Goods & Services >>

• Best Hot Boutique
  The Standard
  Nestled between corporate-fashion storefronts at Town Center, The Standard boutique offers an alternative to larger retailers' create-a-look philosophy. A year ago, Matt Baldwin and his wife, Emily, were living in Los Angeles; they decided to return to the Midwest (Matt is from Wichita, and... More >>
• Best Panties That Won't Get in a Bunch
  Scientific Panties by Susan Wiegand
  Panties can be such a pain in the ass. They pinch, they creep up, they roll, they dig in, causing ugly panty lines. (And those lacy, "sexy" ones are the worst offenders.) Luckily for us, Kansas City designer Susan Wiegand has spent a lot of time thinking about conventional panties and what's... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Organic Socks
  It's Only Natural
  Anyone who won't let chemical-laden cotton touch his or her precious tootsies can find the right socks at It's Only Natural. The boutique carries not only organic socks and undies but all kinds of clothing for adults and babies as well as recycled paper, hemp purses, lavender-scented... More >>
• Best Place to Shop on Christmas Day
  Yummy's
  The three most common reasons to go shopping on Christmas Day: (1) Although you remembered everyone else in your family, the very existence of your Aunt Lucy escaped your attention until your mom called this morning, reminding you that she still talks to imaginary people and that you should not... More >>
• Best Hope for the Planet
  Ford Escape Hybrid
  We were thrilled this summer when Ford Motor Co. announced that its new sport-utility vehicle, the Escape Hybrid, was ready to be shipped off to showrooms -- even if those showrooms were on the East and West coasts, where demand for eco-friendly hybrid vehicles is supposedly higher than it is... More >>
• Best New Business
  The Crossroads Infoshop and Radical Bookstore
  Let's see. Tiffany's or the anarchist bookstore? When we were trying to decide which new store was this year's best, it all came down to what was behind the glass. And though the Plaza's newest crown jewel undoubtedly flashes some blinding carats in its cases, the Crossroads Infoshop and Radical... More >>
• Best Longtime Kansas City Business
  Valomilk
  The old-school cavity creators at Valomilk were immortalized this year in Candyfreak, Steve Almond's book dedicated to such sweets of yore as Zagnuts, chalky Neccos and those godawful Goetz caramels with the cream centers. Some people might feel similarly nauseated by Valomilk cups, which were... More >>
• Best Beans
  Broadway Roasting Company
  Forget all the talk about new arenas and performing-arts centers and massive convention centers. There's one thing a big city must have to be world class: rich, dark coffee, the kind that's so strong it makes suburban moms cringe. A city also needs stylin' places in which to drink this gruel,... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Little Carrots and Like It
  Local Harvest I and II
  Local Harvest owner Heather Hands is doing a great thing for little carrots. (And for little apples and tomatoes and avocados and potatoes.) Which is not to say all locally grown organic food is somehow stunted, because it's not. It's just not always gargantuan and waxy and frighteningly... More >>
• Best Vibrators
  Carl's Barbershop
  Seeking haircuts, guys have essentially three choices. They can go to a salon and pay a premium. They can go to a chain and pay tithe to corporate America. Or they can go old-school. Old school is a jar of suckers by the front door, paintings of old men fishing on the wall and a passel of... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Barber Shop
  Rope's Barber Shop
  "Ain't nothin' hot here except the haircuts and the video games," one of the razor technicians at Rope's Barber Shop explains as he administers a trim at 9:30 a.m. And in the mornings, that's true. Regulars wait their turn in the chair by playing Pac-Man or Galaga; younger patrons, intimidated... More >>
• Best Music in a Liquor Store
  Berbiglia
  The greatest virtue of the Plaza's handiest liquor store can be summed up in the exclamation of one dazzled patron: "I've never heard Miles Davis in a liquor store before!" Music-savvy employees Gregg Schmidt and Katie Schmidt (they're not related) have created an environment reminiscent of an... More >>
• Best Place to Pick Your Notes
  Mountain Music Shoppe
  To enter Mountain Music Shoppe is to enter an alternate instrumental universe, one in which the grass is always bluer on the other side and the Deliverance theme "Dueling Banjos" replaces "Stairway to Heaven" as the string-strumming showcase tune of choice. The Shoppe stocks rare and unusual... More >>
• Best Band Aids
  Blue Collar Press
  Blue Collar Press is the contact if you want to make your band look cool. BCP designs shirts, pins, patches, posters and hoodies for the likes of the Get Up Kids, Mac Lethal and a lot of other local musicians whose merch tables rock. We have seen musicians collect their orders of T-shirts, pins... More >>
• Best Alternative to Urban Outfitters
  Spool
  It's an election year, and things have officially gotten ugly -- even among the cutesy clothes at Urban Outfitters. For example, the faux-vintage T-shirts that read "Voting Is for Old People" in disco-style lettering weren't the only ones that got the store in trouble this year. One shirt... More >>
• Best Phone Greeting
  What?
  It's always jarring to hear someone answer a business phone line with a jaded "What?" instead of a "May I help you?" -- even when the name of the business happens to be What? And once customers visit the place, stocked with offensive-humor T-shirts ("Sleeps well with others," "Inbred"), incense... More >>
• Best Cashiers
  QuikTrip · 4327 Main
  Some convenience-store cashiers are better than others. The guys at the QuikTrip at 43rd and Main? Modern-day supermen. Maybe it's something in those slowly rotating taquitos that gives them their powers. With razor-sharp intuition and unshakable good cheer, the QuikTrip employee has rung up... More >>
• Best Business Card
  "Tony K., Spiritual Consultant"
  Tony Kemper's plain white business card sometimes shows up amid the band fliers in midtown coffee shops. It lists just his first name, occupation and phone number, followed by the phrase "By appt. only." The expanse of blank space conveys a mysteriousness that urges you to call and ask: What,... More >>
• Best Paint Job
  The Bunker
  Westport's cornerstone clothing option for the past six years, the Bunker, used to be decorated with its battlefield name in mind. Replica missiles shared window space with cutesy Paul Frank monkey shirts and swanky snow-queen boots, and jungle camouflage was the color scheme of choice. The... More >>
• Best Move
  Retro Inferno
  We always liked Rod Parks' midcentury home-décor shop, Retro Inferno. But ever since Parks moved to the amazing, super-'60s building on Truman and Grand -- you know, the one with the aluminum solar shading in front of the windows -- all that stylish furniture has looked even better.... More >>
• Best Dresses
  Vintage Vogue
  Vintage Vogue owner Kathy Rasmussen loves to hunt for period clothing that's in great shape despite its age. "I do like just to find the best vintage in really good condition, that doesn't have stains or moth holes or anything like that," Rasmussen says. That's probably why her 3,000-square-foot... More >>
• Best Low-Carb Tailoring
  I. Goodman Custom Tailoring and Alterations
  Last fall, Stan Goodman, whose family has owned I. Goodman Custom Tailoring since 1954, decided it was time to harness more attention from drivers zipping past his store's façade on Johnson Drive. Depending on the time of year, Goodman usually hangs banners over the doorway of his little... More >>
• Best Handmade Crafts
  Senior Citizens Craft Shop
  These days there's a whole generation of Americans who didn't have grandmothers or maiden aunts who liked to crochet, sew quilts or make doll clothes. Those of us who wish we did have that kind of crafty relation now can buy the stuff at the Senior Citizens Craft Shop, where the goods are made... More >>
• Best Place to Score Classy Collectibles
  Premier Gallery
  Although auctions sound intimidating, the atmosphere at Premier Gallery -- which hosts a variety of estate auctions each month, typically on weekends -- is surprisingly laid back, even when the bidding gets frenetic. The first step is getting on the gallery's mailing list. A typical estate... More >>
• Best Cheap Housewares
  Blackwell's Thrift Store & Collectibles
  Sure, you can pay premium prices at snooty kitchen shops and department stores for those little accessories that every kitchen simply must have -- cheese graters, Bundt pans, grapefruit knives, cookie sheets. But why? For more than 23 years, the elegant Mrs. Blackwell has been peddling gently... More >>
• Best Ostentatious Sale Item
  Chinese Wedding Bed at Abdiana
  As the last bastion of luxury in the liquidation-ravaged eighth-floor of the Abdiana Building, the Chinese wedding bed houses a small, square mattress inside a baroque wooden frame with gold-painted accents. A pale canopy covers the bed's densely patterned overhang and droops over the carved... More >>
• Best Bookstore for Serious Browsing -- and Cruising
  Half Price Books
  OK, the Barnes & Noble shop on the Country Club Plaza is much cruisier (and has a coffee shop for flirting that leads to latte) if the goal is all about potential sexual conquest and not about shopping. But at Half Price Books, the prices are vastly cheaper, if books are indeed just as important... More >>
• Best Gag Gift Shop
  Middlebird
  Rob Odell's shop, Middlebird T-shirt Creations, just can't keep the remote-controlled fart machines on the shelves. "It's the perennial favorite," he says with a sigh. The store has been around since 1989, and it's been Odell's for the last two and a half years. Novelties have come and gone, but... More >>
• Best Dining Experience for a Dog
  Three Dog Bakery's Dinner Party Series
  Three Dog Bakery's Dinner Party Series, a fund-raiser for the Kansas City-based dog-food company's Gracie Foundation (which donates money to help abused and abandoned dogs), has become so popular that every one of its events sells out. Once a month from May through October, Three Dog reserves... More >>
• Best Urban Aquariums
  Tropical Fish Cove
  Few settings are less scenic than Independence's strip malls, but an astounding assortment of exotic aquatic life makes its home in one of those unassuming storefront stretches. The Tropical Fish Cove houses hundreds of stunning sea creatures, from vividly colored, paper-thin wisps that look... More >>
• Best Urban Jungle
  Soil Service Garden Center
  Being landlocked by sprawl can feel stifling, but there is an oasis in the city and -- surprise, surprise -- it's on Troost. Urbanites can wander around the gargantuan lot at Soil Service Garden Center totally hassle-free. Being around so many plants is therapeutic, and the Soil Service... More >>
• Best Suburban Jungle
  Longview Gardens
  The thing that bugs us about most nurseries is that they often hire high school kids for the summer. It's great to give the kids jobs and all, but when it comes to offering good gardening advice, which many nursery shoppers need, the kids don't always know best. Not so at Longview Gardens.... More >>
• Best Gardening Expert
  Kathi Krouch
  Mixing solid gardening knowledge and a blooming sense of humor has enabled Kathi Krouch to seriously grow her gardening and landscaping business over the past nine years. "We're really gardeners for gardeners," Krouch says. "My staff is really well-educated. They know that gardening and... More >>
• Best Free Advice
  Kansas City Master Gardener Hotline
  So your cucumber plants are all covered with white powder, and they're starting to shrivel. What to do? You could go to the bookstore and stock up with a few hundred bucks' worth of gardening books that probably won't help anyway. Or you could spend hours on the Internet, typing... More >>
• Best City Hall Giveaway
  Free Mulch
  Kansas Citians don't get complimentary trash bags any more. But the best things in life are still free. On Saturdays, we can stop by the city's two leaf-and-brush drop-off spots and load a pickup with wood mulch. It's not the colored stuff you can get at Westlake Hardware, but we think this is... More >>
• Best Place to Get the Dirt
  Missouri Organic Recycling
  To the untrained eye, Kansas City's dirt seems great, all dark and moist and thick. But it's not. The darkness is good, but the thickness -- it's so dense that roots have to work too hard to spread. To yield good flowers and vegetables, the clay soil needs to be fixed up a little bit. Gardeners... More >>
• Best City Service
  Recycle First
  We admit we were skeptical. After Kansas City voters repeatedly tossed out curbside recycling efforts like cigarette butts from car windows, we began to lose hope that our city would join 10,000 other progressive, Earth-friendly municipalities. We were cautiously optimistic a couple of years ago... More >>
• Best Way to Really Clean Up Your Act
  Caroline's Colon Health Care
  The legendary Mae West, who lived to be 87 years old, claimed that one of her greatest beauty secrets was the regular use of colonics. That's right, getting all that nasty old stuff out of your bowels. Caroline Cawley got sold on the process when she was in sales, coping with all kinds of... More >>
• Best Trash Service
  Joe Box
  When it's time to finally yank out those skanky old kitchen cabinets or rip up a poorly placed concrete walkway, it's time to call the nice folks at Joe Box. You can let your fingers walk all through the Yellow Pages, and you'll never find a deal better than the one offered by this... More >>
• Best T-Shirt Homage
  Paul Frank, "Don't Mess With Kansas (Either)"
  We're sick and tired of people telling us we're not in Kansas anymore. For that matter, we no longer need to be informed by T-shirt, greeting card or coffee mug that there's no place like home. These Oz-inspired slogans make us sound like a bunch of ninnies. That's why internationally acclaimed... More >>