Shopping >>

• Best Replacement for Your Second Car (1 Comment)
  Dutch Bike Co.
  Not everyone wants to don fluorescent spandex just to get some errands done in a non-carbon-producing manner. So why not turn instead to the Dutch Bike Co. in Ballard? Their super-sturdy, Euro-style two-wheelers are like Volvo station wagons for the peak-oil set, with racks, baskets, saddlebags,... More >>
• Best Store for Discount Designer Jeans
  Jeans Direct
  If you're a member of the moneyed set, Bellevue has a lot going on, especially in the clothes department. But if you're, say, a mysteriously employed writer living on the Eastside, then Jeans Direct is a denim-centric godsend. Loftily titled designer labels, such as 7 for All Mankind and True... More >>
• Best Electronics-Store Customer Service
  U. Village Apple Store
  For some of us, at least, the decision to finally get an iPhone came only after weeks of anguished cost-benefit analysis and sleepless nights of worrying whether it was too flashy and ostentatious. Then came the purchaser's remorse—the money spent, but no idea how to turn the thing on. What is... More >>
• Best Fashion Statement That Needs a Comeback
  Socks and Sandals
  After a revealing Fourth of July weekend, I'm not so sure that socks and sandals have faded away sufficiently to require a comeback. Still, nothing sticks it to the man quite like Tevas over GoldToes. In many ways, this is the mullet of footwear, a multipurpose ensemble that gets disrespected... More >>
• Best Well-Selected Sonic Weirdness
  Dissonant Plane
  Ballard's Resolution Audio looks a bit like a furniture showroom, all quiet and woody and carpety. Upstairs, on a little platform off to one side, a half-dozen well-packed shelves hold the inventory of Dissonant Plane, Seattle's premiere niche-music boutique since its opening last December.... More >>
• Best Alternative to the Straightening Iron
  Saely Beauty Salon
  That effortlessly silky hair so many Asian women possess? News flash: It ain't always natural. Many of these women—including myself—actually undergo an intense chemical process every six months that permanently straightens all new hair growth. The Japanese thermal straightening method was... More >>
• Best Independent Fashion Boutique
  the Powder Room
  It feels like you're ransacking your chic older sister's closet when you shop at the Powder Room. Even the smallest of available spaces is crammed with eye-catching prints, flirty dresses, and funky jewelry. And you're tempted to try on everything you set eyes on. Luckily, none of the goodies in... More >>
• Best Place to Shop When You're a Closet Yuppie
  Banana Republic's Clearance Rack
  You wouldn't know it from cruising the bike messengers swarming the nearby Monorail Espresso, but the Banana Republic's Clearance Rack is a nice pot of gold at the end of the metrosexual rainbow. And for those of us who have a physical reaction to the Office Depot–chic decor of American... More >>
• Best Mother-Child Consignment Corner
  Gather and Sweet Pea's
  It's hard to find a good consignment store. Either the stuff is too old and musty— like things dragged down from Grandma's attic—or the prices are not all that less than what you'd be paying for new. Which is why any woman or child, or better yet woman with child, should go immediately to the... More >>
• Best Place to Jump on the Retro-Chic Hipster Bandwagon
  Pretty Parlor
  Be honest. Sometimes you see those hipsters walking around with their pin-up bangs and vintage cardigans and '70s-style ties and you think, "That is so adorable!" The fact is, you can only be a hipster-hater for so long before you kind of start thinking about cutting your hair to look like... More >>
• Best Place to Pamper Your Feet
  The Woolly Mammoth
  Back in the '60s, the Ave was a place for aimless hippies and college kids to mingle. Circling in the crowd was law-school dropout Patrick Andre. Andre, tall and hairy, was known to friends as the Woolly Mammoth, so in 1970, when he decided to turn his love of leather into a shop selling bags,... More >>
• Best Hair Salon (2 Comments)
  Bombaii Cutters
  Bombaii Cutters is fabulously funky. Britney Spears' music blares on the stereo. Plastic giraffes and zebras stand under real palm trees. The salon owner's dog, a sassy Shih Tzu named Daisy, sunbathes by the entrance and yaps when clients walk in. The laid-back atmosphere is a far cry from that... More >>
• Best Source for Last-Minute Gifts
  Kobo at Higo
  Sometimes life gets in the way, and we need a little help being our naturally thoughtful selves. Part gallery, Kobo at Higo features the work of Japanese and American artists, with a focus on ceramics. Part store, the space holds an eclectic mix of jewelry, cards, and unique objects you can... More >>
• Best Something-in-a-Box for Your Lady
  Ballard Blossom
  When you've really got your significant one steamed and see a month's worth of sleeping on the couch in your future, picking up a bouquet of flowers from the grocery store probably isn't gonna cut it. Instead, try heading to Ballard Blossom for some flowers in a box. It may sound crazy, but... More >>
• Best Playground for Tiny (Four-Legged) Tots
  Fuzzy Buddy's Dog Daycare
  A playground situated next to a cemetery on Aurora Avenue doesn't sound especially appealing. In fact, it sounds rather unpleasant. But the small fry scampering about Fuzzy Buddy's Dog Daycare are oblivious to their dead neighbors. They're infatuated with the center because it recognizes and... More >>
• Best Alternative to Stitch 'n' Bitch
  Fusion Beads
  Most Seattle women have learned that the only way to stay sufficiently sane during our dreary winter months is by getting crafty. For those of you who never really got into that whole "Stitch 'n' Bitch" movement, Fusion Beads in Wallingford is a welcome alternative to the yarn (or is it yawn?)... More >>
• Best New Downtown Kiosk
  Frank Turco Memorial Newsstand
  Like the sidewalk coffee cart, traditional newsstands have been disappearing from Seattle. Increasingly, people get their news online or on their iPhone, often inside a coffee shop with wi-fi. For this reason, the swoopy new red-roofed Frank Turco Memorial Newsstand is more than an exercise in... More >>