronda Slogar and Sylvia Francisco rode to the rescue. The three women established the Clemenswine Memorial Potbellied Pig Sanctuary in Sedalia--naming their refuge after a particularly beloved pet--and set about saving the unwanted swine. Today over a hundred potbellies consider the sanctuary a porker's paradise on earth.
Best Cheap Pets
Denver Dumb Friends League
2080 S. Quebec St.
If you're looking for someone to love and don't mind the lack of a pedigree, head on out to the Dumb Friends League. There you'll find plenty of dogs, cats, bunnies and others, all desperately in need of a good home. The adoption fees--$40 for felines, $60 for fidos--include a leash or cat carrier, pet ID tag, veterinary exam, shots and spay or neuter. If your precious pick is too young to be neutered, you're entitled to a $25 refund when the pet has been fixed.
Best Cheep Pets
Contented Birds Domain
9030 Federal Blvd., Federal Heights
Originally run out of the owner's home, Contended Birds Domain took eleven years to grow into a store--and what a store it is. With Denver's largest collection of exotic birds and exotic bird supplies, it's reached the beak of perfection. All of its birds are vet checked, and they're not sold to just anyone; even handling them in the store means you've got to be sanitized. It may sound like a lot of trouble, but these are the friendliest and cutest birds in town.
end of part 2
