Goods & Services >>

• Best Caterer
  Adrian's Premiere Catering and Special Events
  We had Thanksgiving catered from Adrian's – delivered to our home, no less – for pennies on the dollar for what it would have cost to cook it ourselves. And could we have duplicated Robert Campbell's succulent turkey or Tina Grimstead-Campbell's perfect po­tato salad? No way!... More >>
• Best Tutor
  Dr. Ellen Clardy
  Mathematician Ellen Clardy, who got her Ph.D. in economics from Rice University, has a love of logic. It shows most astutely when she recommends that potential pupils consider a tutor before October hits — when it's often too late to turn around a lousy semester in algebra. If you really... More >>
• Best Facial (4 Comments)
  Mahssa at Enchanté Day Spa
  Maybe Halliburton can't run a war — much less a country — but one of its former civil engineers can whip your skin into shape! Mahssa burned out on her former career but, lucky for us, became an esthetician and makeup artist. She's as bubbly as you'd expect for someone in the glamour... More >>
• Best Landscaping Materials
  Natural Earth Products Company
  This rock yard should be a field trip for college geology students. There's a wealth of natural products, all clearly marked and organized, for all of your backyard needs (except maybe grass): limestone, flagstone, gravel, soil, mulch, boulders. They will mentor the do-it-­yourselfer, give... More >>
• Best Sale Rack
  Syms
  There's a television anchorwoman from a nearby state who comes to Houston to spend her annual wardrobe budget in one place. Nope, not the fantastic department store known for its service that begins with "N" (of course, that would be Nordstrom, not Neiman Marcus). It's Syms, that big ol' hulk of... More >>
• Best Asian Grocery
  Hong Kong Market No. 4
  There's no place that can compare to Hong Kong Market No. 4. It's probably the best example of the mix of Texan and Asian cultures. Only in Houston can you find an Asian grocery that has adopted the local fetish of building the largest and grandest supermarkets possible. Here you'll find a... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Coffee Beans
  The Purple Turtle Coffee Company
  Lots of places in the city offer good cups of coffee, but how many offer you a cup or a bag of beans that were roasted that very morning? Take a drive out to La Porte and visit the Purple Turtle Coffee Company, where they roast coffee beans daily. From Ethiopian Genuine Longberry Harrar to... More >>
• Best Bait 'n' Tackle
  Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World
  This sprawling complex in Katy is a sort of Mecca for outdoorsmen. If Armageddon ever comes, this is the only place you'll need. It's your basic one-stop survival shop, selling a variety of guns and hunting supplies and probably everything a man who loves fishing ever needs, and then some. After... More >>
• Best Convenience Store
  Hollywood Food Store
  This chain of Vietnamese-owned stores has been serving neighborhood patrons with all sorts of needs, at all sorts of hours. No matter if you need to just pick up some milk or want to choose a fresh cigar from the walk-in humidor, this place provides the things commonly found in a normal... More >>
• Best Hardware Store (1 Comment)
  Southland Hardware
  This isn't a mega-size warehouse, and you won't find any people wearing orange aprons here. Instead, you'll find one of the oldest hardware stores in the city and a staff that can help you with the most obtuse of questions. By the time they're done answering you, you'd believe they built the... More >>
• Best Laundromat
  Haut Wash
  Tucked into a mostly residential part of Montrose, this laundromat is as good as it gets when it comes to laundry day. AM radio nonchalantly fills the place with the music of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, making the chore just a little more digestible. Washers and dryers always seem to be... More >>
• Best Comic Book Store
  Bedrock City
  If you're into comics, anime, action figures, movie posters or goth collectibles, check out Bedrock City. They answer the question "Whadda ya got besides funny-books?" with total logic and verve: "Does the Louvre only house works by Da Vinci?" Owner Richard Evans opened the original location in... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Liquor Store
  Vino's Liquors & Wines
  From bourbons to vodkas, this quaint store holds a well-priced selection of all your boozing needs. But the thing that makes it so great is the incredibly knowledgeable staff. It doesn't matter if you think you know more about drinking than Jack Daniel. Or maybe you just turned 21 and are still... More >>
• Best Shoe Store (2 Comments)
  Premium Goods
  You won't find the latest high heels here, nor will you find ostrich-skin cowboy boots. But plenty of people still line up to buy shoes at this Rice Village-area sneaker boutique. When this sister store of the original Premium Goods in Brooklyn opened in our fine city, it brought with it New... More >>
• Best Toy Store
  Domy Books
  Don't let the name fool you into thinking this Montrose-area store is merely some sort of Barnes & Noble-like local. Domy offers their customers the latest in specialty artist-designed toys. It's one of the only places in town to find a random assortment of Bearbricks or Kid Robot designs.... More >>
• Best Record Store (1 Comment)
  Vinal Edge Records
  For collectors of new and old vinyl, regardless of what genres of music one collects, making the voyage out to this giant music cache near 1960 is like going on a Haj to record Mecca. The first time one visits, it can be more than overwhelming. Cardboard boxes of the most recent store... More >>
• Best Music Store (1 Comment)
  Sound Exchange
  This Montrose-area establishment has been supplying local music snobs with the most epicurean of sounds for years now. No matter if you're looking for the latest vinyl release from an obscure noise band or a self-manufactured CD by a local group, Sound Exchange is the place you're most likely to... More >>
• Best Adult Video Store (5 Comments)
  Bizarre Times
  Bizarre Times on Richmond lets you cover more vices than most (Houston Press employees excluded) can handle in one night. Of course, there's the porn, with a selection ranging from borderline tasteful to completely horrifying; sex toys, featuring nine variations on The Rabbit; prostitute-esque... More >>
• Best Bike Shop
  Bike Barn
  So, Bob, heard you need a road bike. You should try Bike Barn. And Emily, I hear you need a mountain bike. You should tag along with Bob. And Frank, you need a cool bike for your kids, right? Dude, go to Bike Barn. Trek, Serotta, Gary Fisher: Bike Barn. Clothes, helmets, parts, repair: Bike... More >>
• Best Car Wash
  Bubbles
  Bubbles isn't the cheapest car wash in Houston. But do you want your car to be clean, or do you want it to be kinda clean? The good folks at Bubbles will clean your carriage inside and out, top to bottom, while you chill inside and entertain yourself by looking through merchandise ranging from... More >>
• Best Maid Service (1 Comment)
  Maid 4 Texas
  Are you a lazy slob? Do you not like cleaning up after yourself? Well, whether you're lazy or legitimately cleaning-impaired, Maid 4 Texas is your savior. They will tackle your nasty kitchen and your disgusting bathroom. They will disinfect, mop, sweep, dust, vacuum, polish, remove, add and... More >>
• Best Maternity Clothes (4 Comments)
  Mommie Chic
  So there's a tiny, weird-­looking human being living in your body, Alien-style. That's no reason to spend nine months imprisoned in a frumpy muumuu. You have choices, and Mommie Chic wants you to know that. That's why they carry some of the best names in quality maternity fashion, including... More >>
• Best Hairstylist
  Mary Catherine Jimenez
  Mary Catherine got her initial training at Toni & Guy when it was still chichi and exclusive — long before you could buy their hair products at, say, a bait 'n' tackle shop in Llano. Though she's worked at several salons and spas during her more than 20 years in the business, a loyal... More >>
• Best Costume Shop
  Frankel's Costume
  This family-run business has been a Houston institution since 1950. Things have changed a bit since then, and that's a good thing — you can now view costumes and order online. And they have disguises for pretty much everyone — adults, kids, plus-size — from the standard to the... More >>
• Best Novelty Store
  Carmen's Boutique and Video
  So it's two days before Mother's Day and, like an idiot, you forgot all about it again. All the good flowers are probably gone — you need to get her something sweet, and you need it quick. Then you remember: What about that dual vibrating flexidong Mom's always hinting about? And as soon... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Fish (1 Comment)
  Central Market
  Are you a fool for flounder? A sucker for salmon? A cuckoo for cod? Ah, well, you probably see where we're going. And that's straight to Central Market, where seafood is delivered fresh six days a week and you'll find one of the biggest selections in the city. And if you're stuck in the same old... More >>
• Best Tobacco Store
  The Briar Shoppe
  A past champion reemerges! Nestled in Rice Village, this tobacconist treasure trove has been in business since 1962. Bulk, chewing, rolling, canned — they can meet all your tobacco needs. And if it's a cigar you're after, they have one of the biggest selections in the city. You can find... More >>
• Best Resurrected Vintage Shop
  Wear It Again Sam
  If used threads are your bag, baby, then you should know why we're so happy to see Wear It Again Sam...again. The store once graced the vintage strip on Westheimer, but after a dispute with the landlord, owner Sam Van Bibber had to shut it down. These days it's on W. 19th St. in the Heights... More >>
• Best Place to Buy CDs by Local Musicians
  Sig's Lagoon
  The perfect bricks-and-mortar store to buy local CDs does not exist. If you wanted to stock everything this city has come up with and continues to churn out — folk, zydeco, hip-hop, blues, rock, jazz, punk, R&B and country — you'd need a store as big as the Astrodome. (Hmm, now... More >>
• Best Place to Buy a Jolly Roger
  Kronberg's Flags and Flagpoles
  Want to strike terror into the heart of that idiot doing a mere 75 miles an hour in the fast lane on the Katy Freeway? Hoist a Jolly Roger from your car's mainmast — that ought to get them the hell out of the way. Kronberg's Flags and Flagpoles carries the classic, black... More >>
• Best Apartment Finder (3 Comments)
  Adrien Gibson
  We were gonna say Craig's List, but then we found Adrien Gibson, who hangs out on Craig's List and who, despite the inauspicious place for a first meeting, is one helluva apartment hunter. Our friend used Gibson when she was looking for a place a little while back. He asked her what she wanted,... More >>
• Best Candy Store (2 Comments)
  The Chocolate Bar/Candylicious
  It's not easy to make high-society, grown-up types look like, well, kids in a candy store, but these sweet slingers manage to pull it off. The Chocolate Bar offers tasty, original-recipe ice cream and cakes along with chocolate-covered everything; and Candylicious sells a variety of traditional... More >>
• Best Florist (1 Comment)
  Breen's
  It’s hard to pick a favorite. You have the Bright Day Bouquet, the Mellow Yellow, the Picture Perfect. You could spend quite a long time at Breen’s, searching through many beautiful bouquets, looking for the one that expresses exactly what you want to say. And no doubt Breen’s will have it,... More >>
• Best Manicure
  Nail'ori
  The camaraderie among the friendly staff — most of whom hail from Vietnam — is a big draw for some of the loyal clientele. But other happy customers, like Thomas Dickerson, who teaches prison inmates how to reduce their risk of catching AIDS, can vouch for something else: "They're so... More >>
• Best Fabric Store (2 Comments)
  High Fashion Fabric Center
  Four stories of fine fabric is only the beginning of the offerings at High Fashion Fabrics. Besides the yards and yards of silk, velvet, brocade, leather, linen and every other kind of millinery marvel, there's furniture, design books, ribbon, pillows, rugs and design thingamajigs and doodads in... More >>
• Best Local Clothing Designer
  Vanessa Riley
  So she didn't win Project Runway like that other gal in town, but Vanessa Riley has a hot new shop next door to Grotto and across the street from Hotel Derek. If it's a swashbuckling Elizabeth Swann you want to channel, Riley's your frock-maker. With enough ruffled bodices and tight-fitting... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Stuff for a Pirate Party
  Southern Importers
  Want to throw a grog-soaked debauch that would do Blackbeard proud, or a teetotaling little pirates' bash? Either way, Southern Importers has you covered. There, you can not only pick up pirate guy stuff like eye patches, hook hands, sashes, cutlasses and ruffled shirts but also bonny "pirate... More >>
• Best Spectacles, Glasses, Optometry
  Reading Glasses To Go
  Getting older ain't so bad when you can do it with flair. The Rice Village outpost of the national Reading Glasses To Go stocks thousands of fashionable reading glasses, including the white ones Meryl Streep wore in The Devil Wears Prada. Quel chic. Wanna look cool while reading Proust at a... More >>
• Best Vet (5 Comments)
  West Alabama Animal Clinic
  What can we say about Dr. Danielle Rosser and the staff at WAAC? Woof! What's not to like about a clinic that sports free, adoptable puppies in the waiting room, tiny canine T-shirts with rhinestone sayings like, "My Mother's a Bitch!," premium pet food, a 20-plus-pound cat on the reception desk... More >>
• Best Wine Store
  The Tasting Room
  From a single Uptown location to three Tasting Rooms and the überhip Max's Wine Dive, TTR has spread like barnacles on the Black Pearl. It's a wine bar-cum-cafe-cum-super-chic eatery (Max's), but we still like it just as a wine store — a perfect place to pop in after work and grab a... More >>
• Best Thrift Shop (1 Comment)
  Value Village Super Store
  While Value Village Super Store has plenty to offer anyone stocking an apartment on a budget, the best part of the thrift store is its stock of weird crap to buy for stupid reasons. You can get an old computer screen to throw off a building for a YouTube movie. You can pick up a VHS preview of... More >>
• Best Baby Store
  USA Baby
  Packed with high-quality furniture for babies and kids, USA Baby is the place to go when you're looking to outfit your nursery. From beautiful and delicate bassinets to rough-and-tumble bunk beds, from rocking chairs to car seats, it's all at USA Baby. It doesn't matter if you want to create a... More >>
• Best Dentist (1 Comment)
  Bruce Smith, DDS
  Bruce Smith is a great believer in "no pain" dentistry. That alone should qualify him for an award, but that's not all Dr. Smith has done to deserve our notice. The dentist, who began his career by doing service work in rural Waller County, came to Houston in 1981 — the beginning of the... More >>
• Best Computer Store (1 Comment)
  Apple Store, Houston Galleria
  Okay, all you PC lovers, put up your dukes! It's on! The PC vs. Mac argument has been going for years. It will be years still before that particular consumer struggle is decided, but inside the Apple store in the Galleria, Mac has won. A haven for Mac lovers who are usually relegated to some... More >>
• Best Massage (1 Comment)
  Massage Envy
  It had to happen — a chain offering massages at discount rates. And we tired, poor, huddled masses say, "Bring it!" Of 660 clinics nationwide, 20 or so are in the Houston area, lending credibility to the rumor that our city's traffic really does suck. We go to the one in Meyerland; a... More >>
• Best Bookstore (2 Comments)
  Butler & Sons
  Houston book lovers were crushed a few years back with the closing of Colleen's Books, the ramshackle used book store out on Telephone Road. But good things have sprung from the closure: Now, if you enjoy a little country drive, you can head to Butler & Sons in Rosenberg. Owner William... More >>
• Best Seaside Store
  Gulf Coast Market
  If there is a hub in Crystal Beach, the long, narrow strip of often ramshackle beach houses, tumbledown seafood restaurants and dive bars along the Bolivar Peninsula's Highway 87, the Gulf Coast Market is it. Known locally simply as "the Big Store," this gas station/supermarket/bait... More >>
• Best Farmers' Market (2 Comments)
  Bayou City Farmers' Market
  Farmers' markets are hard to come by in Houston, which is why Bayou City Farmers' Market is such a find. It's tucked away on a side street in the Upper Kirby district, and growers and artisans alike come to peddle their goods every Wednesday and Saturday. Aside from produce, you can find... More >>
• Best Antiques Store
  Antique Warehaus
  "Trash and Treasure since 1947," the slogan for Antique Warehaus, says it all. The Montrose-based dive is stacked from dirty floor to raftered ceiling with everything from leather couches and ottomans to flatware and glassware, lamps, old cameras, bar stools and picture frames. It's the city's... More >>
• Best Auto Mechanic (1 Comment)
  Shepherd Square Tire & Auto
  We know a driver who fell victim to one of Houston's notorious potholes, leaving half the front underside of his car dragging ominously. He took it to the nearest garage, where they helpfully jury-rigged a solution but told him to get a permanent fix at his regular mechanic. So he took it to... More >>
• Best Barber
  Matt Wright
  Men frequent barbershops less for the trim than for the banter, the testosterone and the taxidermy. The best barbers fall into two categories. There's the cutter who jawbones nonstop on everything. Then there's the quiet man, usually a stooped old-timer, who lets the customer do the... More >>
• Best Quilting Store (1 Comment)
  It's A Stitch
  Whether you've been quilting for years or are just starting out, It's A Stitch is the place to go. The three Houston-area locations offer the best selection of materials, patterns and threads, not to mention instructional books, movies and loads of fun accessories. The stores also offer classes... More >>
• Best Spice Shop
  Penzey's Spices
  Hang out in Penzey's Spices and a customer will inevitably open the front door and gush, "My, it smells good in here." And it does. The large, austere storefront in the Heights is a sensuous delight with hundreds of varieties of herbs and spices, each with its own smelling jar. And it's none of... More >>
• Best Aquarium Fish
  Napoleon Wrasse at the Downtown Aquarium
  Originally from the coral reefs of the Pacific, the Napoleon wrasse living in the confines of the Downtown Aquarium is truly a wonder to behold. He looks as if he'd like to strike up a conversation with you – and that he could formulate a good sentence with those huge lips, given the... More >>
• Best Liquor Store (1 Comment)
  Spec's Liquor Warehouse
  They call it Spec's Liquor Warehouse because, well, calling a liquor store the size of a large supermarket just a store wouldn't exactly do it justice. This Mecca offers it all, no matter what you're looking to down. If you need a keg for a frat party, they have over 200 different types and... More >>
• Best Native Texas Plants
  Joshua's Native Plants and Garden Antiques
  Walking through the maze of plants at Joshua's immediately slows the heart rate, as you lose yourself in a mini-Garden of Eden. Two zebra finches, Dot and Dash, hold court in a faux bois birdcage, stuttering the soothing Morse code that inspired their names. We've seen Joshua Kornegay throw in... More >>
• Best Pet Adoption
  Houston SPCA
  If you want to snap up a cute lil' chihuahua, get a really big dog for protection or even snare one of the new hybrids, like a Puggle, for cheap from the Houston SPCA, first you gotta pass muster with the gentle folks there. The organization has you undergo a bit of counseling and education.... More >>
• Best Pet Psychic (2 Comments)
  Lai Ubberud
  Lai won "Best Psychic" two years ago, so it's no cowinky-dink that she'd move on to animals once she got people down. Whether she's working with two-, four- or no-legged creatures, she has a freaky way about her, seemingly bridging three worlds — past, present and future. While any pet... More >>
• Best Pool Service (1 Comment)
  David's Pools & Spas
  Don't service people generally just scare the crap out of you? They reel off a judgmental tirade laden with technological jargon designed to make you feel like a worm. Where to go, if you're a new pool owner flummoxed by the summertime care and feeding that rivals a newborn baby's? Long before... More >>