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Best personal coach

Drue Gawel

First off, a personal coach is not the same as a personal trainer. A coach is more of a professional motivator. If you need someone to get you off your duff and help you make progress with your life, this is the man for the job. Gawel has been in this business long enough to tell when someone really wants to achieve their dreams, as opposed to when they're just dreaming. Many times, you may need a good push to get you on your road to personal success. Easy on the eyes and easy on the soul, Gawel can help you organize your life.

Best immigration lawyer

Fernando Dubove

With the immigration laws being somewhat draconian when it comes to noncitizens--documented or otherwise--who have committed crimes in their immediate or distant past, a good immigration lawyer had better have a working knowledge of criminal law as well. Fernando Dubove is such an attorney. Not only does he give a damn about his clients, but at a reasonable price, he tries to educate the rest of the Bar about this specialized area of the law. His speeches at legal seminars and his availability to criminal lawyers who are trying to sift through the maze of INS regulations make him a valued legal asset.

Best antique store

Snider Plaza Antiques

This store has a lovely selection of European and American antiques and collectibles. In addition to all the cool loot that your mother would love, it also offers antique hunting tours to Italy that provide the unique opportunity to stay at the palace of an authentic Italian count. It's definitely not your economy tour of Europe, but the price is surprisingly reasonable. For old, affordable stuff with that "antique" look (as opposed to "cheap"), check it out.

Best tattoo parlor

Pair O'Dice Tattoo

Imagine walking into a party and finding you're wearing the same dress as someone else. Now imagine that, like Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters, you're stuck with those clothes forever. For that matter, everyone else is too, so every time you leave your house, you see at least one other person wearing that outfit. That's what it must be like to have the same tattoo that every other schmoe who pointed at that design on the wall has. It's the barbed-wire ankle band, Looney Toons character, or shoulder-blade rose. It's everywhere. Pair O'Dice makes its own designs and free- hands requested images, making sure their clients aren't stuck with the Old Navy of ink marks.

Best magazine stand

Superstand

This is a good place to browse for magazines before your take-out pizza is ready at Mr. Gatti's (which is right down the street). It has an unbeatable selection of foreign and specialty magazines, but its real advantage over Borders and Barnes & Noble is its coupons, which, after buying 10 magazines, you can use to get one free. It also has a variety of foreign newspapers.

Best place to buy juice

Whole Foods Market

While other stores have aisles filled floor to ceiling with sweet carbonated beverages, Whole Foods market has lanes dedicated only to juice, Mother Nature's cola. Find peach, mango, raspberry, pineapple, coconut nectar, and every other juice man can squeeze from fruit and sell in jars and bottles. There are at least a dozen cranberry blends, including the Holy Grail of fruit beverages--100 percent pure cranberry juice, no sugar, no cocktail. Try finding that next to the shelves of Kool-Aid and Hi-C that other chain stores consider a juice department.

Best kids bookstrore

Enchanted Forest

We were forced--we repeat, forced--to watch the wretched, saccharine You've Got Mail the other night on HBO, and in light of that, we want to be clear about one thing: We've got no problem with big ol' bookstore chains. Love 'em. We want our latte with our magazines and our Oprah Book Club. But we also dig the smaller bookstores, the personal service, having Meg Ryan ask us, "Finding everything you need?" This is especially true when the munchkins are concerned, because so much of children's literature is complete doggie poo. Enchanted Forest Books for Children offers 45,000-plus titles, it has great story-time reading sessions, the staff is helpful, and they'll order books not in stock for you. Plus, if you leave craving a java fix, there's a Starbucks downstairs, so quit whining.

Best CD store (new)

Good Records

The name says it all. Located on the edge of Deep Ellum, this young store stocks local releases, the catalogs of several independent labels, and some major releases. (Don't expect to find Britney Spears albums, but Built to Spill and Billy Bragg/Wilco are on the top-selling lists.) The yellow wooden shelves with the colored light bulbs house well-kept rows of CDs marked with placards, making it even easier to find that CD you always meant to buy or that one your friend's brother's drummer recommended. Good Records also carries imports and does special orders. Plus, with several band members on staff (Tripping Daisy's--make that Polyphonic Spree's--Tim DeLaughter and Mark Pirro are two of the owners), staff recommendations are always one step ahead of everyone else.

Best used bookstore

Half Price Books Records & Magazines

The new Half Price Books location on Northwest Highway, across the street from their older, smaller location, is the mecca of cut-rate book buying. If you don't know what you want, you're bound to find 10 other books you didn't think of before. The music and arts sections are especially edifying, if not comprehensive, and they also boast a solid used-CD and LP inventory. If war is your thing, they have rows of Civil War and World War II books. You like mysteries? They've got tons of those. Political nonfiction your bag? It, too, has its own special section. A national company born in Dallas, Half Price Books should be commended for its strong continuing commitment here.

Best way to spend $20 in four minutes

Helicopter ride by DFW Helitours

There are other four-minute $20 dates, but this is the only quickie you can tell your mom about. Only available on Sundays, a little metroplex flyover is a far more impressive date trick than another mimosa-heavy brunch.

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