Shops & Merchandise >>

• Best Adult Video Store
  Tropixxx Video
  In better economic times, you shopped differently. You felt quality transcended quantity. Nowhere else was this more apparent than at your local adult video store. It was there, in that high-ceilinged, well-lit den of sin that you slapped wads of dead presidents on the counter in exchange for... More >>
• Best Scooter Store
  Vespa of Fort Lauderdale
  You can't recall exactly how the romance started, but the flirtation began at the intersection of Federal Highway and NE 26th Street. Every day, you drove by and there she was, resting outside the Vespa shop, beckoning. Her dragon-red paint job teased you with its gleam. You knew you needed to... More >>
• Best Thrift Store
  The Poverello Center
  Fashion-forward women know one thing about thrifting: Shop where the drag queens donate. It's a simple rule and one that will score you bounty beyond your wildest wishes. Size 11 patent-leather pumps? Check. Amazing accessories? Yep. Fancy evening wear? Just take out the shoulder pads and it's... More >>
• Best Mechanic (1 Comment)
  Ernesto Salazar at J. Ko's Auto Repair
  Here's a story about a woman and her car. How the sunny streets of South Florida aren't pedestrian-friendly. Or car-friendly. How when her car kept overheating, she learned she needed a new radiator, water pump, and thermostat. And how she couldn't afford to pay the estimated $1,300 to fix it.... More >>
• Best Body Shop
  Chassis Master
  If you’re unlucky enough to need one of the body shop services, it’s tough to weed out the fly-by-nights from the real pros. Chassis Master is definitely one of the latter. Staffers are superpolite, they know how to handle insurance companies, and most important, they’re superb craftsmen who can... More >>
• Best Head Shop
  Peace Pipe
  I remember walking into Peace Pipe for the first time. My school uniform might have been the reason I got carded. But what almost got me kicked out was a friend who used the word bong. Everyone knows, in an age when government agencies are ridiculously spending taxpayer money to raid things like... More >>
• Best Tattoo Shop
  Colorfast Studios
  Despite the unassuming, narrow exterior of its original downtown Fort Lauderdale location, Colorfast packs a mammoth-sized artistic punch. The waiting area is bright and clean but no-nonsense. Although the staff is friendly, Colorfast is not necessarily where you come to waste time and mess... More >>
• Best Tattoo Artist (8 Comments)
  Holden Ritchison, Formula Ink
  OK, so this is the kind of tattoo shop where you hang out — and the staff wants you to. Owner Holden Ritchison, a big Santa Claus of a man, started this new shop just a few doors down from the Culture Room. With an open-plan space that looks more like a den, Formula Ink has the best... More >>
• Best Place to Support Caged Dogs (2 Comments)
  Petland
  Among the things universally found irresistible: bacon sandwiches, a free pass of wacky tobaccy, and cute-ass puppies. We're talking the teacup kind that you find at Petland — those little balls of fur that just about fit between your index finger and thumb. They're so precious that you... More >>
• Best Dive Shop
  The Scuba Club
  They don't call the Scuba Club a "country club for divers" for nothing. It may not boast a croquet lawn or polo grounds, but it does feature a swimming pool, a deep tank, classrooms, locker rooms, a boat dock, a gear shop, a photo lab, a picnic area, a one-bedroom hotel suite, and even a steam... More >>
• Best Comics Store (6 Comments)
  Tate's Comics
  It's safe to say Tate's Comics is a dynasty in South Florida comics. We have handed it Best Comic Store for about the past 73 years, but it's not because we're lazy. It's because of conversations like this that happen inside the sacred walls of geekdom: "But look at her boobs; they're so... More >>
• Best Yoga Studio
  Red Pearl Yoga
  Try as you might, you lack self-control. It would be nice if you were part of that specially selected few with the ability to follow a yoga routine at home, without a guide coaxing them through completion. But you are not. The flipside, of course, is that you can stretch and bend in the company... More >>
• Best Cheap Thrill
  Intoxiskate at Gold Coast Roller Rink
  Remember the old-school brown skates from your childhood days at the roller rink? Recall the disco ball and the Moonlight Skate? Remember how they always trucked in cases of beer and liquor... Hey, wait a second! That nifty little addition has only been part of the skating experience since the... More >>
• Best Not-So-Cheap Thrill
  South Florida Powered Paragliding
  See the guys at the beach waving their metal detectors over the sand. See the guys with kiteboards flopping around in the waves. Now see those guys get owned by Carlos Segnini and Oscar Aranguren of South Florida Powered Paragliding , who are puttering over everyone's heads in their motorized... More >>
• Best Place to Ditch the Kids
  Small Land at IKEA
  The whining. The nagging. The incessant need for coddling. Sometimes your spouse just drives you bonkers — the kind of insanity that only strolling through a labyrinth of home goods can cure. Of course, you still have the tykes to contend with. It is tedious mornings like these that demand... More >>
• Best Gym
  The Gym 111
  Located right in the thick of downtown Delray's restaurants and nightclubs, the Gym 111 is a decidedly metropolitan experience. Other gyms buy up cheap strip-mall space in the suburbs, then pack the floor with loads of cheap equipment and a few cheaply paid employees — the better to offer... More >>
• Best Silk Screen Company (1 Comment)
  Iron Forge Press
  South Florida's underground music scene is constantly going through reinvention. Bands form, flourish, and extend their tentacles beyond the peninsula's watery tips, then vanish. It's evolution with a backbeat, and nobody documents the phenomenon with more aesthetic prowess than local silk... More >>
• Best Middle Eastern Grocery Store
  Al-Salam Middle Eastern Restaurant and Grocery
  Masha'Allah! Look at all the selections. Of course you have all your fantastic, hard-to-get Middle Eastern foods and drinks. Crackers, snacks, packaging with funny pictures and words you may or may not understand — but love all the more. And before you shop, of course you'll stop for a... More >>
• Best Liquor Store
  Total Wine & More
  Just because Total Wine is a chain with 55 locations nationwide doesn't mean it's anything less than a tribute to the glory of booze. Walk into any one of its five South Florida locations and you'll find a playground for adults — albeit an expertly categorized and impeccably labeled one.... More >>
• Best Record Store
  Backbone Music
  In the somewhat unlikely cutesy locale of downtown Delray, this small but sharply curated store has become the go-to spot for kids from northern Broward and Palm Beach counties. The name of the game here, really, is rock — and specifically, all those gloriously messy offshoots that derive... More >>
• Best Used-Book Store (2 Comments)
  Second Edition Book Shop
  There's a store hidden away in Lincoln Park Plaza in Davie that seems very out of place. Walk through the door of Second Edition Book Shop, where comfy, overstuffed leather chairs are tucked away in the corners, and suddenly you're miles away from strip malls and traffic-choked roads. A cheery... More >>
• Best Library
  Broward County Library: Hollywood Branch
  One of the first things to get slashed in personal budgets during rough economic times is entertainment. It's hard to justify spending $30 on the newest hardcover teen vampire love story when the power bill is looming, but the government is here to bail you out. The Hollywood Branch of the... More >>
• Best Record Store to Die
  Uncle Sam's
  This Broward County institution announced its closure suddenly this past winter through an email notification about a clearance sale, and the cries of horror were nearly audible. Nearly every Gen-X and Y music geek in the tricounty area had made a pilgrimage at some point to the store, which was... More >>
• Best Café to Boycott
  Starbucks in Wilton Manors
  Less than four years ago, this Starbucks opened between two locally owned and vastly superior coffee shops — Stork's and Java Boys. Since then, the corporate storefront has been competing for one-third or more of Wilton Manors' coffee dollars and waiting for the competition to fold. Before... More >>
• Best Reason to TGIF (1 Comment)
  Delivery Day from Purple Pie Co. at Pink Ghost
  You are a cubicle soldier, bravely battling work's demons for five long days each week. By Friday, you've slain the dangerous busywork dragon down to a mound of ash while retaining a jovial demeanor, and your energy is depleted. This is the day you receive your grand reward: The pies have... More >>
• Best Place to Improve Your Nest
  Habitat for Humanity Re-Store
  Recycle, reuse, reupholster is your mantra, especially since you became a homeowner. Rather than making another frantic excursion to the Home Depot, try exploring Habitat for Humanity Re-Store's labyrinth of nesting supplies. It is there, in that glorious warehouse of potential, that you'll find... More >>
• Best Boutique
  Jezebel
  Dear Diary, First off, I'm sorry I haven't written in so long — I just haven't found anything really juicy and crush-worthy to share until today. I was wandering along, underwhelmed by my shopping options, certain that I would never open my heart again, and that's when it winked at me.... More >>
• Best Computer Repair Shop
  Tech Support Wizards
  It happens — without fail — at the most inconvenient time possible. You've spent weeks working on a project, report, or dissertation that was due yesterday, and just as you begin booting up, your machine turns on you, emitting a series of ill-fated beeps and assuring you that your... More >>