Shopping & Services

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 selling ice to Eskimos?

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 faucets. No toilet-seat replicas of a Medici throne. This is a place for people who don’t need to show off and are willing to pay to prove it. That French copper sink? $5000. Those German tubs? $1500 to $2500. Wastewater was never treated so well.

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. He’s bartered for Indian tables and cabinets made from the mahogany doors of abandoned mansions located on remote stretches of the opium road. And he’s obtained intricately carved opium beds, where aristocrats of yore spent entire days on their backs smoking drugs. But you’ll have to pay to indulge in such exotic fare. Prices range from about $500 for a jodang box to $5000 for an opium bed. Rhodes stumbled into his livelihood in 1988 as a way to make his travel bug pay. “It was a simple plan at first: Bring back some things from a trip and sell them,” the 36-year-old entrepreneur says. But simplicity has eluded him. He now has two showrooms in Miami’s Design District, a Lincoln Road restaurant, a Biscayne Boulevard club, and a warehouse stocked with artifacts. He makes two trips per year. “I love discovering the traditions of other cultures,” he says. “I’m very interested in how other people around the world get through life.”

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 ambiance. Like most well-established Mexican mercados, a wide variety of goods (from food to clothing to power tools) is available. But amid the utilitarian work boots and used prescription glasses and phone cards, you can find a framed hologram of a crucified Christ who winks as you walk by, a vast aviary with hundreds of birds for sale, a clock featuring Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper illuminated by blinking lights, and just about everything Los Tigres del Norte ever recorded. Four trailers, surrounded by clusters of tables, do double duty as kitchens and cantinas, serving up steaming plates of fresh tacos and cold beer. Mariachis play nearby. In keeping with the norteño influence, the market offers an array of cowboy hats and ornately tooled leather belts. A roadside billboard alerts southbound drivers, though it gives no hint of Bargain Town’s Mexican heritage.

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 used as sacrifices in Santería rituals. The bulk of Riviera’s merchandise is a wonderful and fantastical selection of botánica essentials: statues of Jesus and Mary, some as tall as four feet, are stashed around the store; candles of varying size and color promise love, health, and wealth; and for those who don’t have time to stick around for a slow burn, good luck and other blessings can be purchased in spray cans. But the true magic in this store is in the collection of tinctures, herbs, and soaps behind the counter. Your selection can perform miracles. But only, warns the saleswoman, if you bring a key ingredient that’s not for sale: faith.

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, and cheery postcards. And she continues to fashion sundresses, skirts, boxy men’s shirts, flannel pajamas, capri pants, and kiddiewear from material that screams summer insouciance. Now that Love-Life Backyard is shuttered, expect another little slice of Pleasantville in the new store she hopes to open in October (location undetermined so far). Until then choose from a small selection of her designs at Pop Collectibles (1151 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 305-604-9604) or give her a call and make an appointment to be custom-fitted. Cute and comfortable, her fanciful creations take you back to the innocent days when the world didn’t extend much further than your own back yard.

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 glasses. Lace gloves. Sparkle makeup. Disco balls. Pillbox hats. Hawaiian shirts. It can all be found at Miami Twice, truly a first-class vintage vendor. After a two-year hiatus (they took the title from 1994 through 1996), this department store of bygone eras is again the latest in old.

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 delivery throughout Miami-Dade. It’s also why their friendly designers (six on staff) are thrilled to artfully arrange your buds in elegant English country, lush tropical, or minimalist nouveau styles. And it’s why their room-size Frigidaire is always open to those who want to throw on a sweater and pick out a few stems. More than 50 types of blooms include everything from a 99-cent daisy to a variety of orchids. Their selection of containers ranges from glass vases to planters made from aluminum, stone, terra cotta, and hefty, painted plastic. What? You don’t like live flowers? They also have dried ones and other landscape-worthy greenery. Pistils ‘N Petals also offers the occasional flower-arranging class, art exhibition, and special event. Proprietors sometimes even rent out the place for parties; the airy space’s rich, eggplant-colored walls and gurgling fountain provide a tranquil, conducive atmosphere. Granted, prices may be high (this is South Beach, after all), but every week P&P offers specials; Thursdays there are deals on lilies, Friday nights bring bargains on a dozen roses, and Saturdays deliver discounts on tropicals. Frequent flower buyers are rewarded with … What else? More flowers. Those who make twelve purchases of fifteen dollars or more receive a free bouquet.

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 used for smoking since the dawn of time. If you require a regular dose of Paul Bowles’s novels and dream of a trip to Marrakesh, then try a visit to Daily Bread. It’s the first step into transforming your casa into a casbah. The marketplace offers hookahs made of glass in myriad colors and tall brass models adorned with hanging crystals. They range in price from $65 to $185. Fill one with water and a bit of this or that, then light up. Positively smokin’.

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 track the change of seasons in the subtropics? Just take a spin down Biscayne Boulevard and watch the curbside sculptures at Rios’s florería transform from giant Valentine heart, to shamrock, to Easter bunny. But the year’s highlight is, yes, a twenty-foot-tall (give or take a foot or two) turkey that’s enough to make you forget that New York department-store parade with the big floating dummies.

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 healer just south of the Texas-Mexico border), and Don Pedrito Jaramillo (another healer north of the border). But if your soul leans toward Caribbean spirituality or classic Catholicism, take heart. La Virgencita floats serenely over the Bay of Nipe; the Virgins of Regla and Merced are here, too. So are Santa Barbara, San Lazaro, San Judas Tadeo, and San Miguel Archangel. Then there’s the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And there are candles for Eleggua, Changó, and the Seven African Powers. You even can find cruder candles that promise general good fortune, luck in your court case, power over your enemy, control over your lover, and, of course, lots of money.

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 perfume. The educated noses at this place claim their scents last up to eight hours. They say you can find almost anything you need here. After inspecting the mahogany-paneled, apothecary-like location and testing the aromas issuing from the hundreds of bottles lining the shelves, we believe them. Their smallest vial of custom-blended fragrance lasts anywhere from eight to ten months and runs around $45, depending on how many oils are used; an existing house-blend runs about $25. Because you’ll be saving tons of money on perfume, why not go all out and purchase a stunning, hand-blown glass bottle from the front window? The fragile trinkets are made by artists from all over the country. They’ll only set you back $35 to $750.

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, lamps, clocks, mirrors, and glassware, there’s plenty of unusual stuff: a set of copper cups made in Mexico; an old iron bucket; a wooden chair that rocks on a wooden hinge mechanism; and a cow mailbox, just to name a few finds. And price is not an object. Proprietors are ready to barter. Their mantra: “If you see something you like, we’ll work with you.”

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 in a frenetic frenzy. At the apex is the five-inch-long, $100 Japanese-made Rabbit Pearl, which seems to move with a mind of its own. “All the products are tried out by the staff,” says Anna, an extremely knowledgeable assistant manager. In fact the staff is one of the store’s strong points. At one time Doris Wishman, a B-movie director and cult figure, worked behind the counter. Anna explains that about 85 percent of the store’s clients are women. “We’re very friendly, and we definitely make the customer feel comfortable.” Men are most welcome, too, Anna adds. She says she often must reassure male customers that they are not obsolete. “Nothing can replace a man,” she remarks.

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 electronics. There are hundreds and hundreds of CDs (three bucks per); several acoustic, electric, and bass guitars; a homemade guitar; violins; even a Russian balalaika. You can find a couple of sets of congas, keyboards, a clarinet, a saxophone, plenty of amps, microphones, equalizers, and even a sixteen-track Alesis mixing board. We also inspected the motorcycle helmets, tools, bikes, refrigerators, videos, golf clubs, and air conditioners… Don-Z has a vast cache of cameras and lenses, including some top-of-the-line collectibles (displayed in their own cases), such as a Nikon F, Rolleiflex, Leica R4, and a Swiss-made Alpa. The 25-year-old store has scales, lamps, vacuum cleaners, typewriters, and computers. The place has great service, great prices, and treats its customers with dignity. We even love Don-Z for what it does not have: guns.

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 fact the interior of her store, in the heart of the funky Design District, is so boldly painted that the place practically vibrates. The walls are “cornflower yellow” and the columns are “coral-shrimp pink.” Wolfe also sells paintings and a coloring book, both done in her trademark naive style. Her pottery is exceptionally fun. She imports unenhanced stuff from Italy and Portugal, then paints, fires, and glazes it in her shop. Coffee cups, bowls, and platters ranging in price from $20 to $200 are decorated with mango-orange, lizard-green, and Bimini-blue images of fish and fruit markets. Wolfe describes her work as “very primitive, very decorative, and very happy.” Indeed that’s why she paints. “Everybody should be happy.”

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 something to be said for simple, good taste. Not too formal, but nice and proper. La Ideal offers a sprawling selection of wardrobe fillers, all of them tasteful, some of them downright classic. Along with the ready-for-school designer lines (Buster Brown, Oshkosh), the store carries togs from Brazil, Colombia, Spain, and other parts of the world. This is the place for communion dresses and christening gowns, kimonos, Italian socks, and just about anything for tykes, from newborn to age fourteen. Along with the junior apparel, La Ideal displays an array of rug-rat shoes, sporting goods, strollers, and furniture. The outlet is roomy and bright, the service expeditious and polite. (Another La Ideal on Flagler Street offers adult clothes and sporting goods, but the Hialeah store specializes in kid stuff.)

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 especially good collection of eveningwear. “I really do love the clothes here,” one bulging acquaintance says. Then she gives this shop the ultimate endorsement. “Actually I’d wear them even if I weren’t pregnant.”

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 baby store in Havana and the help habla Español. As a bonus there’s enough technology to satisfy even the most geeklike dad. Try the gizmo to help stop bed-wetting. When the baby pees, a light goes on. The cost: $39.99. Or there’s First Sounds, which lets you listen in on the womb. Also for $39.99. The best of the best is the Little Havana store, which has a bizarre, covered parking lot and a quirky design. But you can also try the larger shop in the Falls. Either way, infantile fun awaits.

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 and animals. Clinical studies and 8000-year-old manuscripts support the approach of opening channels and redirecting chi with needles, for the four-legged as well as biped. Acupuncture works particularly well in relieving pain. “Sometimes we overmedicate animals,” he says. “In conventional practice we treat what the animal was brought in for. But my interest is in treating the entire body…. Conventional approaches have their place, and acupuncture has its place. I use both. Acupuncture won’t save the world, but it has helped in remarkable ways.”

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. One quick stop at a place called Red White & Blue yielded a miniature gumball machine; plaster molds for casting concrete statuary; a red bra-and-panties set with matching plumage; a contraption designed to decorate a mailbox with silk flowers; a three-foot-high purple toucan; and a Scooby-Doo lunchbox. At the neighboring Community Thrift Store we found enough furniture to outfit a dormitory, plus pinball machines, exercise bikes, old stoves, air conditioners, fridges, and even a waterbed. Save More, Inc., a few doors down, stocks new and used items including party supplies, tools, a life-size plastic yard tortoise, clothes, and toys. The scene is completed by a 99-cent store, a discount outlet for baby items, a beauty-supply store, and a Winn-Dixie. No need to bother with a detritus-seeking metal detector; the goods at these joints have been sorted, coded, and labeled to make the pickings easy.

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 a number of trace minerals, is well established in Europe and Asia. The cultivation technique even works indoors with high-intensity lights that replicate the sun’s rays. All of the lights, trays, fertilizers, supplements, testing equipment, growing mediums, irrigation systems, and information you need can be found at Gold Coast’s two stores. The service is professional and subdued. The stores are clean and well organized. The only negative is that the prices are a bit, um, pricey. But note that commercially grown tomatoes go for about a dollar per pound. Hydroponically grown tomatoes (blemish-free and consistent in taste, texture, size, and shape) go for triple that. A sample system set up in the window of the Bird Road outlet boasts bushy growth, brightening the dreary stripmall where it is located. Indeed considering the proliferation of stripmalls, freeways, sidewalks, and basketball courts, soilless gardening may someday be the only method available.

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, rats, and rabbits for sale” signs. After Hurricane Andrew destroyed her family’s litchi tree grove, Hunter and her former partner (a Jordanian-trained agriculturist named Burhan Imran, who now runs his own tree farm) germinated the idea of a boutique nursery. A lifelong plant lover who spent fifteen years living in a Coconut Grove house whose yard she recalls as “a rain forest,” Hunter has some 200 species of plants, many natives, some shelved within her five greenhouses and one shadehouse, others lined up on tarps in full sun. No pesticides, no fertilizers, no tools: just plants, all priced to move. The variety is spectacular, with tropicals and bromeliads adding to the typical ferns and palms and ground covers. She trades plants, and has breeders bring in collectibles and rarities. That means the options vary from visit to visit, and that also means Canterbury is a fun place just to browse. Hunter says her customers are about half professionals and half do-it-yourselfers. Her operation is 100 percent delightful.

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 role-playing game trade, Joel (“What’s your last name?” asks New Times. “Why do you ask?” he shoots back.) once sold comic books. Unlike many others in the biz, he built up a big enough clientele for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and other similar pastimes to weather the downturn in the comic biz. He now devotes his little storefront across from Tropical Park solely to gaming books, adventures, and other fantasy-related resources. His narrow, slightly dingy but well-ordered store offers titles from the familiar (AD&D) to the not-so-familiar (GURPS). If you want to sample a particular system, Joel will rent you a rulebook for about ten dollars per week. He’s got two groups meeting in the store now (AD&D and Vampire: The Masquerade), but there’s always room for another hardy band of adventurers at the folding table in the back — provided an experienced gamemaster comes forward to referee. “Everybody wants to play, nobody wants to GM,” he gripes. Ain’t that the truth!

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 time ago.” The even more easygoing Harold Klein, proprietor of the tobacco shop, adds: “We get along with them. They have a sign that says ‘health’ and I have one that says ‘death.'” Excuse us while we enjoy our cigar.

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 backpack-wielding Lilliputian traders, mostly boys, clamor around a godlike clerk in a cacophony of soprano voices. Care to go a few rounds with the Souldrinker? Think you can handle the Rats of Rath? Sure you can. But bring your imagination; there are no virtual-reality helmets here, no high-tech computer screens or Game Boys, just good old-fashioned mind games. The store carries a large selection of cards, figurines, and other accoutrements for fantasy games, as well as trading cards, comic books, and animated Japanese videos. Popular right now are two role-playing card games: Pokemon, which is from Japan, and Magic: The Gathering. Magic tournaments are held Sundays. Check for other scheduled tournaments, such as Warhammer Fantasy. Pickup games run seven days per week around worn green billiards-like tables. And if there’s no one to run the game? “That’s where we come in,” says John, a cheerful employee. In the immortal words of Lyna, a Thalakos Seer from Magic: The Gathering: “You see our world when you shut your eyes so tightly that tiny shapes float before them.” That’s one approach. The store is open Monday and Tuesday, noon to 8:00 p.m.; Wednesday through Friday noon to 9:00 p.m.; Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; and Sunday noon to 6:00 p.m.

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 county. Gurowitz launched Hockey World to serve the area’s expanding roster of players. He knows the needs of ice- and roller-hockey competitors, and he assists both groups expertly. The depth of his passion is literally written on the walls of his small shop. Any space that is not covered with sticks, elbow pads, and gloves is papered with autographs of his beloved Chicago Blackhawks. Among the rink-related John Hancocks: Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, and Chris Chelios (signed before the recent trade to the hated Red Wings). Inside a display case rests a rare trading card of Boston Bruin legend Bobby Orr … in a Blackhawks sweater. Gurowitz’s knowledge along with his reasonable prices have helped him outlast several competitors. Lately he’s been filling orders from South America. Having conquered South Florida, he is entering the next frontier.

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 decide to invest in season tickets to Fusion games, but feel foolish because you don’t have the necessary regalia. Or you just like to flip through the latest Umbros, inhale the hand-stitched Brine that cost more than your last dinner out, or try on the Diadoras that make you think you could show that ungrateful Carlos Valderrama a move or two. Whatever your reasons, practical or nostalgic, Soccer Locker won’t fake you out. Just make sure to brush up on your lingo before you get there or the staff will shake-and-bake on your wallet.

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 here. Saddles, embroidered belts, whips, riding crops, vests, and bolo tie are all hewn from the skin of the seemingly endangered bovine. But metal is also central to the cowboy’s existence; a walk through the three-room store reveals spurs, anvils, and steel horse combs. If you’d rather sit on a couch and watch a Western than saddle up and gallop along the range, the center stocks cattle horns that you can mount above the television.

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 we humans breathe air, not water. Thus the best and brightest scuba practitioners recommend high-quality equipment, from mask to fin. Tarpoon, established in 1942 by diver Mike Kevorkian, has the latest models in top brands like U.S. Divers, Scubapro, and Seaquest. It is also the oldest dive shop in Miami-Dade. Longevity is meaningful because ideally, you want to patronize a place that’s going to be in business when your stuff needs service. Tarpoon’s salespeople are also divers, so they can tell you why you need, say, a silicone mask. (Answer: Cheaper ones often dry up and crack.) Professional divers also recommend avoiding places that certify you in just a day or two. Tarpoon’s beginner’s course costs $225 and is conducted over two weeks in a heated pool at the Hialeah store. You need mask, snorkel, fins, and weight belt to enroll.

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 and sells new and used gear. Among its wares are all kinds of balls, weights, togs, racquets, clubs, and bats. You can scoop up used tennis balls for two bits apiece, find junior titanium drivers for about $20, and even try out an array of putters on the carpeted showroom floor, where an automatic ball return is set up. The congenial staff will restring your racquet, relace your glove, or regrip your clubs. With a more comprehensive inventory, tighter restrictions on trades and consignments, and a few thousand more square feet of space, Play It Again could easily become The Sports Authority. Here’s betting (and hoping) that never happens.

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 no-nonsense, no-pressure salesman with a smile. He has a reputable repair business to boot. Get a nice affordable Hampton cruiser for about $150, an aluminum Haro mountain bike for up to $3000, or anything in-between. Enrique also displays Cignals, Jamis, and GTs. For a small store, this place has a big selection of seats, helmets, parts, and accessories. If you’re a hard-core mountain biker or road racer, you might consider a place that caters to specialized needs like past Best of Miami winners Tamiami Cyclery, Mack Cycle, Bicycle and Fitness Store, Big Wheel Cycle South, and Cycle World.

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, Martins, Gibsons, Gretsches, and classic models from Czechoslovakia. Oddities abound. Check out the 30- to 40-string zithers, pear-shaped mandolins, Hawaiian ukeleles, banjos, dobros, and bouzoukis. Also for sale: really weird Japanese guitars from the Sixties that have lots of knobs and switches. Prices range widely. For $35 kids can begin paving their road to rock-stardom. For $3000 experts can outdo Segovia.

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 hands to mend it. Tucked into a stripmall on Biscayne Boulevard, Dan’s is a throwback to an era when cameras were made of metal and careful craftsmanship was part of the culture. Wenzel, who bought Dan’s in 1977, says he takes on only professional jobs that are too complicated for his competitors. He specializes in antiques and high-performance models. So if you’re the proud owner of a Twenties Leica that needs help, don’t despair! With a wave of his screwdriver, Wenzel will have you up and shooting in no time.

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 ElectroWave on Miami Beach, a 30-day trial membership at the gym, or the Southeast Florida Library Network (SEFLIN) Free-Net, which provides Internet access and e-mail accounts to South Florida residents, homeless people included, at no charge. SEFLIN also offers several free Internet training sessions each month. Registration forms and training schedules are available at most libraries, including the one on Florida International University’s North Campus. Once registered you are eligible to enter the fast lane of free: the information superhighway. Of course donations are accepted.

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 whirring set it apart from competitors. The store’s location is a nice bonus for the sexually frustrated traveler-on-the-go. There are more than 4000 titles to chose from, all competitively priced. There’s also one great deal: Buy two fuck films and get the third one free. That’ll keep ’em coming.

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. And there are plenty of Spanish-language tome purveyors. So you can see we’re well read. What? You’re not convinced? Then we’ll draw our trump card, our proverbial ace in the hole. It’s called Books & Books, and we’ve regularly declared it to be the city’s best bookstore. For a reason. Hell, for many reasons. Founded by Mitchell Kaplan in 1982, Books & Books possesses what chains lack: a vision. Kaplan’s vision spilled over into the Miami Book Fair International, a highly successful annual festival of words. It pours from the shelves of his two retail outlets, where you’ll find books old and new, popular and obscure, big and small. Books for kids and collectors. Books for natives and visitors. Books and books and books (close to 100,000 titles). Magazines, too. Kaplan’s vision includes readings and workshops. He invites top authors to meet their readers at his stores. This year’s visitors included Tom Brokaw, Elmore Leonard, and Tony Bennett. In January he launched a Website (www.booksandbooks.com). He understands that books are not just the product of an industry, but little worlds you can live in for a while. Books & Books is the travel agency to those worlds.

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 Memory, as well as Denis Johnson’s Fiskadoro and John Hawkes’s Second Skin. A tour of the nonfiction stacks was rewarded with Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 and a thick, hardbound edition of the Warren Commission Report. Should your bibliophilia require you to seek sustenance, Kafka’s features an in-house café and — no Luddites here — rentable Internet-linked computers. We have to admit, though, that there’s a better place in Broward County: Robert A. Hittel Booksellers in Fort Lauderdale.

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 small interior. The place is loaded to the rafters with signed photographs of local sports stars, framed rookie cards, and collectible clothing. Even the black plastic rats that skittered along the ice after a Panthers’ goal during their magical playoff run are available here. For comic-book fans, an entire wall is dedicated to colorful adventures. But don’t come early. Owner Kevin Palczynski doesn’t open until noon.

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, Kaz), this is one of the few spots where you’ll find your favorites. The eclectic selection is still a bit thin compared to the scads of good old spandex-clad, caped crusaders clogging the racks, but the store is happy to special-order anything.

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 this good pops up in Miami (which is not exactly literacy central), this store is your best bet if you’re looking for (almost) all the news.

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 to Fifties and Sixties drive-in culture. There are more zombie flicks on display than you ever thought possible. For starters the perennial greats: Night of the Living Dead, Frozen Dead, and Night of the Walking Dead. The last one is a personal fave because of its poster’s screaming warning: “We are not responsible to any person that this film may disturb either physically or mentally!” More sensitive souls might want to snag the poster for Island of Lost Women with its enticing tag line: “They turned a forbidden paradise into a raging hell — when they dared to love the untouched beauties hidden from the world!” Just the thing to brighten any bachelor’s living room.

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 abound, but it’s in the catalogue that this place really shines. Looking for an offbeat indie cult fave like Ross McElwee’s Sherman’s March? It’s here. How about a French New Wave classic like Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin-Feminin? New Concept’s got that one, too. There’s also a nice selection of adult films — both straight and gay — arrayed behind a tasteful velvet curtain. At least, ahem, that’s what a close friend tells us.

“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 by on a Wednesday, when the week’s new releases arrive, and you’ll find a steady stream of club aficionados snapping up the latest drum and bass twelve inchers from London, dishing gossip on the dance scene, and trading info on where they get their records pressed. The turntable-challenged should also take note: This Spec’s also has a nice selection of electronica on CD.

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 soul. Move into the second room and it’s a rocker’s paradise for both postpunkers and die-hard Sixties enthusiasts. A $3.99 vinyl copy of the Meat Puppets’ Up On the Sun stares up from beneath the entire Bob Dylan back catalogue while the latest noise seven-inch singles vie for space with Eric Clapton and Beach Boys box sets. Finally stroll into the backroom and you’ll find jazz heaven: an informed stock of both the traditional and the avant-garde, from Louis Armstrong to Albert Ayler. Add reasonable prices, free parking, a staff with encyclopedic knowledge, and you have a great place to lose yourself for an afternoon.

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, early-Seventies Tappa Zukie and Mighty Diamonds albums, as well as not one, not two, but an entire stack of still-sealed copies of Culture’s 1977 dread classic Two Sevens Clash. Irie indeed.

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 magazines while you wait at the barbershop. You call, set a time, and Charles shows up. Although he’s only 26 years old, this Haitian-American part-time actor has been trimming locks for about a decade. At age sixteen he started attending cosmetology night classes after high school football practices. (He did so illicitly, without paying.) Since then he’s shorn rap stars Puff Daddy and Luther Campbell as well as boxer Lennox Lewis. For a real kick use a cell phone to make a business call while the scissors snip. Yeah, you’re a regular Bill Gates. Charles charges $10 to $20 depending on the style and whether there is more than one customer. He’ll do any style of hair.

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 shop. The proof is in the impressive array of vintage disco and late-Seventies’ funk albums prominently displayed next to this month’s club faves-of-the-moment. Looking for that elusive Sylvester album? How about an old Eddie Kendricks slow burner? A snaky foot-stomper from the Jimmy Castor Bunch? It’s all here and affordably priced. Bell-bottoms and platform shoes may have been traded in for an Adidas ensemble, but the beat goes on.

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 American. Manager Carlos Suarez is pleased to give you a primer on Latin styles as he guides you through the store’s more than 5000 titles. Among this musical menagerie: Cuban dance music from every era; Argentine rock; Brazilian jazz; Mexican love ballads; and much more. Offering the latest releases as well as classics, rarities, and reissues, Esperanto is an aficionado’s wonderland. Even if you have a tin ear when it comes to Latin music, don’t worry. Esperanto speaks your language.

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.

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 stores, from Ann Taylor to Aveda to Crate & Barrel, add value. And it’s a breeze to park at The Falls. Speaking of breeze, much of this megalopolis of capitalism is beautifully constructed, with outdoor gardens, fountains, and big courtyards.

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 recreational ice-skating mecca is planned for Kendall. So if you want to be on the cutting edge, you might consider visiting this warehouse of a store just west of South Dixie Highway. It has the latest gear. Besides the fad for frost, global warming is all the rage. So you may prefer to glide on wheels in the sunshine. Universal stocks items tailored to roller hockey, aggressive skating (like sliding down a stairway handrail and pirouetting into a spread eagle, followed by a flip), and off-road blading. Finally the store carries equipment for the on-again fad of skateboarding. Need a lesson? The staff can point you in the right direction.

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 treatments for the face, body, and soul, including a variety of aromatherapy facials, seaweed body wraps, and hand and foot care. Located in a massage- therapy office, Noriega’s tiny salon is as peaceful as a Buddhist temple. It’s a place where stress seems simply innapropriate. Noriega uses all-natural products from Germany, France, and Australia and essential oils for her spirit-cleansing facial. Her healing hands lull you to sleep in minutes, and everyday aggravations float away amidst meditative music and calming herbal scents. After an hour on the table at Touch, you’ll feel calm, refreshed, and ready to face the world.

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 to the impossible are well organized, reasonably priced, and articulately described by the knowledgeable sales staff. When asked about the alleged shortage of bubbly for 2000, Chip Cassidy replies, “Well the frogs want you to believe that on New Year’s Eve they’re gonna drink red wine. If anyone is nervous, they should just come in and buy a bottle today.” Hey, it never hurts to have a few magnums beside the canned beans and drinking water. Current recommendations include a selection of nonvintages from Charles Heidsieck for $38 to $42; this year’s hottest seller, Veuve Clicquot’s Yellow Label Brut, which goes for about $32; a Montaudon from Riems for about $20; and the all-time favorite among those who adore great wines and good values, the stellar Billecart Salmon Brut, which goes for a measly 25 bucks. Billecart’s Brut Rosé, for $46, could make any reasonable person believe Y2K is a small matter. Crown even stocks a remarkably good nonalcoholic sparkling wine from Ariel. And no party would be complete without a stock of great cheeses, patés, caviar, crackers, and cigars from Crown’s gourmet department.

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, rums, liqueurs, gold-speckled apéritifs, fruit cordials, and hard-to-find imported wines make this storefront a welcome alternative. The variety could make your head spin even before a drink. For example Sunny Isles stocks more than 150 types of single malt scotch. Vodkas? There are nearly 100, including gourmet brands like Absolut, Arctic, Ketel One, Belvedere, Chopin, Grey Goose, Stolichnaya, and Keglevich. Next question: What flavor do you fancy? Chocolate, lemon, vanilla, citron, hot pepper, banana, melon, or strawberry? Manager Fernando Rodriguez and his staff make choosing as easy as falling off a stool.

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 African silver totems hanging from leather cords. This exotic jewelry may not bring good luck, but there’s no doubt it will draw compliments. Elaborate silver rings set with a rainbow of stones, dangling earrings, chunky silver bracelets, and intricately worked chains are arranged according to color and material. There are so many beautiful things here, it’s bewitching. Best of all, prices range from twenty to two hundred dollars. So if you can’t travel the world, you can at least wear a little piece of a far-off place.

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 small, second-floor salon, nails are not an afterthought. There’s no racket here from blow dryers and screeching stylists; Margarita and her daughter Jesse give full attention to manicures and pedicures. The family atmosphere is relaxing and the well-stocked supply of the latest nail polish shades guarantees you’ll leave loving yourself. So whether you like your talons loud and pointy or subdued and square, the Gonzalez family will do wonders for both your hands and your peace of mind.

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, it’s nice to have confidence. “It’s really hard to find good employees,” manager Shirley Sanchez comments. “They have to be nice and clean, they have to have a license, and they have to have a good pull. I’m usually the guinea pig and believe me, it hurts when they don’t know what they are doing.” A gentle touch can help, but wax-type is also important; South Beach uses a recipe that generally allows one-piece removal. Workers at this storefront also stay open relatively late seven days per week, keep the facilities clean, and even go places most others won’t. Especially popular are butt waxes, termed “butt strips,” by Janet, a slight and cheery Peruvian. The cost is fourteen dollars for the cheeks and twelve more if you want to remove the hair that grows between them. Other hot spots include nostrils, toes, backs, bellies, bikini area, and lips (the pair beneath your nose or, for women, the set further down).

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 selling ice to Eskimos?

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 faucets. No toilet-seat replicas of a Medici throne. This is a place for people who don’t need to show off and are willing to pay to prove it. That French copper sink? $5000. Those German tubs? $1500 to $2500. Wastewater was never treated so well.

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. He’s bartered for Indian tables and cabinets made from the mahogany doors of abandoned mansions located on remote stretches of the opium road. And he’s obtained intricately carved opium beds, where aristocrats of yore spent entire days on their backs smoking drugs. But you’ll have to pay to indulge in such exotic fare. Prices range from about $500 for a jodang box to $5000 for an opium bed. Rhodes stumbled into his livelihood in 1988 as a way to make his travel bug pay. “It was a simple plan at first: Bring back some things from a trip and sell them,” the 36-year-old entrepreneur says. But simplicity has eluded him. He now has two showrooms in Miami’s Design District, a Lincoln Road restaurant, a Biscayne Boulevard club, and a warehouse stocked with artifacts. He makes two trips per year. “I love discovering the traditions of other cultures,” he says. “I’m very interested in how other people around the world get through life.”

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 ambiance. Like most well-established Mexican mercados, a wide variety of goods (from food to clothing to power tools) is available. But amid the utilitarian work boots and used prescription glasses and phone cards, you can find a framed hologram of a crucified Christ who winks as you walk by, a vast aviary with hundreds of birds for sale, a clock featuring Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper illuminated by blinking lights, and just about everything Los Tigres del Norte ever recorded. Four trailers, surrounded by clusters of tables, do double duty as kitchens and cantinas, serving up steaming plates of fresh tacos and cold beer. Mariachis play nearby. In keeping with the norteño influence, the market offers an array of cowboy hats and ornately tooled leather belts. A roadside billboard alerts southbound drivers, though it gives no hint of Bargain Town’s Mexican heritage.

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 used as sacrifices in Santería rituals. The bulk of Riviera’s merchandise is a wonderful and fantastical selection of botánica essentials: statues of Jesus and Mary, some as tall as four feet, are stashed around the store; candles of varying size and color promise love, health, and wealth; and for those who don’t have time to stick around for a slow burn, good luck and other blessings can be purchased in spray cans. But the true magic in this store is in the collection of tinctures, herbs, and soaps behind the counter. Your selection can perform miracles. But only, warns the saleswoman, if you bring a key ingredient that’s not for sale: faith.

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, and cheery postcards. And she continues to fashion sundresses, skirts, boxy men’s shirts, flannel pajamas, capri pants, and kiddiewear from material that screams summer insouciance. Now that Love-Life Backyard is shuttered, expect another little slice of Pleasantville in the new store she hopes to open in October (location undetermined so far). Until then choose from a small selection of her designs at Pop Collectibles (1151 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 305-604-9604) or give her a call and make an appointment to be custom-fitted. Cute and comfortable, her fanciful creations take you back to the innocent days when the world didn’t extend much further than your own back yard.

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 glasses. Lace gloves. Sparkle makeup. Disco balls. Pillbox hats. Hawaiian shirts. It can all be found at Miami Twice, truly a first-class vintage vendor. After a two-year hiatus (they took the title from 1994 through 1996), this department store of bygone eras is again the latest in old.

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 delivery throughout Miami-Dade. It’s also why their friendly designers (six on staff) are thrilled to artfully arrange your buds in elegant English country, lush tropical, or minimalist nouveau styles. And it’s why their room-size Frigidaire is always open to those who want to throw on a sweater and pick out a few stems. More than 50 types of blooms include everything from a 99-cent daisy to a variety of orchids. Their selection of containers ranges from glass vases to planters made from aluminum, stone, terra cotta, and hefty, painted plastic. What? You don’t like live flowers? They also have dried ones and other landscape-worthy greenery. Pistils ‘N Petals also offers the occasional flower-arranging class, art exhibition, and special event. Proprietors sometimes even rent out the place for parties; the airy space’s rich, eggplant-colored walls and gurgling fountain provide a tranquil, conducive atmosphere. Granted, prices may be high (this is South Beach, after all), but every week P&P offers specials; Thursdays there are deals on lilies, Friday nights bring bargains on a dozen roses, and Saturdays deliver discounts on tropicals. Frequent flower buyers are rewarded with … What else? More flowers. Those who make twelve purchases of fifteen dollars or more receive a free bouquet.

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 used for smoking since the dawn of time. If you require a regular dose of Paul Bowles’s novels and dream of a trip to Marrakesh, then try a visit to Daily Bread. It’s the first step into transforming your casa into a casbah. The marketplace offers hookahs made of glass in myriad colors and tall brass models adorned with hanging crystals. They range in price from $65 to $185. Fill one with water and a bit of this or that, then light up. Positively smokin’.

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 track the change of seasons in the subtropics? Just take a spin down Biscayne Boulevard and watch the curbside sculptures at Rios’s florería transform from giant Valentine heart, to shamrock, to Easter bunny. But the year’s highlight is, yes, a twenty-foot-tall (give or take a foot or two) turkey that’s enough to make you forget that New York department-store parade with the big floating dummies.

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 healer just south of the Texas-Mexico border), and Don Pedrito Jaramillo (another healer north of the border). But if your soul leans toward Caribbean spirituality or classic Catholicism, take heart. La Virgencita floats serenely over the Bay of Nipe; the Virgins of Regla and Merced are here, too. So are Santa Barbara, San Lazaro, San Judas Tadeo, and San Miguel Archangel. Then there’s the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And there are candles for Eleggua, Changó, and the Seven African Powers. You even can find cruder candles that promise general good fortune, luck in your court case, power over your enemy, control over your lover, and, of course, lots of money.

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 perfume. The educated noses at this place claim their scents last up to eight hours. They say you can find almost anything you need here. After inspecting the mahogany-paneled, apothecary-like location and testing the aromas issuing from the hundreds of bottles lining the shelves, we believe them. Their smallest vial of custom-blended fragrance lasts anywhere from eight to ten months and runs around $45, depending on how many oils are used; an existing house-blend runs about $25. Because you’ll be saving tons of money on perfume, why not go all out and purchase a stunning, hand-blown glass bottle from the front window? The fragile trinkets are made by artists from all over the country. They’ll only set you back $35 to $750.

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, lamps, clocks, mirrors, and glassware, there’s plenty of unusual stuff: a set of copper cups made in Mexico; an old iron bucket; a wooden chair that rocks on a wooden hinge mechanism; and a cow mailbox, just to name a few finds. And price is not an object. Proprietors are ready to barter. Their mantra: “If you see something you like, we’ll work with you.”

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 in a frenetic frenzy. At the apex is the five-inch-long, $100 Japanese-made Rabbit Pearl, which seems to move with a mind of its own. “All the products are tried out by the staff,” says Anna, an extremely knowledgeable assistant manager. In fact the staff is one of the store’s strong points. At one time Doris Wishman, a B-movie director and cult figure, worked behind the counter. Anna explains that about 85 percent of the store’s clients are women. “We’re very friendly, and we definitely make the customer feel comfortable.” Men are most welcome, too, Anna adds. She says she often must reassure male customers that they are not obsolete. “Nothing can replace a man,” she remarks.

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 electronics. There are hundreds and hundreds of CDs (three bucks per); several acoustic, electric, and bass guitars; a homemade guitar; violins; even a Russian balalaika. You can find a couple of sets of congas, keyboards, a clarinet, a saxophone, plenty of amps, microphones, equalizers, and even a sixteen-track Alesis mixing board. We also inspected the motorcycle helmets, tools, bikes, refrigerators, videos, golf clubs, and air conditioners… Don-Z has a vast cache of cameras and lenses, including some top-of-the-line collectibles (displayed in their own cases), such as a Nikon F, Rolleiflex, Leica R4, and a Swiss-made Alpa. The 25-year-old store has scales, lamps, vacuum cleaners, typewriters, and computers. The place has great service, great prices, and treats its customers with dignity. We even love Don-Z for what it does not have: guns.

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 fact the interior of her store, in the heart of the funky Design District, is so boldly painted that the place practically vibrates. The walls are “cornflower yellow” and the columns are “coral-shrimp pink.” Wolfe also sells paintings and a coloring book, both done in her trademark naive style. Her pottery is exceptionally fun. She imports unenhanced stuff from Italy and Portugal, then paints, fires, and glazes it in her shop. Coffee cups, bowls, and platters ranging in price from $20 to $200 are decorated with mango-orange, lizard-green, and Bimini-blue images of fish and fruit markets. Wolfe describes her work as “very primitive, very decorative, and very happy.” Indeed that’s why she paints. “Everybody should be happy.”

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 something to be said for simple, good taste. Not too formal, but nice and proper. La Ideal offers a sprawling selection of wardrobe fillers, all of them tasteful, some of them downright classic. Along with the ready-for-school designer lines (Buster Brown, Oshkosh), the store carries togs from Brazil, Colombia, Spain, and other parts of the world. This is the place for communion dresses and christening gowns, kimonos, Italian socks, and just about anything for tykes, from newborn to age fourteen. Along with the junior apparel, La Ideal displays an array of rug-rat shoes, sporting goods, strollers, and furniture. The outlet is roomy and bright, the service expeditious and polite. (Another La Ideal on Flagler Street offers adult clothes and sporting goods, but the Hialeah store specializes in kid stuff.)

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 especially good collection of eveningwear. “I really do love the clothes here,” one bulging acquaintance says. Then she gives this shop the ultimate endorsement. “Actually I’d wear them even if I weren’t pregnant.”

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 baby store in Havana and the help habla Español. As a bonus there’s enough technology to satisfy even the most geeklike dad. Try the gizmo to help stop bed-wetting. When the baby pees, a light goes on. The cost: $39.99. Or there’s First Sounds, which lets you listen in on the womb. Also for $39.99. The best of the best is the Little Havana store, which has a bizarre, covered parking lot and a quirky design. But you can also try the larger shop in the Falls. Either way, infantile fun awaits.

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 and animals. Clinical studies and 8000-year-old manuscripts support the approach of opening channels and redirecting chi with needles, for the four-legged as well as biped. Acupuncture works particularly well in relieving pain. “Sometimes we overmedicate animals,” he says. “In conventional practice we treat what the animal was brought in for. But my interest is in treating the entire body…. Conventional approaches have their place, and acupuncture has its place. I use both. Acupuncture won’t save the world, but it has helped in remarkable ways.”

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. One quick stop at a place called Red White & Blue yielded a miniature gumball machine; plaster molds for casting concrete statuary; a red bra-and-panties set with matching plumage; a contraption designed to decorate a mailbox with silk flowers; a three-foot-high purple toucan; and a Scooby-Doo lunchbox. At the neighboring Community Thrift Store we found enough furniture to outfit a dormitory, plus pinball machines, exercise bikes, old stoves, air conditioners, fridges, and even a waterbed. Save More, Inc., a few doors down, stocks new and used items including party supplies, tools, a life-size plastic yard tortoise, clothes, and toys. The scene is completed by a 99-cent store, a discount outlet for baby items, a beauty-supply store, and a Winn-Dixie. No need to bother with a detritus-seeking metal detector; the goods at these joints have been sorted, coded, and labeled to make the pickings easy.

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 a number of trace minerals, is well established in Europe and Asia. The cultivation technique even works indoors with high-intensity lights that replicate the sun’s rays. All of the lights, trays, fertilizers, supplements, testing equipment, growing mediums, irrigation systems, and information you need can be found at Gold Coast’s two stores. The service is professional and subdued. The stores are clean and well organized. The only negative is that the prices are a bit, um, pricey. But note that commercially grown tomatoes go for about a dollar per pound. Hydroponically grown tomatoes (blemish-free and consistent in taste, texture, size, and shape) go for triple that. A sample system set up in the window of the Bird Road outlet boasts bushy growth, brightening the dreary stripmall where it is located. Indeed considering the proliferation of stripmalls, freeways, sidewalks, and basketball courts, soilless gardening may someday be the only method available.

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, rats, and rabbits for sale” signs. After Hurricane Andrew destroyed her family’s litchi tree grove, Hunter and her former partner (a Jordanian-trained agriculturist named Burhan Imran, who now runs his own tree farm) germinated the idea of a boutique nursery. A lifelong plant lover who spent fifteen years living in a Coconut Grove house whose yard she recalls as “a rain forest,” Hunter has some 200 species of plants, many natives, some shelved within her five greenhouses and one shadehouse, others lined up on tarps in full sun. No pesticides, no fertilizers, no tools: just plants, all priced to move. The variety is spectacular, with tropicals and bromeliads adding to the typical ferns and palms and ground covers. She trades plants, and has breeders bring in collectibles and rarities. That means the options vary from visit to visit, and that also means Canterbury is a fun place just to browse. Hunter says her customers are about half professionals and half do-it-yourselfers. Her operation is 100 percent delightful.

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 role-playing game trade, Joel (“What’s your last name?” asks New Times. “Why do you ask?” he shoots back.) once sold comic books. Unlike many others in the biz, he built up a big enough clientele for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and other similar pastimes to weather the downturn in the comic biz. He now devotes his little storefront across from Tropical Park solely to gaming books, adventures, and other fantasy-related resources. His narrow, slightly dingy but well-ordered store offers titles from the familiar (AD&D) to the not-so-familiar (GURPS). If you want to sample a particular system, Joel will rent you a rulebook for about ten dollars per week. He’s got two groups meeting in the store now (AD&D and Vampire: The Masquerade), but there’s always room for another hardy band of adventurers at the folding table in the back — provided an experienced gamemaster comes forward to referee. “Everybody wants to play, nobody wants to GM,” he gripes. Ain’t that the truth!

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 time ago.” The even more easygoing Harold Klein, proprietor of the tobacco shop, adds: “We get along with them. They have a sign that says ‘health’ and I have one that says ‘death.'” Excuse us while we enjoy our cigar.

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 backpack-wielding Lilliputian traders, mostly boys, clamor around a godlike clerk in a cacophony of soprano voices. Care to go a few rounds with the Souldrinker? Think you can handle the Rats of Rath? Sure you can. But bring your imagination; there are no virtual-reality helmets here, no high-tech computer screens or Game Boys, just good old-fashioned mind games. The store carries a large selection of cards, figurines, and other accoutrements for fantasy games, as well as trading cards, comic books, and animated Japanese videos. Popular right now are two role-playing card games: Pokemon, which is from Japan, and Magic: The Gathering. Magic tournaments are held Sundays. Check for other scheduled tournaments, such as Warhammer Fantasy. Pickup games run seven days per week around worn green billiards-like tables. And if there’s no one to run the game? “That’s where we come in,” says John, a cheerful employee. In the immortal words of Lyna, a Thalakos Seer from Magic: The Gathering: “You see our world when you shut your eyes so tightly that tiny shapes float before them.” That’s one approach. The store is open Monday and Tuesday, noon to 8:00 p.m.; Wednesday through Friday noon to 9:00 p.m.; Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; and Sunday noon to 6:00 p.m.

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 county. Gurowitz launched Hockey World to serve the area’s expanding roster of players. He knows the needs of ice- and roller-hockey competitors, and he assists both groups expertly. The depth of his passion is literally written on the walls of his small shop. Any space that is not covered with sticks, elbow pads, and gloves is papered with autographs of his beloved Chicago Blackhawks. Among the rink-related John Hancocks: Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, and Chris Chelios (signed before the recent trade to the hated Red Wings). Inside a display case rests a rare trading card of Boston Bruin legend Bobby Orr … in a Blackhawks sweater. Gurowitz’s knowledge along with his reasonable prices have helped him outlast several competitors. Lately he’s been filling orders from South America. Having conquered South Florida, he is entering the next frontier.

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 decide to invest in season tickets to Fusion games, but feel foolish because you don’t have the necessary regalia. Or you just like to flip through the latest Umbros, inhale the hand-stitched Brine that cost more than your last dinner out, or try on the Diadoras that make you think you could show that ungrateful Carlos Valderrama a move or two. Whatever your reasons, practical or nostalgic, Soccer Locker won’t fake you out. Just make sure to brush up on your lingo before you get there or the staff will shake-and-bake on your wallet.

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 here. Saddles, embroidered belts, whips, riding crops, vests, and bolo tie are all hewn from the skin of the seemingly endangered bovine. But metal is also central to the cowboy’s existence; a walk through the three-room store reveals spurs, anvils, and steel horse combs. If you’d rather sit on a couch and watch a Western than saddle up and gallop along the range, the center stocks cattle horns that you can mount above the television.

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 we humans breathe air, not water. Thus the best and brightest scuba practitioners recommend high-quality equipment, from mask to fin. Tarpoon, established in 1942 by diver Mike Kevorkian, has the latest models in top brands like U.S. Divers, Scubapro, and Seaquest. It is also the oldest dive shop in Miami-Dade. Longevity is meaningful because ideally, you want to patronize a place that’s going to be in business when your stuff needs service. Tarpoon’s salespeople are also divers, so they can tell you why you need, say, a silicone mask. (Answer: Cheaper ones often dry up and crack.) Professional divers also recommend avoiding places that certify you in just a day or two. Tarpoon’s beginner’s course costs $225 and is conducted over two weeks in a heated pool at the Hialeah store. You need mask, snorkel, fins, and weight belt to enroll.

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 and sells new and used gear. Among its wares are all kinds of balls, weights, togs, racquets, clubs, and bats. You can scoop up used tennis balls for two bits apiece, find junior titanium drivers for about $20, and even try out an array of putters on the carpeted showroom floor, where an automatic ball return is set up. The congenial staff will restring your racquet, relace your glove, or regrip your clubs. With a more comprehensive inventory, tighter restrictions on trades and consignments, and a few thousand more square feet of space, Play It Again could easily become The Sports Authority. Here’s betting (and hoping) that never happens.

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 no-nonsense, no-pressure salesman with a smile. He has a reputable repair business to boot. Get a nice affordable Hampton cruiser for about $150, an aluminum Haro mountain bike for up to $3000, or anything in-between. Enrique also displays Cignals, Jamis, and GTs. For a small store, this place has a big selection of seats, helmets, parts, and accessories. If you’re a hard-core mountain biker or road racer, you might consider a place that caters to specialized needs like past Best of Miami winners Tamiami Cyclery, Mack Cycle, Bicycle and Fitness Store, Big Wheel Cycle South, and Cycle World.

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, Martins, Gibsons, Gretsches, and classic models from Czechoslovakia. Oddities abound. Check out the 30- to 40-string zithers, pear-shaped mandolins, Hawaiian ukeleles, banjos, dobros, and bouzoukis. Also for sale: really weird Japanese guitars from the Sixties that have lots of knobs and switches. Prices range widely. For $35 kids can begin paving their road to rock-stardom. For $3000 experts can outdo Segovia.

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 hands to mend it. Tucked into a stripmall on Biscayne Boulevard, Dan’s is a throwback to an era when cameras were made of metal and careful craftsmanship was part of the culture. Wenzel, who bought Dan’s in 1977, says he takes on only professional jobs that are too complicated for his competitors. He specializes in antiques and high-performance models. So if you’re the proud owner of a Twenties Leica that needs help, don’t despair! With a wave of his screwdriver, Wenzel will have you up and shooting in no time.

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 ElectroWave on Miami Beach, a 30-day trial membership at the gym, or the Southeast Florida Library Network (SEFLIN) Free-Net, which provides Internet access and e-mail accounts to South Florida residents, homeless people included, at no charge. SEFLIN also offers several free Internet training sessions each month. Registration forms and training schedules are available at most libraries, including the one on Florida International University’s North Campus. Once registered you are eligible to enter the fast lane of free: the information superhighway. Of course donations are accepted.

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 whirring set it apart from competitors. The store’s location is a nice bonus for the sexually frustrated traveler-on-the-go. There are more than 4000 titles to chose from, all competitively priced. There’s also one great deal: Buy two fuck films and get the third one free. That’ll keep ’em coming.

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. And there are plenty of Spanish-language tome purveyors. So you can see we’re well read. What? You’re not convinced? Then we’ll draw our trump card, our proverbial ace in the hole. It’s called Books & Books, and we’ve regularly declared it to be the city’s best bookstore. For a reason. Hell, for many reasons. Founded by Mitchell Kaplan in 1982, Books & Books possesses what chains lack: a vision. Kaplan’s vision spilled over into the Miami Book Fair International, a highly successful annual festival of words. It pours from the shelves of his two retail outlets, where you’ll find books old and new, popular and obscure, big and small. Books for kids and collectors. Books for natives and visitors. Books and books and books (close to 100,000 titles). Magazines, too. Kaplan’s vision includes readings and workshops. He invites top authors to meet their readers at his stores. This year’s visitors included Tom Brokaw, Elmore Leonard, and Tony Bennett. In January he launched a Website (www.booksandbooks.com). He understands that books are not just the product of an industry, but little worlds you can live in for a while. Books & Books is the travel agency to those worlds.

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 Memory, as well as Denis Johnson’s Fiskadoro and John Hawkes’s Second Skin. A tour of the nonfiction stacks was rewarded with Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 and a thick, hardbound edition of the Warren Commission Report. Should your bibliophilia require you to seek sustenance, Kafka’s features an in-house café and — no Luddites here — rentable Internet-linked computers. We have to admit, though, that there’s a better place in Broward County: Robert A. Hittel Booksellers in Fort Lauderdale.

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 small interior. The place is loaded to the rafters with signed photographs of local sports stars, framed rookie cards, and collectible clothing. Even the black plastic rats that skittered along the ice after a Panthers’ goal during their magical playoff run are available here. For comic-book fans, an entire wall is dedicated to colorful adventures. But don’t come early. Owner Kevin Palczynski doesn’t open until noon.

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, Kaz), this is one of the few spots where you’ll find your favorites. The eclectic selection is still a bit thin compared to the scads of good old spandex-clad, caped crusaders clogging the racks, but the store is happy to special-order anything.

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 this good pops up in Miami (which is not exactly literacy central), this store is your best bet if you’re looking for (almost) all the news.

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 to Fifties and Sixties drive-in culture. There are more zombie flicks on display than you ever thought possible. For starters the perennial greats: Night of the Living Dead, Frozen Dead, and Night of the Walking Dead. The last one is a personal fave because of its poster’s screaming warning: “We are not responsible to any person that this film may disturb either physically or mentally!” More sensitive souls might want to snag the poster for Island of Lost Women with its enticing tag line: “They turned a forbidden paradise into a raging hell — when they dared to love the untouched beauties hidden from the world!” Just the thing to brighten any bachelor’s living room.

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 abound, but it’s in the catalogue that this place really shines. Looking for an offbeat indie cult fave like Ross McElwee’s Sherman’s March? It’s here. How about a French New Wave classic like Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin-Feminin? New Concept’s got that one, too. There’s also a nice selection of adult films — both straight and gay — arrayed behind a tasteful velvet curtain. At least, ahem, that’s what a close friend tells us.

“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 by on a Wednesday, when the week’s new releases arrive, and you’ll find a steady stream of club aficionados snapping up the latest drum and bass twelve inchers from London, dishing gossip on the dance scene, and trading info on where they get their records pressed. The turntable-challenged should also take note: This Spec’s also has a nice selection of electronica on CD.

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 soul. Move into the second room and it’s a rocker’s paradise for both postpunkers and die-hard Sixties enthusiasts. A $3.99 vinyl copy of the Meat Puppets’ Up On the Sun stares up from beneath the entire Bob Dylan back catalogue while the latest noise seven-inch singles vie for space with Eric Clapton and Beach Boys box sets. Finally stroll into the backroom and you’ll find jazz heaven: an informed stock of both the traditional and the avant-garde, from Louis Armstrong to Albert Ayler. Add reasonable prices, free parking, a staff with encyclopedic knowledge, and you have a great place to lose yourself for an afternoon.

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, early-Seventies Tappa Zukie and Mighty Diamonds albums, as well as not one, not two, but an entire stack of still-sealed copies of Culture’s 1977 dread classic Two Sevens Clash. Irie indeed.

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 magazines while you wait at the barbershop. You call, set a time, and Charles shows up. Although he’s only 26 years old, this Haitian-American part-time actor has been trimming locks for about a decade. At age sixteen he started attending cosmetology night classes after high school football practices. (He did so illicitly, without paying.) Since then he’s shorn rap stars Puff Daddy and Luther Campbell as well as boxer Lennox Lewis. For a real kick use a cell phone to make a business call while the scissors snip. Yeah, you’re a regular Bill Gates. Charles charges $10 to $20 depending on the style and whether there is more than one customer. He’ll do any style of hair.

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 shop. The proof is in the impressive array of vintage disco and late-Seventies’ funk albums prominently displayed next to this month’s club faves-of-the-moment. Looking for that elusive Sylvester album? How about an old Eddie Kendricks slow burner? A snaky foot-stomper from the Jimmy Castor Bunch? It’s all here and affordably priced. Bell-bottoms and platform shoes may have been traded in for an Adidas ensemble, but the beat goes on.

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 American. Manager Carlos Suarez is pleased to give you a primer on Latin styles as he guides you through the store’s more than 5000 titles. Among this musical menagerie: Cuban dance music from every era; Argentine rock; Brazilian jazz; Mexican love ballads; and much more. Offering the latest releases as well as classics, rarities, and reissues, Esperanto is an aficionado’s wonderland. Even if you have a tin ear when it comes to Latin music, don’t worry. Esperanto speaks your language.

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.

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 stores, from Ann Taylor to Aveda to Crate & Barrel, add value. And it’s a breeze to park at The Falls. Speaking of breeze, much of this megalopolis of capitalism is beautifully constructed, with outdoor gardens, fountains, and big courtyards.

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 recreational ice-skating mecca is planned for Kendall. So if you want to be on the cutting edge, you might consider visiting this warehouse of a store just west of South Dixie Highway. It has the latest gear. Besides the fad for frost, global warming is all the rage. So you may prefer to glide on wheels in the sunshine. Universal stocks items tailored to roller hockey, aggressive skating (like sliding down a stairway handrail and pirouetting into a spread eagle, followed by a flip), and off-road blading. Finally the store carries equipment for the on-again fad of skateboarding. Need a lesson? The staff can point you in the right direction.

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 treatments for the face, body, and soul, including a variety of aromatherapy facials, seaweed body wraps, and hand and foot care. Located in a massage- therapy office, Noriega’s tiny salon is as peaceful as a Buddhist temple. It’s a place where stress seems simply innapropriate. Noriega uses all-natural products from Germany, France, and Australia and essential oils for her spirit-cleansing facial. Her healing hands lull you to sleep in minutes, and everyday aggravations float away amidst meditative music and calming herbal scents. After an hour on the table at Touch, you’ll feel calm, refreshed, and ready to face the world.

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 to the impossible are well organized, reasonably priced, and articulately described by the knowledgeable sales staff. When asked about the alleged shortage of bubbly for 2000, Chip Cassidy replies, “Well the frogs want you to believe that on New Year’s Eve they’re gonna drink red wine. If anyone is nervous, they should just come in and buy a bottle today.” Hey, it never hurts to have a few magnums beside the canned beans and drinking water. Current recommendations include a selection of nonvintages from Charles Heidsieck for $38 to $42; this year’s hottest seller, Veuve Clicquot’s Yellow Label Brut, which goes for about $32; a Montaudon from Riems for about $20; and the all-time favorite among those who adore great wines and good values, the stellar Billecart Salmon Brut, which goes for a measly 25 bucks. Billecart’s Brut Rosé, for $46, could make any reasonable person believe Y2K is a small matter. Crown even stocks a remarkably good nonalcoholic sparkling wine from Ariel. And no party would be complete without a stock of great cheeses, patés, caviar, crackers, and cigars from Crown’s gourmet department.

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 Samuel Smith. The next day your tastes lead you to Southern-style beer like Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager or Cave Creek Chili. Next, after discovering you can’t afford the fare to Holland, you settle for a weekend quaffing the tasty suds from four or five Dutch breweries. But maybe the best thing about this place is that it truly is convenient, open 24 hours a day.

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, rums, liqueurs, gold-speckled apéritifs, fruit cordials, and hard-to-find imported wines make this storefront a welcome alternative. The variety could make your head spin even before a drink. For example Sunny Isles stocks more than 150 types of single malt scotch. Vodkas? There are nearly 100, including gourmet brands like Absolut, Arctic, Ketel One, Belvedere, Chopin, Grey Goose, Stolichnaya, and Keglevich. Next question: What flavor do you fancy? Chocolate, lemon, vanilla, citron, hot pepper, banana, melon, or strawberry? Manager Fernando Rodriguez and his staff make choosing as easy as falling off a stool.

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 African silver totems hanging from leather cords. This exotic jewelry may not bring good luck, but there’s no doubt it will draw compliments. Elaborate silver rings set with a rainbow of stones, dangling earrings, chunky silver bracelets, and intricately worked chains are arranged according to color and material. There are so many beautiful things here, it’s bewitching. Best of all, prices range from twenty to two hundred dollars. So if you can’t travel the world, you can at least wear a little piece of a far-off place.

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 small, second-floor salon, nails are not an afterthought. There’s no racket here from blow dryers and screeching stylists; Margarita and her daughter Jesse give full attention to manicures and pedicures. The family atmosphere is relaxing and the well-stocked supply of the latest nail polish shades guarantees you’ll leave loving yourself. So whether you like your talons loud and pointy or subdued and square, the Gonzalez family will do wonders for both your hands and your peace of mind.

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, it’s nice to have confidence. “It’s really hard to find good employees,” manager Shirley Sanchez comments. “They have to be nice and clean, they have to have a license, and they have to have a good pull. I’m usually the guinea pig and believe me, it hurts when they don’t know what they are doing.” A gentle touch can help, but wax-type is also important; South Beach uses a recipe that generally allows one-piece removal. Workers at this storefront also stay open relatively late seven days per week, keep the facilities clean, and even go places most others won’t. Especially popular are butt waxes, termed “butt strips,” by Janet, a slight and cheery Peruvian. The cost is fourteen dollars for the cheeks and twelve more if you want to remove the hair that grows between them. Other hot spots include nostrils, toes, backs, bellies, bikini area, and lips (the pair beneath your nose or, for women, the set further down).