Best of Vancouver 2011 contributors' picks: Shopping & Style

For the Georgia Straight’s 16th annual Best of Vancouver issue, our editorial team has spent months on the lookout for good deeds, weird urban details, and various howlers to highlight. Here’s our contributors’ picks for Best of Vancouver 2011.

Best addition to Vancouver’s charming secondhand shops

Again Enterprise
1868 West Broadway

An unpretentious nostalgia shop with treasures and oddities to revisit and enjoy again. It’s co-owned by Filipino Canadian bon vivant and journalist Mel Tobias. Again Enterprise has something for both collectors and urban dwellers, with an array of items, from unique home décor to tableware, coffee table books, and musicals on CD.

Most animal-friendly shoe store

Nice Shoes
3568 Fraser Street

Maybe you don’t want to wear dead-cows’ skin on your feet. If so, Nice Shoes is your kind of place. In March, Vancouver’s only vegan shoe store opened its doors, showing that footwear can be both fashionable and cruelty-free. Inside, you’ll find everything from hikers to high heels—and no leather.

Best business opportunity for a beardo

It’s an idea so perfect, it’s hard to believe no one has thought of it before. Consider that there’s an almost insane range of beard-oriented products for sale in this world. Think of Bluebeard’s Original Beard Saver, which contains lime that “breaks down trapped dirt and oil clinging to hair shafts”. Or Hazlenut & Cedar Beard Conditioner, which “heals dry, flaky skin and beard dandruff”. And Real Man’s Beard Gloss, the very name conjuring visions of professional ass kickers like Chuck Norris and Lou Ferrigno. The big problem with said products? You have to order them off the Internet, which means that even if you start out pink-cheeked, you’ll look like a cross between Rip Van Winkle and ZZ Top by the time they finally arrive. That’s a double drag when you need something el pronto for that big Iron & Wine/William Fitzsimmons double bill at the Vogue. All this begs the question of why someone hasn’t been smart enough to set up a beard-products store on Main Street, where even newborn babies sport Sasquatch-like facial hair. Someone’s missing out on a licence to print money here. If you think they do booming business at Flo’s Fixie Factory across from the Five Point, imagine the foot traffic you’d see at Bob’s Beardo Boutique.

Best place to unload used CDs (and search for vinyl)

Zulu Records
1972 West 4th Avenue

With the recent closing of Charlie’s Place on the Granville Mall, old-school music fans—i.e., those who don’t live and breathe the iTunes agenda—have been left wondering what they can do with their unwanted CDs. Garage sales are the obvious answer, but if you don’t feel like inviting bargain-
hunting strangers into your driveway in an attempt to unload the latest Molly Hatchet disc (featuring one original member), you should shuffle on down to Zulu Records. They probably don’t want the latest Molly Hatchet either, but it’s a good excuse to spend the day perusing their impressive vinyl collection. You might even find a copy of Hatchet’s double-platinum 1979 blockbuster, Flirtin’ With Disaster. That one had all original members!

Best fashionably late appearance

Anthropologie
2912 Granville Street

After almost three years of rumours, U.S. women’s retailer Anthropologie finally opened its first Vancouver location in May this year. West Coast fashionistas couldn’t wait to get their hands on clothes, shoes, accessories, and homewares by the popular sister chain to Urban Outfitters. Before the store opened at 10 a.m. (on a weekday, no less), eager young women armed with wads of cash and oversized sunnies camped outside Anthropologie’s front doors, brimming with anticipation. We’ve never seen $60 T-shirts go so fast.

Best east meets west in Kits

Footworks Relaxology
2992 West Broadway

West Side mommies no longer need to trek over to Chinatown for an authentic Chinese rubdown. Footworks Relaxology, a spa-type parlour focusing on foot reflexology and acupressure massage, opened its lush, Zenful boutique earlier this year. Out to create a classic Chinese massage experience with all the comforts of the western world, owner Jenny Shin and her team perform 55- to 110-minute foot massages, complete with a hot foot soak with river rocks and oodles of unscented body butter and holly oil, while you sip on a hot cup of green tea and gaze outside at pretty tree-lined streets.

Best source for home building supplies

Habitat for Humanity ReStores
69 West 69th Avenue, Vancouver
2475 Douglas Road, Burnaby

If you bypassed Habitat for Humanity Greater Vancouver’s third annual killer garage sale, you missed out big-time. Held every July at the Vancouver ReStore, association members and suppliers donate an array of cool furnishings, fabrics, and more, which sell for peanuts. In the meantime, you can score sweet deals at the ReStores on an ever-changing selection of new and gently used building materials and household goods, from sinks, toilets and tubs to doors, windows, carpeting, light fixtures, and paint selling for 50 percent to 80 percent below retail. Goods have been donated by homeowners, contractors, retailers, and manufacturers. ReStore proceeds support Habitat for Humanity’s house-building for families in need.

Best place to combat a bad-hair day

Chapel Hats
1509 West Broadway

With Vancouver’s dodgy weather, it’s no surprise that the accessible Broadway and Granville location of Chapel Hats has come to the rescue of many a bedraggled hairdo. It has a selection of hats ranging from old-style bowlers and fedoras to modern steam-punk fascinators and everything in between, so there’s a good chance you’ll find something no matter what your woes. The problem is, you might not want to take it off when your hair recovers. Oh, well, a cobalt-blue derby goes with everything, right?

Best place to get a sexy new bag of tricks

Womyns’Ware
896 Commercial Drive

Womyns’Ware makes you feel like you’re in a candy store. A user-friendly setup, shiny new products begging to be touched and tested, and eager shoppers happily rushing home with their purchases shrouded in chaste, black bags all help relive that familiar sense of euphoria. It helps that their staff is just about impossible to embarrass, so don’t be afraid to bring all your questions, uncomfortable or otherwise.

Best name for a reflexology centre hoping to attract non-Asian clients

Big Feet
Various locations

Best eclectic strip mall

Got a lot of very specific needs? Head to the strip mall on Southeast Marine Drive between Knight Street and Victoria Drive. In one stop, you can buy interfacing at Fabricland, a crested blazer at Top Ten School Wear, and a foosball table at Billiards Plus. Then stroll over to Diamond Store Fixtures to get yourself a retail display case and a mannequin, browse washer-dryers and replacement barbecue parts at McIver’s Appliance Sales and Service, and then hit the $9.99 buffet for Malaysian curry at Kedah House. Done like dinner.

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