Best Oddball Collectibles 2014 | Aurora's Family Pharmacy | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
Navigation
Support Us
Search

Best Oddball Collectibles

Aurora's Family Pharmacy

Going to the neighborhood drugstore is already practically a thing of the past; even rarer is the experience you'll find at the Family Pharmacy, where you can buy a bottled soda from an old-fashioned red-enamel Coca-Cola cooler and stock up on Beanie Babies, Precious Moments figurines and whatever other high shlock your heart desires. The shop is a working pharmacy, as well, but its stature as an unintended socio-anthropological museum makes it a guilty pleasure for anyone's incorrigible inner hoarder.

Best High-Hipster Gallery and Gift Shop

Super Ordinary Gallery + Retail Space

In every venture they've taken on, it seems that Tran and Josh Wills have tried to combine their many interests — fashion, design, art and lifestyle — into a well-displayed gestalt of what's ultimately cool in modern times. But this new incarnation of Super Ordinary, located in hipster marketplace the Source, is that model's most sophisticated manifestation. Partnering with Bryan Cavanagh and Pedro Barrios, the Willses now have a space with an interlocking but split personality: Monthly art shows go up and down in the gallery, while patrons of the Source's eateries and artisan food shops can stroll through a design-savvy, curated selection of home goods, gifts and books in the retail space. If this is Super Ordinary, the everyday never looked so good.

Best Highbrow Junk and Eclectica

Curating the Cool

Curating the Cool Facebook

Our favorite stores share one thing in common — that they are not common in the least, and Curating the Cool might be the most unusual of them all. That's because the (obviously) curated consignment shop and dumpster-diver's paradise is the ultimate curiosity shop, a mash-up of new and old, including original artwork, oddities, clothing, homemade preserves and body scrubs, antiques and any kind of rare collectible your heart could desire, all mixed up in an ever-changing order.

Best New Flea Market

Valverde Bazaar Outdoor Market

Antiques dealer Eron Johnson had spring fever early last year, and the Valverde Bazaar was the serendipitous result, a gathering of a select group of creative friends — and their creative friends — for an outdoor market like no other in the metro area. Modeled after London's Portobello Road, where, Johnson recalls, "you never knew what you'd see in the next booth," Valverde is a beautiful blend of quality vintage goods and antiques, high-end flea-market chic, open-air art show and craft fair, all put together with an eye for unique and well-made merchandise. The only problem? Growing pains. Look for the market to divide and multiply in 2014; the first date is May 17.

Best Thrift Store

ARC Thrift Store

The best thrift stores are geographically removed from the gaggles of hipsters who peck otherwise decent shops into oblivion, and the ARC Thrift Store on Cortez is just such a place. Here you'll sift through endless racks of well-organized clothes, much of it fashionable; neatly arranged furniture; shelves of books you might actually want to read; and row after deep row of smartly arranged tchotchkes, cookware, picture frames and more. One of the best things about this ARC is that while you're there, you can put together a care package for a faraway friend and walk to the conveniently located U.S. Post Office next door and send it off.

Best Store for Everyone

Cedar & Hyde Mercantile

The wayback model at Cedar & Hyde is the general store, which was once the hub of every whistle-stop, where folks went to buy everything from barrel pickles and lengths of muslin to big-city bonnets and sacks of flour. But nothing's outdated at this shop, which sisters Christie and Poss Lambert call a "modern-day mercantile." The Lamberts start by catering to every member of the family in a neat shop with a rustic feel, stocking clothing for kids, men and women, including sturdy jeans, and things for the home, from sweet handcrafted bronze garden foxes to wooden bangles, jars of artisan pickles from the Real Dill, beard oil and ikat cloth napkins. And it works.

Best Store on Colfax

Twist & Shout

Ken Hamblin III

The record store isn't dead — it's alive and well, and Twist & Shout has the legacy to prove it. This Denver institution has moved around the city a few times since its 1988 birth, but several key elements remain — notably, a dedication to stocking shelves with rare and radio-friendly cuts, and a healthy selection of music-related books and band merch. Twist is also known for its deep connection to the local music scene, running an efficient consignment system for up-and-coming-bands and employing many an area musician over the decades. Weekly specials give music fans a chance to purchase limited-edition releases, and the shop's commitment to in-store performances proves that Twist & Shout has its finger on the pulse of the people.

Best Store on Broadway

Fancy Tiger

While their iconic craft and clothing stores didn't singlehandedly bring the bustle back to Broadway, Matthew Brown and jaime Jennings's Fancy Tiger mini-empire certainly led the way. The couple saw the potential of the Baker shopping district and ran with it, and both stores have grown comfortably into the rhythm of the street. Brown's clothing-and-accesories boutique exudes a hipsterish elegance and sense of design that can't be copied, while the craft shop spearheaded Denver's whole handmade scene with fabulous fabrics, books and notions, as well as classes and crafter nights that have helped build a strong, arty community.

Best Neighborhood Shopping District

South Broadway

Part of South Broadway's appeal is its length: Cut up into one distinct shopping oasis after another, all the way south to Englewood, it's an urban silk road of industry and quirky businesses that one could easily spend a full week exploring from end to end. Baker is a jewel box of singular shops — Lowbrow, Fancy Tiger, Buffalo Exchange, Ironwood and Sewn among them — while farther down the drag, Antique Row offers its garage-sale flavor and fabulous finds. Other groupings pop up toward the outskirts of the city, where you'll fine shops like the Concoctory hackerspace, craft and fabric store Treelotta, Angelo's CDs & More and the time-honored veteran Kolacny Music. Give your regards to Broadway.

Best Store on the 16th Street Mall

Tattered Cover

The Tattered Cover started a new chapter this year when it gave up a floor in LoDo and moved most of its offices to the Colfax location. But there's still plenty to love in this store, a true oasis on the edge of the 16th Street Mall. The setting alone — a turn-of-the-last-century warehouse building with high ceilings, big windows and creaky wooden floors — is reason enough to stop in. But the Tattered Cover gives you plenty of reasons to stay for hours, with a still-substantial collection of new books, a friendly staff that will help you locate anything you can't find, and lots of cushy seating where you can enjoy magazines and snacks from the newsstand and coffee shop. With many independent stores closing the book on the business, the Tattered Cover is a true treasure. And come this summer, we'll have another gem: a satellite TC location just a block away, in Denver's revived Union Station.

Best Of Denver®

Best Of

Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our terms of use, our cookies policy, and our privacy policy Westword may earn a portion of sales from products & services purchased through links on our site from our affiliate partners. ©2024 Denver Westword, LLC. All rights reserved.
Do Not Sell or Share My Information
Powered By Foundation