Best Salvation With Libations 2004 | Church at the Bar, D Note | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Salvation With Libations

Church at the Bar, D Note

The second and fourth Tuesday of each month, Arvada's D Note welcomes Church at the Bar. Run by the local and open-minded Connected Life church group, it's the only service in town during which attendees can celebrate the Holy Spirit with spirits and good craft beer. Bar-hoppers thirsty for a few shots of spirituality now have no excuse for skipping church.

Best Place to Buy a Ceremonial Dagger

SpiritWays

The next time you're out shopping for incense, a Balinese tapestry or a dagger to use in magical rituals, try SpiritWays. The East Colfax metaphysical shop has a wicked, double-bladed dagger, or athame, for every price range, starting with a small, economical Egyptian model for $30, complete with scabbard. Check out the Gil Hibben custom design series ($120 to $150) or the particularly ornate Isis Dagger, which at $99 comes with its own wall plaque. Typically, the ceremonies these daggers are designed for don't involve the letting of blood, but make no mistake: They're sharp and, as gun-store owners like to say, "ideally suited for home defense." And you don't need a special permit to own one.

Best Place to Buy Artificial Eyes

Packrat Antiques

As much a museum as an antique shop, Packrat Antiques is overflowing with the weird, the odd, the curious and the bizarre. Some of the items for sale, such as vintage Western movie posters, are fairly typical, but they represent only a tiny portion of the store's willfully eccentric collection. Scientific and medical instruments from eras gone by are a specialty: There are enough twisted gizmos, gadgets and doohickeys on hand to provide props for the next five David Cronenberg movies. As a bonus, Packrat features decorative items -- such as a human skull and imitation eyes to put in it -- sure to provoke conversation, if not terror. Here's looking at you, kid.

Best Place to Buy Sparkly Unicorn Iron-Ons

Sugar Clothing

Ever wish you'd kept all those dorky iron-on T-shirts you wore as a kid? If so, get a load of Sugar. Nestled among the vintage shops on Broadway, the year-and-a-half-old boutique has a huge selection of retro-'70s and '80s iron-on transfers -- as well as custom lettering -- that can be applied to the shirt of your choice in minutes. Fancy unicorns? Atari? Joan Jett? They've got it. Sugar also carries a modest but unique array of men's and women's retro attire, jewelry and accessories. Sweet!

Best Custom Piñatas

Dulcería El Pachangón

In the mood to beat something with a stick? Dulcería El Pachangón has just the thing. The tiny boutique carries a colorful inventory of ready-made piñatas, from Sesame Street and Simpsons characters to star shapes and animals. If you'd prefer something a tad more personal, bring in a photo of your favorite cartoon character -- or, say, your boss or significant other -- and ten days later, you'll have a papier-mâché model of it, ready for stringing up and pummeling. Dulcería Pachangón also stocks a truckload of treats for birthday parties, weddings and quinceañeras. The sweets range from traditional hard candies to Mexican confections like cucumber and chile lollipops and rose chews. Scoop it up by the handful or the pound and get ready to stuff.

Best Paper Paradise

Composition

We use paper all the time -- to write boring memos and long grocery lists, to cover things, even to blow our noses. Composition takes paper to another level. We don't mean flimsy sheets jammed into the copy machine, but thick, grainy stationery that's perfect for writing eloquent love letters. Tucked into the corner of LoDo's Annex at the Steelbridge Lofts, Composition also carries funky journals for recording private thoughts, leather photo albums to guard precious memories, and unique greeting cards to convey the deepest of sentiments. Owner Jennifer Roberts understands that paper and design can inspire, so the next time you have something important to proclaim, let Composition help you say it.

Best Place to Put It on Paper

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Aspiring bards, novelists, journalists, essayists, students and screenwriters come to the Lighthouse Writers Workshop for help getting words on paper -- and maybe even into print. Taught by local pros of the pen, the classes are small, intensive and inexpensive, which means that even those on a poet's budget can afford to delve more deeply into their art. The schedule varies by season, but certain themes pop up in all of the courses offered: Lighthouse instructors emphasize storytelling, revision and breaking the blocks that inhibit creative expression. Classes are open to students of all skill levels, from novice scribes to graduate students and published authors. Even the most accomplished writer needs an editor. Sometimes they also need a teacher.

Best Polar Bear Art

The Polar Bear Gallery

Barbara Stone's polar bears inhabit that peculiar juncture where wildlife art meets whimsy, just sidestepping kitsch. Her watercolors have surfaced in children's books, on kimonos and calendars, at the Smithsonian, and in a TV special dealing with the artist's pilgrimages to the Arctic to observe her subjects. You can find them at her gallery in Longmont, in an old church on Main Street.

Best Hope for Your Canine's Canines

Suzie's Tartar Liquid, Suzie's Pet Supplies

Suzie's Tartar Liquid is a painless solution to that rich, ripe dog breath emanating from your pup. A tablespoon of Suzie's odorless, tasteless formula in your pet's drinking water leads to cleaner teeth (and fresher breath) within a matter of weeks. Instead of swearing at their foul-panting pooches, sensitive pet owners swear by Suzie's homegrown concoction.

Best Place to Lose Your Doghood

Maxfund Wellness Clinic

The Maxfund Animal Center has long been known for finding abandoned critters good homes. Now it's opened a low-cost spay and neuter clinic to help control the number of animals coming through the shelter's door. Unlike other facilities, Maxfund will do the surgeries -- ranging from $30 to $40 -- for anyone in the community, regardless of income level. Shots and other basic veterinary services can also be had for a song.

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