Goods & Services >>

• Best KC Product — Kansas
  Velvet Creme Popcorn
  Located on a quiet street near 47th Street and Rainbow, Velvet Creme Popcorn is a family-owned company that celebrated its 70th anniversary last year. Howard and Dona White founded it in 1937; he was an unemployed autoworker, and the couple used the leftover money from his last paycheck to buy... More >>
• Best KC Product — Missouri
  Indigo Wild
  Eleven years ago, Indigo Wild owner Emily Voth and her husband, Todd, were sitting around, drinking wine and brainstorming names for her new line of soaps. Nothing sounded right. But after a few glasses, Todd had an epiphany. "This is zum bar soap!" he blurted. He meant to say, "This is some bar... More >>
• Best Urban Male Clothier
  Slabotsky & Son Fine Menswear
  Who, you ask, is the Slabotsky Man? No, he's not a neolithic skeleton discovered in 1890s France with a tiger tooth in his skull, decayed slingshot in hand. The Slabotsky Man, est. 1914, is the most formidable breed of Kansas City male. He may be any age, but he tucks in his shirt and stands up... More >>
• Best Sporting-Goods Store
  MidAmerica Sailing and Kayak
  There's no climbing wall or vast selection of running shoes at MidAmerica Sailing and Kayak. The four Catalina cabin cruisers parked in its lot might seem out of place just off Interstate 35 and Johnson Drive, just about as far from an ocean as a person in the States can get. But here's a news... More >>
• Best Hope for U.S. Automakers
  Fairfax General Motors Plant
  Let's not sugarcoat this: The U.S. auto industry is in big trouble. Just this year, in one of many desperate efforts to cut costs, General Motors bought out 19,000 of its 74,000 workers; 300 employees who build Malibus and Saturn Auras at the Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, Kansas, took... More >>
• Best Hotel
  Q Hotel and Spa
  There are still plenty of global-warming skeptics who would push polar bears off dwindling ice caps if they could make a buck doing it. But much to the chagrin of the scientifically challenged, going green has become not only a do-gooder endeavor but also a profitable business strategy. So when... More >>
• Best Used Furniture
  Second Chance Thrift Store
  Even thrift-store junkies have to admit that secondhand stores carry the aroma — if not the downright stench — of dust, dog hair and human secretions best left unidentified. Luckily, when it comes to clothes, a pass through a hot wash cycle or a sewing machine can do away... More >>
• Best Library
  West Wyandotte Library
  Since NASCAR and the Legends arose from the cornfields like Disneyland on the prairie, western Wyandotte County has become a tourist destination for beer-swilling spectators and credit-card-wielding housewives. But don't be deceived by the rampant commerce and race-car exhaust. Residents of... More >>
• Best Nonprofit
  Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture
  What do neighborhood-blight fighters, city-jail inmates and Somali refugees have in common? Thanks to the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, a green thumb. Four years ago, the KCCUA was just a couple of farmers who wanted to prove that growing clean, organic food and living in the... More >>
• Best Building Supplies
  Heartland Habitat for Humanity ReStore
  In the realm of recycling, throwing Coke cans and newspapers in that trusty blue bin is like sparing Mother Earth a paper cut. But making sure that demolition debris gets into the recycling stream is akin to protecting the planet from a punch in the gut. Sure, every little bit counts, but... More >>
• Best Wallpaper
  Porter Teleo
  Although theoretically someone drew them, a lot of wallpaper designs seem uninspired — if not downright tacky. Not so the patterns created by Porter Teleo, which has been commended in such national publications as Vogue and Women's Wear Daily. In their West Bottoms studio, Porter Teleo... More >>
• Best Shopping Center
  Ward Parkway Center
  Visitors to Ward Parkway Center in the early 1960s marveled at the gaslit streets inside Kansas City's first enclosed shopping mall. Almost 50 years later, Ward Parkway remains an important part of the community, a place to shop for running shoes (Garry Gribble's), meet for coffee (Starbucks),... More >>
• Best Pitchman
  Bob Regnier, Bank of Blue Valley
  Forsaking jingles and stilted comedy routines, radio advertisements for the Bank of Blue Valley rely almost solely on the soothing sounds of Bob Regnier, the company's president. In the manner of a public-radio pro, Regnier spins 60-second yarns about his customers, who wouldn't dream of banking... More >>
• Best Sign
  Blue Vue Shops
  Retail trends change quickly. A well-made sign can last for 100 years. Blue Vue Shopping Center opened in 1957 and has seen more profitable days. Its freestanding sign, however, still looks magnificent. A Kansas City company, United Neon, built the porcelain-enamel-on-steel beauty. At night, its... More >>
• Best Thrift Store
  Super Flea
  Super Flea isn't your typical thrift store. As the name suggests, it's more of a giant, vendor-filled bazaar housed in an ancient warehouse. Gaining entrance to Super Flea is a bit of a strange process. The last time we went trolling for cheap finds there, a wheezy woman hooked up to an oxygen... More >>
• Best Supermarket
  McGonigle's Market
  The grocery game today is much different from when McGonigle's first opened in 1951. Organic stores play to vegans and the health-conscious, and megamarts burden us with a hundred more choices of frozen dinners than we could ever need. This Waldo landmark can't compete with a big-box store's... More >>
• Best Liquor Store
  Grand Slam
  The KC urbanite's shopping list includes limes, dryer sheets, energy drinks, pet food, toothpaste, wheat bread, a cold Chardonnay and a six-pack of the Boulevard seasonal. To avoid running all over the metro, an on-the-go shopper must be very resourceful or have already discovered the bounty to... More >>
• Best Wine Store
  The Wine Cellar
  When Mike and Sherry Wallis chose the City Market to open the Wine Cellar four years ago, they brought exactly the right casually sophisticated and knowledgeable sensibility to the neighborhood. As the business grew, so did the scope of their vision, widening from wines to a full range of liquor... More >>
• Best Boutique
  The Uptown Boutique
  The Uptown Boutique has been Independence Square's fashionable secret for two years now. One look inside, and you'll have told your last Independence meth joke. "This is Cindy's baby," says stylist Courtney Cook, a manager at the shop. She's referring to owner Cindy McClain, wife of Ken McClain,... More >>
• Best Ethnic Grocery Store
  Apna Bazar
  Despite its reputation for cultural homogeneity, Johnson County has long had a number of interesting ethnic food markets that serve the metro's Indian, Mexican, Asian and Middle Eastern residents. And as the borders of the county move southward, the small stores do, too. The two-year-old Apna... More >>
• Best Urban Farmer
  Brooke SalvaggioBad Seed Farmers Market
  Local foodies have good reason to rally around Brooke Salvaggio, who puts a friendly face on fresh produce. It makes sense that the Shawnee Mission North High School grad started in the art world, attending the Maryland Institute College of Art. The creative life led to years of wandering,... More >>
• Best Cheap Thrill
  Swap-O-Rama, Bon Bon Atelier
  Decluttering is much less of a chore when Bon Bon Atelier holds a Swap-O-Rama event. Bon Bon, the stylish little boutique next door to Dave's Stagecoach Inn, invites its customers to bring in clean, undamaged item for its Swap-O-Rama. Offerings might include jewelry, clothes, accessories and... More >>
• Best Random Shopping Experience
  U.S. Toy
  What's the greatest thing you've ever bought from U.S. Toy? This question, posed anywhere in Kansas City, is guaranteed to stir up a typhoon of answers. Maybe skull-and-crossbones-emblazoned pencils, scratch-and-sniff stickers or a jumping rubber spider. Maybe those plastic fingertips with red... More >>
• Best Thrill for Kids
  Crown Center
  Short of having Willy Wonka in the house, Crown Center is a real Shangri-La for kids. Though not the suburbanite destination mall it used to be, Crown Center has quietly remade itself into a place for the stroller set. A miniature choo-choo train that delivers kid-sized hamburgers? Fritz's... More >>
• Best Place to Ditch the Kids
  Kaleidoscope
  Thanks to Kaleidoscope, losing the little ones for a while has never been easier (for you) or more fun (for them). This creative workshop, a KC institution since the '60s, is a fantastically colorful space where kids are encouraged to explore the whimsical surroundings as they paint with melted... More >>
• Best Mom & Pop
  Farrand Farms
  Keith and Nancy Farrand have worked together operating one of the city's biggest nurseries since they married in 1989 — the same year that Keith Farrand purchased the family business. Keith's great-grandfather started out growing tomatoes, cabbage, pumpkins, lettuce, apricots and cherries... More >>
• Best Architectural Salvage
  Seldom Found Architecturals
  When an old house in Mission was nearly destroyed by a fire last year, the demolition crew hired Matt Rosberg, Mike Dobbs and Sara Roman of Seldom Found Architecturals to salvage what they could. The booty included elaborate plaster moldings and a beautifully carved and painted mantel built for... More >>