Shopping & Services >>

• Best Oxymoron
  Indoor Tanning
  You can find these so-called salons all over our, ahem, fair city. At least five have opened within the past three years, so business appears to be sizzling. Some reasons for taking sun in a box: It's quicker, less damaging, and good for some skin diseases. Still, what's the old saw about... More >>
• Best Place To Buy A Water Closet
  Waterworks
  Copper sinks from France. German cast-iron bathtubs. Hand-painted bathroom tiles. Classic ceramic bidets and water closets. (The staff prefers this term to toilets.) All the plumbing fixtures in this store are designed in England or France with simplicity and elegance. No gold-leaf, dragon-head... More >>
• Best Place To Buy An Opium Bed
  World Resources
  For the better part of this decade, Steve Rhodes has scoured the countrysides of India and Indonesia for traditional and ceremonial furniture, instruments, and artwork. He's carted back teak jodang boxes that are used to carry offerings to Indonesian temples and village chiefs' ceremonial drums.... More >>
• Best Mexican Market
  Bargain Town Flea Market
  In most parts of Mexico, a visit to the weekend market, commonly an open-air, sprawling affair, is nothing like a quick stop at the local Publix. It's a leisurely outing in which people buy, sell, socialize, eat, and drink. In South Florida Bargain Town comes closest to capturing that appealing... More >>
• Best Botánica
  Riviera Florist, Pet Shop, and Botánica
  The florist and pet shop parts of this store's title seem superfluous or maybe even disingenuous. The greenery consists of a few plants soaking up sun on the sidewalk. The pet shop, located in a small room near the entrance, consists mainly of live chickens and other birds that will likely be... More >>
• Best Designer
  Felice Pappas
  Designer Felice Pappas may have been forced to close her charming Española Way boutique recently (she lost her lease), but that hasn't hindered her whimsical sense of style. She's still making her loud, fun cotton prints, featuring menacing insects, ripe fruit, blooming flowers, fluffy clouds,... More >>
• Best Vintage Store
  Miami Twice Vintage Department Store
  Rhinestone earrings. Hula skirts. Plastic beaded curtains. Hundreds of ceramic cookie jars. A wall of platform shoes straight from The Mod Squad. A barrel of tube tops in assorted colors. A rack of Elizabethan gowns. Deco armoires. Hand-cut crystal chandeliers. A set of rainbow-color highball... More >>
• Best Florist
  Pistils 'N Petals
  Unlike hoity-toity florists who emanate attitude, Malou and Melita Corrigan, the mother-daughter duo who opened this down-to-earth business a year and a half ago, want to bring flowers to the people and people to flowers. That's why their shop and nursery provide worldwide wire service and... More >>
• Best Place To Hook Up With A Hookah
  Daily Bread Marketplace
  Looking for a date, mister? Well you're probably not going to find one here. What you will discover, aside from an astonishing assortment of Middle-Eastern foodstuffs and yummy prepared provisions, is a lovely selection of hookahs. Yes, hookahs, those lamp-like contraptions that people have... More >>
• Best Twenty-Foot Turkey
  Rios Flowers
  Last year's winner in the Best Florist category indeed offers a good and reasonably priced selection of flowers. But it's those remarkable piles of chicken wire, papier-mâché, and tempera paint in front of Gerardo Rios's store that make the place truly miraculous. Wondering how to... More >>
• Best Selection Of Saints On Fire
  Religious candles at Mexico Market
  This is the place to find beautiful velas dedicated to the Virgin of Charity, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and every saint, healer, and power in between. It's all the better if you happen to be partial to Mexican heroes; you'll find candles dedicated to Pancho Villa, Nino Fidencio Constantino (a... More >>
• Best Place To Make A Stink
  The Fragrance Shop
  You paid a pretty penny for that bottle of perfume and every time you spray on the scent it lasts less than a nanosecond? Sucker! There are two solutions to your dilemma: (1) Stock up on $100 bottles, or (2) visit the Fragrance Shop, where they can bootleg, er, re-create your favorite designer... More >>
• Best Secondhand Store
  Frenchie's Antiques and Furniture
  The full-size metal horse above the main entrance suggests something slightly surreal may be inside. And it is. Six decades of flotsam and some jetsam from estate sales, garage sales, and sundry merchandising events are jammed into this museum of a store. Along with a plethora of tables, chairs,... More >>
• Best Sex Toys Shop
  Pink Pussycat Boutique
  How many takes on the old in-and-out are there? you ask. For 28 years the Pink Pussy Cat has been counting the ways, making it one of the oldest such stores in Miami-Dade County. Among the shop's impressive lineup of toys are ones that vibrate in every conceivable direction and others that buzz... More >>
• Best Pawnshop
  Don-Z Cash Pawnbroker
  With all due empathy for those who must hawk personal belongings in order to eat or pay rent, we look for one thing in our pawnbrokers: selection. We come to shop. Here we find two rooms of immaculately arranged, clean, classily presented items, including the usual array of jewelry and home... More >>
• Best Painted Dishes
  Daynart
  Dayna Wolfe first visited the Bahamas as a teenager. Since then she's traveled to the island nation every year, even living there for two years as a painter. She is so inspired by the sun-dappled flora and architecture that their colors explode from her trays, mugs, plates, vases, and tiles. In... More >>
• Best Kids' Boutique
  La Ideal
  Parents have found myriad ways to garb their wee 'uns. Some cute them up with silly costumes, some make them clothing clones in miniature replicas of mommy- and daddy-wear, some even go the designer route to prepare their offspring for lives of conspicuous consumption. But in our view, there's ... More >>
• Best Maternity Boutique
  A Pea in the Pod
  Winning this category for the second straight year is a pricey boutique that has allowed many a mom-to-be to leave the house feeling sexy even after gaining twenty pounds. So what if dresses go for about $150 and suits sell for $250? Just think of it as a two-for-one deal. They stock an... More >>
• Best Baby Store
  Lavin Baby Center
  Forget the chain stores. This is the place to buy everything for that special kidlet. Need a stroller? They have dozens. A crib? You can get the lace-covered kind, the traveling sort, or an old-fashioned one. Lavin's is even better if you speak Spanish; its name is taken from a prerevolutionary... More >>
• Best Way To Stick It To Your Pet
  Dr. Robert Ferran
  Dr. Ferran certainly is not a wild-eyed new-age kook. He's a pedigreed vet, having directed the Miami Beach Animal Hospital for nine years and run his own practice for a decade. So if he wants to insert sharp needles into your doggy, let him. This guy is a certified acupuncturist for both humans... More >>
• Best Junk
  Flamingo Plaza
  If one man's trash is another's treasure, then Flamingo Plaza is where the late Mel Fisher should have spent his time. There's more junk here than there is sand in the ocean. This L-shaped stripmall has thrift stores and junk shops selling stuff you never dreamed you needed or knew you wanted.... More >>
• Best Indoor Nursery
  Gold Coast Hydroponic Greenhouse
  To many in the agricultural set, the essence of growing the best fruit, vegetables, and flowers is perfect soil that is rich in nutrients and well aerated. But a better way might be no soil at all. Hydroponics, feeding plants via a flow of water filled with nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and... More >>
• Best Nursery
  Canterbury Farm & Nursery
  Those in the know, such as professional landscapers, and those who know almost nothing, such as the new homeowner do-it-yourselfer, will both do well to visit Linda Hunter's five-acre spread down in the land of nurseries (mostly wholesalers), mango orchards, and the place with the big "mice,... More >>
• Second Best Dungeon Masters
  Sunshine Roleplayers
  Sunshine has been in business for some twenty years, selling the games that allow the mentally gifted and socially awkward to sit around a table, roll twenty-sided dice, and imagine they're elves, wizards, barbarians, vampires, Klingons, Wookies, or other fantastic characters. Like many in the... More >>
• Best Neighbors
  Harriel's Tobacco Shoppe of Suniland
  Both of these retailers are excellent at what they do; the bizarre thing is that they do it side by side. Richard Fishman, owner of the health food store, says: "The smell comes through the walls and our customers aren't smokers. But hey, that's part of life. We stopped worrying about it a long... More >>
• Best Dungeon Masters
  Lizards On Ice
  No, it's not pest control Miami style or a new South Beach lounge. So what's with the name? It's an obscure D & D reference. When school lets out, this one-and-a-half-year-old gaming store next to the West Kendall Regional Library resembles the New York Stock Exchange -- for prepubescents. Its... More >>
• Best Hockey Shop
  Hockey World
  Mike Gurowitz is a hockey pioneer. The Chicago native began playing hockey in South Florida way back in 1983, when he joined a North Miami street league. Since then an ice rink opened in North Miami, the Panthers nearly won a Stanley Cup, and a dozen roller-hockey rinks debuted across the... More >>
• Best Soccer Shop
  Soccer Locker
  You're driving your kid across town to the big tournament when he suddenly realizes he's made a tragic mistake: He left his shin guards at home. Or you're on your way to a local pickup game and need a new ball; the last time you played was ten years ago and yours is dead as grandma's cat. Or you... More >>
• Best Cowboy Outfitter
  Cowboy Center
  Since 1959 Cowboy Center has catered to the needs of Miami-Dade's horsemen (and horsewomen, of course). But the pungent smell of leather is a tip-off that this store is geared toward equestrians rather than clotheshorses. If polo or rodeo is your game, this is the place. Leather is a specialty... More >>
• Best Dive Shop
  Tarpoon Skin Diving Center
  Despite what your bridge-jumping, shark-riding, train-hopping Uncle Beanie might tell you, scuba requires meticulous preparation and impeccable equipment. Professional divers will insist that purchasing diving gear is like securing life-support equipment for a trip to outer space. That's because... More >>
• Best Sporting Goods Store
  Play It Again Sports
  Miami's franchise of the Play It Again chain has had four years to turn into a sprawling, sterile, time-wasting white elephant (as chain stores are wont to do). It hasn't. The service is friendly and efficient without being cloying or annoying; this is especially important at a place that buys... More >>
• Best Bike Shop (4 Comments)
  Enrique's Bicycle Shop
  Owner Enrique Fajardo calls it a "neighborhood" bike store because he carries a range of reasonably priced cycles for kids and adults: cruisers, mountain bikes, track racing bikes, tandems, and even a big three-wheeler with a metal basket attached for grocery runs and flower sales. Fajardo is a... More >>
• Best Guitar Store
  Ed's Guitars
  In the wonderful world of axes, Ed remains the virtuoso dealer. For more than twenty years he's concocted a strange brew of guitars for his customers. These instruments come in all shapes, colors, sizes, and prices. They hail from different eras and distant lands; there are vintage Fenders,... More >>
• Best Camera-Repair Shop
  Dan's Camera Clinic
  At age nineteen Manfred Wenzel began his crusade to heal ailing cameras. No matter where he's lived -- Germany, Chile, New York, Miami -- the repair guru has given a second chance to death-row-bound lenses, shutters, and range finders. If there's a broken part, there's a way for Wenzel's magic... More >>
• Best Way To Get Wired For Free
  SEFLIN Free-Net
  We love free. We scour dumpsters for free stuff. We take things that we'll never use because they're free. Free is rare and usually a little worn-out. Or it has so many strings attached that we end up hog-tied. But sometimes in our search for free, we get lucky and score big-time; we find the... More >>
• Best Adult Video Store
  Airport Adult Video
  Airport Adult Video may be a new kid on the block, but it's a fast learner. Open less than three years, this porn palace is quickly making a name for itself among aficionados. Wall-to-wall mirrors, eighteen state-of-the-art video booths, and a staff of mechanics who keep those busy machines... More >>
• Best Bookstore
  Books & Books
  Hello. Welcome to Miami. We see you're reading. That's good. Fundamental in fact. You should know that Barnes & Noble has plenty of locations around town. Borders, too. There's also one bookstore dedicated to gay lifestyle and culture and another devoted to African-American-related publications.... More >>
• Best Used Bookstore
  Kafka's Kafe and Newsstand
  The organization may be a bit idiosyncratic (a cache of early Nineties copies of the lit mag the Paris Review were shelved in the travel section) but seek and ye shall find here. A recent Sunday-afternoon browse snagged inexpensive paperbacks of noted local author Fred D'Aguiar's The Longest... More >>
• Best Baseball Card Shop
  Bases Loaded Sports Cards and Comics
  Need a hockey stick used in the 1996 Stanley Cup final and signed by the Eastern Conference Champion Florida Panthers? Or how about a pack of baseball cards for under a buck? Bases Loaded has it all for the avid collector or the peewee ballplayer. Don't be discouraged by the tiny storefront and... More >>
• Best Comic-Book Store (1 Comment)
  Super Heroes Unlimited
  Super Heroes wins this category by a whisker. Tropic Comics, just a few blocks down the street, is good, but this place has a touch more variety in underground and indies. If you're a fan of R. Crumb or others who carry on the tradition of alternative cartooning (Daniel Clowes, Peter Bagge,... More >>
• Best Newsstand
  Worldwide News
  It's all been said before: hundreds of domestic and foreign periodicals in stock, 6000 magazines from around the world, and a surprisingly good selection of porn mags and videos. We've picked Worldwide as best newsstand so many times we're sick of repeating ourselves. But until another place... More >>
• Best Movie-Poster Store
  Tropic Comics
  Although Tropic Comics is ostensibly a comic-book shop, Superman and the Incredible Hulk are actually some of the least colorful characters here. Huge vintage movie posters are plastered all over the store's high walls. But don't look for highbrow cineastes' picks. Tropic is a veritable shrine... More >>
• Best Video Store
  New Concept Video
  Blockbuster video stores are perfect for, well, blockbuster movies. But if your taste in film is a bit more adventurous, the rental destination of choice is New Concept Video, where the inviting aisles are filled with enough variety to satisfy any couch potato. Quality new releases certainly... More >>
• Best Place For A Dj To Buy Vinyl
  Spec's
  "Everybody wants to transfer here," DJ Merlyn says about the attitude of his colleagues at other Spec's toward the chain's South Beach location. It's not hard to see why. Because just about everybody behind the counters is a DJ, the electronica stock is deep, informed, and up-to-the-minute. Stop... More >>
• Best Record/Cd Store
  Blue Note Records
  Bob Perry's Blue Note Records has held this award for ages, and deservedly so. His store is simply the best one-stop location for almost all the music that truly matters. In the front room you can work your way through the latest hip-hop, reggae, Latin, folk, blues, world sounds, and vintage... More >>
• Best Place To Buy Reggae
  Rankin' Records
  Bob Marley is just the tip of the iceberg at this outpost for Jah. Stacks of reggae vinyl abound in this shop, and though the emphasis is on dancehall and the more modern sounds out of Jamaica, there's still plenty of vintage roots on display. A recent shopping stop turned up rare,... More >>
• Best Traveling Barber
  Jackie Charles
  You want to feel like a captain of industry? Make an appointment to have Jackie Charles (pronounced in one quick burst as Jackiecharles) meet you at work. Nothing provides that old-fashioned sense of entitlement like having the barber come to you. No breezing through ten-year-old Playboy... More >>
• Best Place To Buy Disco
  Yesterday & Today Dance Music
  Disco's current revival as source material for a new generation of retro-chic DJs is hardly news at Yesterday & Today. House, Hi-NRG, or whatever your moniker of choice may be for the sound's current incarnation, it's all one continuous cacophony inside this cheery and loudly thumping record... More >>
• Best Place To Buy Latin Music
  Esperanto Music
  So you don't know tango from timba or a bolero from a bachata? And you think cumbia is the name of that chicken dish you ate at some Honduran restaurant last week. Don't worry. Ignorance is welcome at Esperanto Music, where you can explore a new world of Latin sound without feeling like an ugly... More >>
• Best Reason Not To Go To Cocowalk
  Newly installed fifteen-minute parking meters. As inconceivable as it may seem, visiting "the heart and beat of the Grove," as CocoWalk managers bill their mall, is now more of a hassle than ever. More >>
• Best Mall
  The Falls
  South Florida certainly suffers no shortage of malls. A half-dozen major shopping centers compete for patrons and several more are coming soon. The Falls is best because it combines many of its rivals' positive attributes. Macy's and Bloomingdale's provide solid anchors. All the boutique chain... More >>
• Best Skate Shop
  Universal Ski and Sport Outlet
  Believe it or not, the Ice Age cometh to South Florida. In fact it already cameth. Several years ago professional hockey teams started drifting toward the tropics from places like Minnesota. Then skaters scratched the ice on indoor rinks in Homestead, North Miami-Dade, and elsewhere. Now a new... More >>
• Best South Beach Oasis
  Touch Skin & Body Care Studio
  The crowds, the traffic, the parking. %#$%&*!!! These days even the most dedicated hipsters can find South Beach a tad stressful. A visit to Touch Studio, Gigi Noriega's Lincoln Road sanctuary, is the cure for frazzled nerves. A licensed facialist, manicurist, and aromatherapist, Noriega offers... More >>
• Best Wine Store
  Crown Wine & Spirits
  To avoid again detailing all the virtues of this category's perennial winner, Crown Wine & Spirits, we'll give a quick report on champagne. After all the new millennium approaches. For those who don't know this Coral Gables oenophile mecca, suffice it to say thousands of bottles from the mundane... More >>
• Best Beer Selection In A Store
  Seventeenth and Dixie Citgo Latin American Food and Deli
  Once you recover from the shock that a gas station/convenience store could contain such a comprehensive beer selection, the possibilities are positively intoxicating. You can buy individual bottles here, so perhaps one night you decide to sample every variety manufactured by the English brewery... More >>
• Best Liquor Store
  Sunny Isles Liquors
  It may look like just another place to brown-bag it, but this Sunny Isles liquor store isn't average. Lining the walls are hundreds of unusual decanters, new and old Zippo lighters, thousands of airplane-size minibottles, and a stash of beers from around the world. Whiskeys, ports, grappas,... More >>
• Best Costume Jewelry
  Moon Dance
  Moon Dance glitters with the world's treasures. Jewelry from Nepal, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria is laid out in glass cases as majestically as ancient artifacts in a museum display. Many of these pieces have spiritual significance. There are Buddhist medallions stamped with sacred images and... More >>
• Best Manicure
  Margarita and Jesse's Nail Design
  Margarita Gonzalez possesses the two requisite qualities of a supreme manicurist: a steady hand and a sympathetic ear. But there are other reasons why she's been in business for thirty years, namely her cleanliness, attention to detail, and efficiency. Appointments start and end on time. At her... More >>
• Best Place To Depilate (1 Comment)
  South Beach Body Waxing Company
  Most body waxing is performed in beauty salons where the employees give facials, shampoos, sweep the floor, and do manicures. Here the waxers wax. When you're talking about a stranger slathering hot, sticky gunk on your most private parts and then tearing out hundreds of hairs with one yank,... More >>