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Best car wash

Forest Car Wash

Worried that a mechanized car wash is going to suck the paint off your new roadster? Afraid that some unthinking automaton is going to scrape instead of scour, whack instead of wax? Fear no more, friends. Forest is a hand-wash car wash, eschewing rolling machines and whipping brushes for humans with sponges (and at reasonable prices). This people-centric motif extends to the rest of the car wash as well. Grab a plastic chair, either indoors or out, and browse the magazine rack. Feeling a little tense--some road rage perhaps--there is always Massages by George, the man with the chair who will cleanse your body of its toxins while the washers do the same for your car.

Best source to help you get the GQ look

David Mills at Neiman Marcus

Some men know how to dress well. Some men have significant others to help them dress well. For the other 80 percent of us, we have help from guys like David Mills. Mills has long been a treasured secret for shoppers at the men's department of Neiman Marcus at NorthPark Center. Ask him to find you a suit, and he can find it in less than 15 minutes. Ask him to put together a shirt and tie combination, and you'll be walking out with clothes that are elegant and uniquely flattering. His taste is impeccable. He's able to work with a variety of men's personal styles to assemble something that you find appealing. That's what makes him a favorite with many of the best-dressed men in Dallas.

Best place to buy DVDs

Movie Trading Co.

While the video chains are trying to catch up to the DVD-renting business that other specialty and independent stores already have, Movie Trading Co. already is several steps ahead. Go into any location, pick up any new or used DVD, and rent it for a few bucks. Try out the special features and see if it's good enough to add to your proud and growing collection. If you like it, you can buy it for the regular price minus the rental fee. MTC also stocks catalog and specialty items.

Best men's clothing store (tie)

Culwell & Son and Bachrach

It almost doesn't matter what kind of price break you can get elsewhere on the same suit. In the end, the only break that really counts is the one your cuff makes before it hits your shoe. The only people who know how to do that are real honest-to-goodness, pins-in-the-mouth tailors with cloth tape measures draped around their necks, preferably bald, with thick glasses and a pronounced stoop. That's what you get at Culwell & Sons. That's why it's worth it.

On our way to The Gap, we stopped in at Bachrach out of innocent curiosity. We never made it to the original retail destination, and bought two excellent short-sleeve button-down shirts, which we wear every week (we still need more shirts). Anyhow, Bachrach is one of those "European"-style places, but that doesn't mean you'll end up looking frou-frou if you go there. The clothes are sleek and lightweight and should be worn by people who have a high opinion of themselves. We've been working out lately and, fairly or not, have somehow fallen into that category. The staff is very helpful.

Best comic book shop (tie)

Cosmic Comics and Cards & Titan Comics

Cosmic Comics and Cards owner Mike Rubino has been a collector himself for 30 years and in business since 1980, so he understands his customers. His eclectic range of merchandise ranges from Archie and Jughead to The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. to modern day X-Men, and back issues are easy to locate, neatly arranged by title and number. While his average customer is male, age 20-25, there's plenty for the kid collector to look over. Additionally, there's a wide assortment of trading cards (sports, non-sports), comic book hero/heroine figurines, and adventure games.

Most comic-book stores live up, or down, to the stereotype: the good ol' fanboy club, the fortress of solitude and attitude. Woe to the novice who walks in unaware of what awaits him (or her, and let's be serious); you're in for the stink-eye from the guy behind the counter, who can't believe you don't know about Preacher or Top 10. Titan Comics, which bills itself as "the store for ther serious collector," exists almost to disprove the cliche. It's owned by a woman (Cecilia Shorr, who started her first comic shop in Houston almost two decades ago), staffed by women and Cecilia's kindly husband, Jeremy, and filled not only with the latest DC and Marvel titles, but the oddball good stuff that disproves the notion comics are still for superheroes. With its wall of new stuff and boxes of old stuff, Titan has become our home away from home, at least until we restock our boxes with copies of World's Finest, Brave and the Bold and Daredevil--ya know, the ones our moms sold when we went to college.

Best place to window shop

Deco-Dence

Place your greasy nose smudge next to ours and marvel at the brass and colored glass lamps lining the window sill, along with black-and-white Hollywood photos and various other gorgeous art deco baubles. But unless several Benjamins are burning a hole in your pocket, stay outside. Inside lurk antiques buffed and shined to prime condition, including a carved bedroom set that could fill a ballroom and that dining room set we love so much, but it's twice the price of our car and just a few hundred less than our college education.

Best kids' haircut

Stride Rite (ask for Ginger in the back)

Two career families, already over-scheduled to the max with kids' activities, will find they can cross at least two items off their checklist if they visit the Stride-Rite Shoe Store in Preston Center. Not only can they select from a large variety of kids' shoes--from sandals to hiking boots--they can saunter into the back, where they'll get a decent, no-hassles kids' haircut. Yes, there are many juvenile haircutteries popping up around town, but they have so many toys, tapes, and play-spaces that kids get overstimulated, unable to keep their butts in the chair for very long. At Stride-Rite, Ginger is especially sought after by kids of all ages for her quick scissors, calm demeanor, and deft ability to keep squirming toddlers still by loading them down with lollipops.

Best place to buy chic furnishings on a not-so-chic budget (tie)

Crate & Barrel Outlet and Target

At one time it was respectable to furnish an apartment piece-by-piece as the budget allowed. Now there's no need to be so patient. There are credit cards and discount stores with items sexier than their price tags. Unlike many outlet stores, Crate & Barrel doesn't have stock that recalls the stragglers left at the bar at last call. It has the odd-colored painted ceramics and bed skirts sans matching sheets, but those aren't the norm. Most shelves hold desirable items at bargain-basement prices. Besides the expected glassware, bar accessories, and dining supplies, the Crate & Barrel Outlet also has furniture for the whole house, linens for each room, and a plethora of magazine racks (does no one read anymore?).

Target, the most progressive of discount stores, has increased its toniness with several new lines of furniture, kitchenware, fancy dining room chairs (some with tony prices still intact), and the Michael Graves collection. The designer offers up slate-blue plastic, brushed aluminum, and honey-colored wood products with lines so sleek and graceful that even the pot scrubbers are a work of art. Target's also amassing enough high-quality drawer pulls and bathroom fixtures to make Restoration Hardware proud in a sensei-to-student sort of way.

Best new bookstore

Borders Books Music & Café

You've got to hand it to Borders. Their deep catalog cannot be beaten; to do better you have to go to Amazon.com, and do you really want to wait a week for a book you want to start reading tonight? Besides Borders also has nice little coffee shops and excellent magazine sections that highlight more than biker and weightlifting titles. They bring in local and regional voices for book readings. As a company, they also have a sorry history of union busting (well-educated clerks who read Marx are responsible), but our political sensibilities are usually soothed by the overall Borders shopping experience.

Best new liquor store

The Liquor Shoppe: Hops, Barley & Grapes

The plucky Wheeler family has chosen to go up against the Holy Trinity of Dallas' liquor stores-- Sigel's, Red Coleman, and Centennial--in the battle for your booze bucks, and they're doing a nifty job of it with little amenities such as easy chairs and handy reference books in an airy, spacious, light-filled store. Plus, they have nice little tastings on Saturday evenings.

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