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• Best Neighborhood Bookstore

  Bookworm Exchange

  It is not easy to be a bookstore in the age of Amazon, especially when you're dealing with the low margins afforded by used books, as is Columbia's City's Bookworm Exchange. Stop by, and owner Jim Holmes will tell you that he is struggling mightily, like everyone else. Yet the doors remain open, and Bookworm is just the kind of… More >>

• Best-Kept Beauty Secret

  Aurora Avenue North

  Korean women exude a seemingly effortless beauty, what with their flawless skin and lustrous locks. Some of this can be attributed to good genes, most of it to Aurora Avenue North. The notorious strip doesn't come off as glamorous, but the small mixed-use buildings along either side of the street house as many beauty salons as they do cigar shops… More >>

• Best Place for a Sweater and a Chest Pat

  Northwest Pendleton

  Pendleton apparel exists in a cozy place in our city's cultural zeitgeist. It's as versatile as our weather is unpredictable. Twelve months a year, you can see its presence on Seattle streets, either authentically or in the form of a fawning imitator. It's a tad more fashionable than the indestructible Filson, and not as expensive. It is criminally mistaken for… More >>

• Best Place to Rifle Through Someone Else's Mail

  Deluxe Junk

  You'd be surprised what people will buy and sell. Just inside the front door of Deluxe Junk in Fremont you'll find boxes and boxes of envelopes from now-defunct businesses, bearing 3-cent stamps and marked 1953, or postcards from Deutschland beginning with words of "hearty greeting." On a table nearby are copies of Playboy from the days when even magazines like… More >>

• Best New Boutique in the 'Hood

  Meadow

  Open just shy of a year, Queen Anne's hidden shopping gem, Meadow, sits tucked away on a residential street near—but a world apart from—Targy's Tavern. Its housewares, clothing, and accessories transport you to the fields of Provence, where you rest on lavender sachets and bathe in floral soaps courtesy of Sweet Petula. An alternative to pricey Watson Kennedy or Anthropologie,… More >>

• Best Place to Buy an Ugly Dog

  Seattle Pug Rescue

  For many, buying a dog is like buying a car: They want the latest model. The rest, specifically those in the market for something squat and lacking in what could be called traditional beauty, turn to Sherry Vadheim and the 130 volunteers behind Seattle Pug Rescue. According to Vadheim, who has three of her own, pugs are the third most… More >>

• Best Hairless Happy Hour

  The Wax Bar

  Decked out in beachy white and turquoise, the sleek West Seattle beauty salon known as The Wax Bar offers patrons a pre- or post-wax cold one. At the only wax spa in the state with a liquor license, suds range from pale Italian lager (Peroni) to Pike Kilt Lifter (both $2), as well as Lindemans lambic in fram-boise or pêche… More >>

• Best Woman-Friendly Man Cave

  Definitive Audio

  Definitive Audio is the ultimate mantuary, showcasing an awesome selection of HD televisions, projectors, and speakers. Fortunately for the significant others of those who are in search of the latest home-theater technology, Definitive also houses several fully equipped showrooms. While your man browses, you can stave off boredom by settling into one of these plush suites and catching up on… More >>

• Best Guy to Turn Your Wood

  Richard Steppic

  No, that's not a double entendre. Richard Steppic used to make the Space Needle–shaped pepper grinders sold in tourist gift shops around town. But he gave that up to focus on his greater talent, the ability to take a vague request for a wooden pepper mill or bowl, with instructions like "I don't know, something modernish," and turn it into… More >>

• Best In-'n'-Out Brazilian

  Sally's Nails

  For 20 bucks, Sally's Nails will put those low riders back in action—and leave you with enough leftover cash to visit boozy neighbor Finn MacCool's. At Sally's, there are no sand rakes or Enya music playing overhead. Wax expert Linh Nguyen is so ruthlessly efficient that within 10 minutes she'll be scooting you out. And the best part? Sally's employs… More >>

• Best Used-Records Bin

  Jive Time Records

  Every box marked $1 sitting outside a record store is stuffed with classic rock. There are so many Led Zeppelin, Beatles, and Bruce Springsteen LPs in those bins, you could use them to re-side your house. What makes a used-record box truly great is its commitment to other genres. And one afternoon at Jive Time Records in Fremont produced albums… More >>

• Best Hidden-Away Nursery

  Tita's Flower Patch

  Tita Hipol is one of those people with such a passion for gardening that for her it's not enough to make her own yard look beautiful. She has to propagate more plants, fill more pots, get others to appreciate the flowers she loves. For years she simply gave plants as gifts to friends and family members. But then someone suggested… More >>

• Best During-Haircut Conversation for Men

  Paul Gray's Barber Lounge

  There's a huge gap between what men and women want when they get their hair cut. For most men, the option not to talk is key. Paul Gray's Barber Lounge, a narrow three-seater on the only unsleepy street in sleepy Madrona, accepts those who are unwilling to be chatty. But it also has a way of bringing out the blarney… More >>

• Best Tanning Salon for the Talent

  Rock Star Tan Bar

  Rock Star Tan Bar is set up like a recording studio: The staff are the agents, the customers the talent, and the beds are studios that light up with "recording" alerts when occupied. The gist is that you go in, get your 15 minutes of fame, and leave looking like a rock star, or at least like you vacationed in… More >>

• Best Indie Mall for Tomes, Mannys, and LPs

  10th and Pine

  The indie mall that's come to life at 10th and Pine on Capitol Hill is copying the Barnes & Noble experience, but with the political and retail sensibilities of Seattle's KEXP-loving, NPR-huffing, indie-bookstore-obsessing set. In the first corner is Linda Derschang's Oddfellows Cafe + Bar, which would be worth visiting just for their tall glass/bucket of beer. Throw in reasonably… More >>

• Best Costco Alternative for Urbanites

  Ballard Fred Meyer

  Seattle has one of the lowest child-per-capita rates in the nation. But while you may have no need to fill the SUV with groceries every week to feed a family of five, that doesn't mean you can't also appreciate one-stop convenience, ample parking, and low prices. And those are precisely the virtues of the Ballard Fred Meyer. A subject of… More >>

• Best Treatment for a Hoarder

  Seattle Goodwill

  If you're not a hoarder yourself, chances are you know one. And as empty-nesters downsize into smaller homes, as young families try to adapt to commute-free, in-city living (as per Mayor McGinn's orders), space is always at a premium. No matter where you live or what your income, you always have too much stuff. But some just have a harder… More >>

• Best Place to Get Your Old Triumph Spitfire Running Again

  Take a 30-year-old Fiat to the local garage, and they'll laugh at you: The repairs would exceed the vehicle's value. But find the right manual and that carburetor rebuild can be an affordable, educational weekend project. (Well, maybe two weekends.) Where to find it? Down in Columbia City, where Alex and Ruthie Voss' Books4Cars offers a browser's paradise for a… More >>

• Best Place to Talk ASA Instead of ISO

  Glazer's Camera Supply

  Digital photography is great, but some of us still cling to film. And while Glazer's Camera Supply is happy to sell you the latest megapixel monster, or Photoshop, or memory cards, or a flatbed scanner, the knowledgeable staff knows how to talk ASA and Tri-X, too. Holdout customers who favor 35mm film (or larger formats) aren't made to feel like… More >>

• Best Way to Balance a Midlife Crisis and Environmental Scruples

  Tesla Motors

  They got the location right. Surrounded by new Amazon.com towers and biotech centers in South Lake Union, the Tesla Motors dealership offers a premium, high-tech product that goes 0–60 in under four seconds. (A Prius does the same in about 10.) The Roadster model, based on a low-slung Lotus chassis, starts at $110,000, comparable to a nice new Porsche or… More >>

• Best Indie Mall for Bacon, Brie, and LPs

  Melrose Market

  If there were apartments on top of the triangular building around Pine and Minor known as Melrose Market, there'd be little excuse to leave the building, and you'd finally be able to one-up your friends with the tiniest carbon footprint. Drive to the store for bacon? No need. Just stumble downstairs to Rain Shadow Meats for a slab of pork… More >>

• Best Late-Night Apparel Impulse Buy

  It's a quarter to last call. You've had more than a few too many. You're stumbling back through Pike/Pine, and what's the one thing you want to do before you head home? Buy a shirt, obviously. Late at night, Boma Cho opens his sales racks right on the sidewalk; lately, he's been on Capitol Hill near Neumos and the Comet… More >>