Critics' Picks

Best Combo Gallery/Coffee Shop

In days past, to show your art in a coffee shop was just a little déclassé—a career dead end for washed-up painters and the occasional travel photographer. But no more—Seattle's coffee shops (and even the occasional barbershop) are the equivalent of minor-league ballparks for up-and-coming stars on the local art scene. Standing above the rest are the walls at JOE BAR in the lovely Loveless Building on Capitol Hill. Tireless curator Jess Van Nostrand stages consistently high-quality shows of painting, photography, and other work by talented young artists. (Nostrand requires that all artists shown don't yet have gallery representation.) Oh, and the crepes and cappuccinos are pretty darn good here, too.—Andrew Engelson 810 E. Roy St., 206-324-0407, www.joebar.org.

Best Place to See a Blockbuster Without Standing in Line

We know we recommended COLUMBIA CITY CINEMA to you last year, but obviously you weren't listening. Because you can still waltz in there most evenings and see a first-run movie (like Batman Begins or War of the Worlds) without having to buy your ticket ahead of time or cool your heels outside. Bonuses: cheap popcorn, free on-street parking, friendly staff, and one of the coolest waiting rooms in the city—just in case you can't bring yourself to show up at the last minute. —Lynn Jacobson 4816 Rainier Ave. S., 206-721-3156, www.columbiacitycinema.com.

Best Record Store

Mark Sullo and Eric Hoffmann opened WALL OF SOUND in Belltown in 1990, and after moving up to Capitol Hill, the store, now owned by Jeffery Taylor and Michael Ohlenroth, recently celebrated its 15-year anniversary. Having passed through and defied one and a half decades of clichés and trends, the small, fastidiously maintained record and book store continues to focus on adventurous sounds and quality ideas. (But you can almost always find whatever's getting heavy rotation on KEXP, too, if that's what you're looking for.) In addition to disseminating static material, on the fourth Thursday of every month, the store hosts live shows at the Rendezvous—and those are always sonically forward and conceptually apropos, too.—Laura Cassidy 315 E. Pine St., 206-441-9880.

Best Gallery You've Never Been To

Maybe it's because it's hidden in SoDo between a train-car diner and a sheet-metal fabricator, but the city's best gallery doesn't get a whole lot of walk-in traffic. If you're looking for thought-provoking exhibits of contemporary art, WESTERN BRIDGE is worth the drive among the diesel trucks and fast-food joints. Nearly all the art is from Bill and Ruth True's formidable collection of international contemporary works. The Trues have a particular fondness for video, and a huge, padded screening room offers one of the city's best venues to see important work by artists such as Steve McQueen, Trisha Donnelly, and Seattle's own Gary Hill. Photography, installations, huge electronic sculptures, and even an occasional painting are all part of the mix here. We'relucky to have it—don't let the industrial setting scare you off. —Andrew Engelson 3412 Fourth Ave. S., 206-838-7444, www.westernbridge.org.

Best Contract Renewal

We should all be happy that Bartlett Sher signed on for three more seasons as artistic director of Intiman Theatre. What has he given us so far? A multiple Tony- winning musical (Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel's shimmering The Light in the Piazza), an award-winning play (the ambitious Holocaust farce Singing Forest, also by Lucas), and the sense that when we sit down for one of his productions, we'll be seeing something familiar in a completely new way (witness the disquieting undertow of his humane but deeply unsettled Our Town). His vision has made the theater across from the Rep feel like Seattle's real giant.—Steve Wiecking Seattle Center, 206-269-1900, www.intiman.org.

Best Alternative Venue

The use of the word "gallery" in GALLERY 1412's name is perfect. It's a music venue that hosts everything from impressive free-jazz improv to butoh to politico post-punk noise, but the shows have an element of exhibition, too. It isn't that they're showy or conspicuous, or that the visual element is necessarily as important as the sonic one. In fact, the space is small and plain; it's the ultimate little black box. But the music here is presented purposefully and artfully, and you're meant to interact with it. "Curated" by a group of 14 local artists who, in exchange for helping to generate rent money, also get to rehearse their projects there, the gallery's programming includes workshops and art openings. —Laura Cassidy 1412 18th Ave., 206-322-1533, www.gallery1412.org.

Best Aisle at Scarecrow

Oh, sure, you've got your porno section, your anime area, your unclassifiable comedies, and nation-by-nation sections, but for my money, it's the HITCHCOCK SHELVES that are most impressive. They've got some 127 titles (several of them duplicates) in all your major formats, including Laserdisc for you first-edition Criterion Collection purists. There are also compendiums from his 1950s Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series and some of his silent-era rarities. Look a little further, and there are many documentaries about the famed director, too. Given enough rainy evenings, you could practically assemble your own Ph.D. course on the guy, then perhaps write a dissertation on why his Mr. & Mrs. Smith is superior to the Brad and Angelina flick.—Brian Miller 5030 Roosevelt Way N.E., 206-524-8554, www.scarecrow.com.