Best Video Arcade 1999 | Grand Prix Race-O-Rama | Goods & Services | South Florida
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Best Video Arcade

Grand Prix Race-O-Rama

We may be dating ourselves here, but by concentrating on stocking the hottest new virtual reality simulators, operators of some arcades have left many old favorites out of the mix. The best arcade should have it all, and Grand Prix Race-O-Rama certainly comes close. While the kids virtual-fight on Tekken-3 or swoosh toward victory on Alpine Surfer -- a snowboarding simulator in which balance and technique are crucial -- parents can reminisce with a game of Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, or Centipede, all of which are located in a sort of "flashback row." For a real blast from the past, play one of the six pinball machines -- though these newer models are based on recent movies, such as Godzilla and Lost in Space. The boardwalk-arcade feel is completed with photo booths and ski-ball games, which award prize tickets redeemable for trinkets. Grand Prix is also a gambler's paradise of sorts, with simulated horseracing and poker. Oh, and you can find a few other relics there: namely, air hockey tables. In addition to Grand Prix's original, 14,000-square-foot arcade, which is located next to the go-kart track, another huge (40,000-square-foot) gaming center is housed in the main building across the street. Both arcades are open 24 hours.

Best Video Store

Blockbuster Video

We're still waiting for the day when a link between cable TV and the Internet will provide us with a video library, a one-stop rental site replete with every movie known to man, from The Birth of a Nation to The Waterboy, with all the obscure, naughty, horrifying, and gut-achingly funny picks in between. Then we'll just click on, say, Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, sit back with our popcorn, and enjoy. Until then Blockbuster's the next best thing. The chain doesn't carry every movie known to man (where's the adult section?), but it is a chain, and your membership card is good anywhere, meaning that if they don't have The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in Plantation, it may just be available in Hollywood. And the regular rental price, $3.17, ain't bad, nor is the fact that now your chances of renting a brand-new release on its first weekend are pretty good. Are the stores a little too crowded and brightly lit, the youngsters at the cash registers a little too perky? Sure. But these are small prices to pay for the freedom of choice that is every movie-lover's God-given right. Amen.

Best Vintage Clothing Store

Sepulchre

A sepulchre, according to The American Heritage Dictionary, is a burial vault, or a receptacle for sacred relics. That sounds about right, if you take a quick look at the vintage clothing store known as Sepulchre in Lake Worth. A hearse is parked outside, Marilyn Manson posters adorn the walls, and love beads and bell-bottoms are nowhere to be found. But there's more to this store than the macabre. Beautiful turn-of-the-century dresses and gowns and coats from the Eastern seaboard are available at Sepulchre. Owner Angelina Laurie says all the items have some kind of historical significance, which is one of the ways she determines a piece's worth. For example, we were shown a 19th-century black wedding dress with a lace spider web design. The spider web symbolized eternal love in Victorian times, according to Laurie. But not everything in the store is Victorian and black; Laurie also carries Joan Crawford-inspired suits from the '40s and '50s. Word of mouth is responsible for most of Sepulchre's business, and loyal customers like it that way, because they want to keep the great finds to themselves.

Best Wine Store

The Best Cellar

The Best Cellar has a measly 220 or so bottles of wine and champagne for sale -- a pittance compared to what's offered by the alcohol emporium Beverages & More. But whatever Best Cellar lacks in quantity, it more than compensates for with a discerning selection and knowledgeable service. "My mother was born in France, and when I was four years old, I was drinking red wine," says owner Richard Stetler, who also honed his tasting skills while working as a maitre d' at upscale eateries. With few exceptions, such as wines from Robert Mondavi and champagnes by Veuve Clicquot, Stetler limits his selections to presses of no more than 5000 bottles. Aside from Italian, French, and Californian vintages, Best Cellar offers fine merlots and chardonnays from less wine-centric countries such as Argentina, Australia, and South Africa. "South African wines are the absolute best wines in the world for the prices," Stetler says. He cites the 1994 merlot from Bodega Farm on the Cape ($16.95) and a more exotic offering, the sweet South African apple wine from Pale Moon Winery ($7.99) as examples. To compensate for its size, Best Cellar offers a host of incentives. Customers who pay $250 annually or $30 per month get 15 percent off all purchases and a gratis bottle of wine each month from a choice of five. Members also receive free admission to the shop's Wednesday winetastings, which feature six to eight wines and spreads that include cheese, caviar, and pâté. Even if it's not Wednesday night, no need to worry; the gregarious Stetler always has a handful of bottles open for tasting.

Best Place to Get a Haircut and a Beer While Watching the Game

MVP Sports Salon

It's not as if an earth-shattering cry arose from some vain, beer-guzzling sports nuts looking for a place to throw back a cold one, get a haircut, and watch the Panthers game. But Brian Fischer hated going to his local barber shop and having to sit and wait -- and wait -- for the next available stylist. So he teamed up with wife Leslie and brother Stuart and created MVP Sports Salon. The Fischers, local entrepreneurs all, opened the place two years ago in an old West Palm Beach gas station to serve those couch potatoes who simply must have their sports TV. Indeed MVP is part neighborhood tavern, part local barber shop. Bar food is available, of course, as are upper-body massages, perms, hair coloring, or just a shave and a haircut -- all while patrons B.S. about the game or SportsCenter highlights on one of several TVs in the bar. And, like any tavern worth its beer nuts, MVP has its crowd of regulars, who sidle up to the bar at happy hour (4 to 7 p.m. weeknights) and enjoy a massage and a brew. Sorry, though, no cheerleaders.

Best Liquor Store

ABC Fine Wine & Spirits

Let's say you're planning a cocktail party for some friends with particularly sophisticated palates. Along with the usual nibblies -- cheeses and crackers, chips and nuts, pickles and olives -- you want your spread to include, say, three kinds of caviar, as well as some citron vodka Swedish meatballs and miniature puff pastries with assorted fillings. Your bar will be stocked with an array of top-shelf liquors and liqueurs, and you'll have a sampling of beers and wines from all over the world, hard ciders, and maybe a few domestic microbrewed beers. You don't have to trek all over town to assemble these goodies, because all of them can be found at this newest store in the ABC chain, which also has outposts in Pembroke Pines and at the beach in Fort Lauderdale. You'll find mixers and bar supplies, too, as well as chocolates, sauces of all sorts (including fiery hot pepper), mustards, pastas, imported cheeses and meats, and a dizzying variety of cocktail olives and onions. One climate-controlled room features dozens of cigars from throughout Latin America, and another has wines so pricey they're under lock and key -- a 1986 Château-Margaux, for instance, that goes for $462.99. (The '83 vintage is a whopping $3 cheaper.) To top things off, the staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and eager to please, and the liquor prices are pretty much unbeatable.

Best Bike Shop

International Bicycle Shops

Watch out, it could happen to you. One day you may be thinking how this would be a nice day for a ride along the beach, and the next you'll be laying down the price of a used car for a zippy little two-wheeler featuring 24 gears, front-wheel suspension, disc brakes, click shifters, a speedometer, a tachometer, a rear-view mirror, and God knows what else. As bikes become ever more complex and expensive, it pays to be a careful shopper before laying down cash. And there's no better place for comparison-shopping than at International Bicycle Shops. Among the top five outlets in the nation for Cannondales and the number-one in the state for GTs, International boasts one of the largest on-site inventories of bicycles in South Florida. It's all here: everything from $3000 racing bikes to $400 hybrid bangers, not to mention all the accessories -- helmets, gloves, air pumps, tire repair kits, et cetera -- that you'll want before hitting the road. So go ahead, ask yourself: Wouldn't this be a great day for a ride along the beach?

Best Place to Buy Cigarettes

Gator Tobacco Outlet

Ever been to a drive-thru cigarette store? Well, on the Seminole reservation in Hollywood you'll find the Gator Tobacco Outlet, a trailer on a concrete lot a block or two north of Sheridan Street. All a patron has to do is pull up to the window and, in a flash, favorite brand is in hand. Even better, the Seminoles don't have to pay taxes, so neither do you. The price of a pack of Marlboros is a scant $2.50 (scant for this litigious, tobacco-bashing era, anyway). A lighter can be had for a quarter. A 12-ounce can of soda is 50 cents, and a small bag of chips is only 30 coppers. Tax-free, all the time. To get an idea of the kind of savings Gator provides, consider that your average convenience store sells a pack of Marlboros for $3 or more.

Best Place to Plot Your Course

Bluewater Books & Charts

In business for 13 years, Bluewater Books & Charts is the largest nautical bookstore and chart dealer in North America, shipping 50 to 100 packages a day to ports around the globe. A sampling of its wares includes the paperback Voyaging on a Small Income, the coffee-table tome The Superyachts, waterproof logbooks, navigation software, Florida Keys guidebooks, and charts of the Caspian Sea. Just as informative is the store's staff, which consists of a retired naval commander, a circumnavigator, and a passel of pier residents. Whatever your destination, chances are a Bluewater employee has been there -- or at least can pass along an anecdote from his or her loyal network of seafaring customers. Though mail orders account for more than a third of its sales, the shop is still a hub -- or, as owner Milt Baker describes it, "a happening." Baker cites a typical Bluewater encounter: In walked a man who was about to set sail for Venezuela. A woman browsing among the books announced that she lived in Caracas and took her boat to nearby islands almost every weekend. She told the man about her favorite passages, and he left the store with the kind of information even the most comprehensive of cruising guides can't provide.

Best Newsstand/Broward

Clark's Out of Town News

Two exceptional newsstands exist in Broward County: Bob's News & Book Store and Clark's Out of Town News. Bob's is the more interesting of the two, a combination head shop, newsstand, and sex-toy emporium. Bob's has bongs, edible panties, the latest edition of the Death Investigator's Handbook, and a Wal-Mart-size selection of pornography. But when we're looking for serious news, we head to the slightly less eccentric Clark's, tucked beneath the Andrews Avenue bridge in the Riverwalk area. The folks manning the cash registers at Clark's have fewer piercings than those at Bob's and far less attitude. Plenty of copies of Spin and Cosmo are available, as are less grocery-store-friendly titles. The store has newspapers from every corner of the country and beyond. The Sunday Missoulian? The Sydney Herald? Both are in stock. We can't figure out exactly who would want to read a week-old copy of the Cincinnati Enquirer, but it's there if you're interested. As is the metro edition of the Sunday New York Times, complete with classified ads, just like you would find it at a bodega in Brooklyn. And yes, Clark's has plenty of pornography as well.

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