Where to Buy >>

• Best Place To Get a New or Vintage Stereo
  It's an undisputed fact: Hawthorne Stereo has one of the largest selections of Nakamichi cassette tape decks in the world. It also has pretty much anything else you'd want, including some very high-end Rega turntables, one of which I've had my eye on for years. Named for its original location on... More >>
• Best Luggage Repair
  Omni is like one of those old-fashioned shoe-repair places you unexpectedly stumble upon. It always comes as a surprise that someone still does the detailed, labor-intensive work of fixing things that many people would just throw out. Owner Chung Koh, a Korean immigrant, has been fixing luggage... More >>
• Best Bookstore for the Dreamy Poet
  For any of you with dreams of becoming the next Maya Angelou or Pablo Neruda, you're in luck: One of two poetry-only bookstores in the nation is right here in Seattle (the other is in Massachusetts). I first heard of Open Books: A Poem Emporium through my poetry professor at the UW who... More >>
• Best New Townhouse Row (Yes, There Is Such a Thing)
  You want industrial? We got industrial! And at sub-luxury prices, too. Townhouses at the Georgetown Lofts start at $365,000, and the Duwamish is only a hop, skip, and jump away! Just drag your kayak across Marginal Way—watch out for the semis!—and it's almost like living in a nature... More >>
• Best Place to Shop for Danish Modern on the Cheap
  If you, like me, were weaned on IKEA, when you're ready to upgrade your furniture you want to keep your lines clean and your patterns simple. Yet showrooms for affordable furniture are packed with plush, foofy couches and a forest of rattan. That's why I still keep an eye out for mid-century... More >>
• Best Uni-Brow Used Bookstore
  The competition's stiff in Seattle, but the used bookstore that most feels like what one ought to be—slightly musty and creaky, richly overstuffed, covering all brows but leaning toward high, and promising serendipitous rewards on a browser's every visit—is the U District's Magus.... More >>
• Best Weed-Control Technology/Neighborhood Conversation Starter
  It's summer, and the blackberries in your backyard have now, like a scene from The Blob, subsumed the garage, children's jungle gym, patio, and possibly the family golden retriever, which hasn't been seen for weeks. Sure, you could fire up the gas-powered weed-whacker, but it's loud, noisy, and... More >>
• Best Customer Service
  I don't know about anyone else, but unless I'm shoving belt buckles into my trousers, I can't get anyone to pay attention to me at Nordy's. That's why a few years ago I started making critical purchases at the Federal Army & Navy Surplus store in Belltown. Luggage? I don't travel without my... More >>
• Best Record Store Under 2500 Square Feet
  If you descend the stairs into Neptune Music Company at the right time, you might run into David Sandlund, an ex–Amoeba Records buyer and proprietor of the modest music-'n'-movie shop. What he listens to at work is a good indication of the place's musical diversity; when you walk in, there... More >>
• Best Porn Store that Feels Like a Target
  If you find yourself among the group of people who like their sex dirty but not necessarily their shopping experience, I'm betting you'll love Castle Superstore. Once literally a warehouse on Mercer Street that housed almost every sexual aid you could ever dream of, they now occupy a smaller... More >>
• Best Trace of Old Bohemian Fremont
  CD stores will soon be something we'll tell our grandkids about. But I have higher hopes for the staying power of vinyl shops, and a gem among them is Jive Time. Located in Fremont, which is desperately trying to hang on to its bohemian status, Jive Time is one of the few stores around there... More >>
• Best Boutique for the Fashionable Street Rat
  Three months ago, I became the owner of a spunky two-pound chihuahua named Pinky. Or, it seems, she became the owner of me. The high-maintenance bitch made it clear upon her arrival that she not only required rhinestone-encrusted T-shirts, but also enough squeaky animal toys to fill a zoo. I'm... More >>
• Best Hangout for the Ghost of Fred Sanford
  A hardware store that quintuples as a "fix-it shop," "handyman service," key-cutter, and U-Haul rental center, RR Hardware looks and feels like an old man's neglected garage, with the detritus of several decades' worth of odd jobs spilling off the shelves. Among the for-sale items a visitor... More >>
• Best Guilt-Free Animal-Lover Shopping
  For the record, I am not a vegan; I rip into animal flesh with wild abandon and still manage to sleep at night. But I am sympathetic to my animal-loving friends. Watching them squint at label after label and sigh when they find that one animal-based ingredient is heartbreaking. That's why the U... More >>
• Best Way to Get Clean
  At first glance, The Soap Box might seem like just another junk shop. But a closer look reveals a store stocked with every means imaginable to clean your funky ass up. They offer a variety of gorgeous imported soaps in scents like peony, rhubarb, and almond, as well as all sorts of different... More >>
• Best Way to Responsibly Update Your Home
  Some of my clearest childhood memories involve Home Depot. My father's "Dads can fix anything" attitude and my daddy's-girl status ensured that I frequently ended up at the biggest store that holds nothing of interest to me. For those of you who have your own hatred of Home Depot, or perhaps a... More >>
• Best Shop for the Stuff You Don't Need But Just Gotta Have
  Owned by the impossibly sweet and friendly couple Kara Ceriello and Jon DeLeeuw, Wallingford's adorable haven for impulse shopping, Not A Number, gets its odd name from the '60s TV show The Prisoner. Hold on to that little piece of trivia and it just might earn you 50 cents off your next... More >>
• Best Way to Keep Your Cougar Pride in Seattle
  The Washington State Cougars may be outnumbered in this city, but we sure as hell aren't outdone, thanks to Scott Goerig. The Wazzu graduate opened Redline Music and Sports last year to ensure his fellow Cougs had a watering hole on this side of the state offering their staples: cheap drinks,... More >>
• Best New Addition to Northgate Mall
  There aren't many places you can get a funky pair of Chinese Laundry stilettos, black 10-hole Doc Martens, orthopedic—yet still unbelievably cute—green Børn slides, or streamlined Asics running shoes all in the same room. And one of those places is the new Designer Shoe... More >>
• Best Strategy for Scoring Cheap Flowers at Lowe's
  The prices are cheap at Lowe's garden store in the Rainier Valley, no doubt about it. You can fill all your window boxes for 10 bucks if you get the bargain flats of petunias and geraniums. You can also find more exotic flowers at a reasonable price, like scarlet crocosmia and sweet-smelling... More >>
• Best Art Gallery for People Who Hate Art
  There's an abundance of stupid crap out there that for some inexplicable reason gets labeled as "art." Thankfully, Roq La Rue exists for people gifted with 20/20 vision and a healthy dose of cynicism. This Belltown gallery has given us a decade's worth of badass pop surrealism, courtesy of... More >>
• Best Store for All Your Crafty Needs (2 Comments)
  You never know when your inner fashionista will strike and you're suddenly dying for oversized buttons, cream-colored lace, or smooth jade-green silk. With all your creative ideas, it can sometimes be a bit hard to keep within your budget. Luckily, Pacific Fabric and Crafts Outlet has everything... More >>
• Best Happy Hour for a High-Maintenance Drunk
  The candles, the roses, the chocolate-covered strawberries—none of it actually eased the pain of my first time. I lay naked and vulnerable afterwards, thinking how much easier it would've been had I downed a couple of beers beforehand. Enter The Wax Bar, the first salon in the entire state... More >>
• Least Intimidating Place to Buy a Road Bike
  This spring, I helped a friend new to long-distance riding shop for a road bike—one that wouldn't get him laughed out of the STP ride but also wouldn't cost him more than a newbie should spend. We hit 10 bike shops in two weeks, and he left most of them dispirited or put off: Either we... More >>
• Best Place to Get a Gift When You're Out of Ideas
  My little sister's birthday was coming up way too fast. What do you get a high-school sophomore? Clothing? How could I possibly meet the standards of someone who once instructed me I absolutely couldn't wear my brown belt with my black shoes? Or makeup? Please. Desperate and weary, I headed to... More >>