Best Place to Go Thrifting 2003 | DAV (Disabled American Veterans) Store | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Place to Go Thrifting

DAV (Disabled American Veterans) Store

The DAV's better-known cousins, Goodwill and the ARC, can't hold a candle to the bonanza of finds in this clean, well-lit thrift store. And you gotta love the '80s soundtrack playing in the background. Most jeans run from $2.95 to $7.95, and infant and toddler wear is an easy-on-the-wallet $2.95. You'll also find toilet-seat covers, napkin holders, drapes and just about every other household sundry imaginable. Maybe even a pair of those au currant tiki mai-tai glasses.

Best Magic Carpets

Pangaea Handmade Carpets

Sometimes it's easy to forget that the Middle East has contributed much to the world's artistic heritage, including the fabled magic carpet. The wizardry remains, and it flashes in the brilliant design and exquisite quality of these hand-woven textiles. Pangaea Handmade Carpets owner T Robinson offers an exclusive collection of nomadic rugs, Turkish prayer mats, Caucasian runners, Anatolian kilims and Tibetan area rugs, as well as carpets from the great workshops of Persia. Ranging in price from $100 for a basic contemporary rug to $18,000 for a unique antique, each rug has its own personality and brings color, style and warmth into any room.

Best Unique Household Furnishings

Tesoros

The goods inside Tesoros reflect Indian Hills' Native American connection: In the late 1800s, the area served as a summer campground for the Ute Indians, and the historic log building that houses Tesoros was once a trading post, among other things. That seems appropriate, considering the upscale store now trades in modern cultural artifacts: Rugs and blankets, pottery, antiques and rustic accents compete to catch a shopper's eye, and tribal touches brighten many of Tesoros' wares, from furniture to lighting fixtures and garden accessories. Outfitting a cabin? Just moved to town and really want to dig into that Western vibe? Head for the Hills -- or head to www.tesorosltd.com.

Best Hip Home Furnishings

One Home

In an innocuous, squat building on Speer is a trove of hip, mid-century modern home furnishings by designers such as Eames, Platner and Mies van der Rohe. They've got the iconic Saarinen tulip chair and George Nelson ball clock. You can even get the Eames lounge and ottoman favored by fashion stylists. And if your walls are bare, consider the works by local artists hanging in One Home. It's a one-stop home shop for the mod family.

Best Conservation Store

Nature's Own

Nature's Own president Roy Young likes digging in the dirt. When he isn't manning one of the store's five Colorado locations or promoting environmental awareness, he travels the world in search of fossils; many of those specimens wind up on Nature's Own's shelves alongside rare minerals, handcrafted onyx, educational materials and lots of fun prehistoric products. The stores are a tree-hugger's dream, helmed by an earthy guy who puts his green behind his green beliefs: In November of last year, Young donated a month's net income from his stores to state environmental groups.

Best High-End Doors

The Grand Entrance

Specializing in custom-made and hand-carved portals, the Grand Entrance turns out some of the grandest slabs of wood -- and even bronze -- to ever sport a knob in these parts. Styles range from rustic to arts-and-crafts, and the workmanship is impeccable, particularly the gorgeous floral reliefs, Speakeasy trap doors, cast-iron appointments and distressed and antiqued surfaces. You'll drop a bundle on one of these beauties, but it will always be a pleasure to walk through.

Best Low-End Doors

Buds Warehouse

Open sesame: Buds Warehouse has doors -- hundreds of 'em! Big ones, little ones, cheap ones, fancy ones, screen doors, trap doors, closet doors, garage doors -- even a hangar door -- all at the discounted prices that are the trademark of this poor man's Home Depot. And if you can't find what's in your mind's eye, file a request card online, and Buds'll watch for the door of your dreams.

Best Boiler Repairman

Doc Ball

Owners of the basement behemoths created at the turn of the last century don't have too many choices when it comes to keeping their boilers going strong. Luckily, Denver is home to the best. Doc Ball and his son, Rob, never met a boiler they didn't like, and their affections show. With their help, you'll be in hot water for the foreseeable future.

Best Water Witch

Greg Storozuk

Underground rivers. Oil reservoirs. Toxic energy fields. Angry ghosts. With little more than a pair of L-rods, a hand-held pendulum and a clear mind, Greg Storozuk has found them all. He's a dowser, a diviner, a doodlebug, one of a growing community of men and women who tap into the universal consciousness to seek answers to the unknown. Initially a skeptic, Storozuk handled his first pair of L-rods on a cousin's field in 1972. After locating a water source, he began a lifelong study of the ancient practice. So if you're trying to divine some water -- or maybe just an angry spirit -- Storozuk is your drought or ghost buster.

Best Place to Buy Big Ice

Reddy Ice

There are occasions when a mere twenty-pound bag of ice just won't do. Say you need to build an igloo. Maybe you need to carve a giant pair of ice breasts for your brother's bachelor party. Or perhaps you just need cool shavings for a margarita block party. It doesn't happen every day, but it's nice to know the technology's there. Reddy Ice manufacturers 300-pound blocks of frozen water -- 42 x 21 x 10 inches of solid-state agua. Forty-two bucks for clear style; $60 if you really have to see all the way through the block. A few dollars more for delivery.

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