Best Wizard Gathering 2010 | Texas Pinball Festival | Best of Dallas® 2020 | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Dallas | Dallas Observer
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Best Wizard Gathering

Texas Pinball Festival

The Texas Pinball Festival will celebrate its 18th annual event this March, proving that even in the age of Wii and PlayStation, people still appreciate the craftsmanship and tactile experience of their favorite arcade games. A flat fee gets you in the door for unlimited play on a plethora of machines—for a much heftier fee, you can even take some of them home. You'll see machines you thought you'd never see again, from cool, vintage '70s Playboy and Capt. Fantastic games to those based on best-forgotten '90s films like Demolition Man ("Featuring Academy Awards Winning Actress Sandra Bullock!"). And if the pinball isn't enough, the people watching is amazing—whether it's the hardcore competition players or the blinking light salesmen or the drunk middle-aged couples down from Oklahoma, hoping to rekindle a little of that teenage feeling with a sweet multiball or two.

Best Fishing Store

Barlow's Tackle Shop

Dallas used to be dotted with little bait and tackle stores where you could acquire a little bit of equipment and a whole bunch of information just by stopping in. Now, of course, the huge category-killers like Bass Pro Shops and Academy have driven most of the mom-and-pops out of business. One of the interesting exceptions to that rule is Barlow's, just south of Arapaho Road on the southbound service drive of Central Expressway in Richardson. Barlow's maintains a serious Web presence, selling specialized bait and equipment to guides and dedicated fishermen. Maybe that's what allows them to keep the retail store open. However they do it, their store is a great place to pick up inside scoop on area lakes from Texoma to Fork. The people behind the counter know what's biting, where and on what. Sometimes you don't even have to ask. Just slouch around and keep your ears open, because somebody else is always up there trying to pick up some secrets.

Best Bureaucrat

Gary Fitzsimmons

No small matter, balancing the public's right to a free and open judiciary against the privacy rights of the litigants who play within its courtrooms. But Dallas County District Clerk Gary Fitzsimmons has spent much of his public career trying to strike that balance. On July 26, he made court records available over the Internet, initially releasing more than 13 million images to the public. Currently the dockets of 10 criminal courts, eight civil courts and all seven family courts can be viewed online. Documents for the remaining courts will be available by year's end. This may be a boon to the media but not so much to those litigants who object to public disclosure of private matters. To assist in these privacy concerns, individuals can request that their Social Security numbers be redacted from documents and certain records—those not required by law to remain public—may be restricted. Lawyers and the media will have access to all documents save those sealed or made confidential by law. Tricky business, maintaining some semblance of privacy in an electronic world. But Fitzsimmons seems bent on trying to get it right.

Best Scenic Drive

Lakeside Park

Driving through Highland Park can be a blissful experience. Something about passing by the well-manicured lawns, unbelievable houses, and beautiful women jogging behind blonde Gerber babies in strollers always takes our mind off of our car's busted air conditioner—for a moment. Tucked away in the middle of it all sits one of the area's most beautiful gardens: Lakeside Park. A wide canal meanders through perfectly landscaped grounds until it reaches a peaceful waterfall underneath a wooden bridge. Droves of lily pads cover the water's surface, and long leafy branches provide shade for several park benches. Kids love the park's giant teddy-bear statues, and for adults, it's the perfect location for a romantic picnic or just a leisurely evening stroll.

Best Bookstore (New)

Borders or Barnes & Noble(Your pick)

We tried to kindle up some way of choosing between Dallas' two national chain giants, but truth be told, deciding between them is like trying to pick your favorite leaf in the Amazonian forest. Similar discounts, similar in-store readings, similar selection of new titles. You got your coffee, your fairly limited selection of books on CDs. Oh, if only there were a way to reach up into the air and effortlessly retrieve a decision between the two, or some magical, electronic piece of wizardry that we could use to calculate which is better. But we're lightweights when it comes to making those sorts of decisions. We're all thumbs. And we're seriously hoping that someone gets our point in time for our next birthday. This too is a hint.

Best Place to Get Crafty

Bows and Arrows

It would be wrong to pigeonhole Bows and Arrows as just a craft haven. It's so much more than that. The multi-use space—owned and operated by visual artists, entrepreneurs and general Renaissance couple Adam and Alicia Rico—is at once full-service floral shop, art gallery, depot for handmade specialty gifts, and yes, a center for classes that range in topic from floral arranging (basic, wedding and more) to fiber arts (felting, batik) to paper works (screen printing, chandeliers, monoprinting and more). All classes are taught by artists (such as Lizzy Wetzel and paper nerds) who may be experts in their own field but don't scoff at even the most inexperienced new student. Plus, classes are so inspiring you'll want to assign your own homework. When was the last time that happened?

Best Way To Avoid Tolls

Launch Yourself Over The Gate

On some level, 22-year-old Fort Worth-residing Yasmine Villasana had the right idea when, back in June, rather than slowing down upon approaching the exit toll booths at DFW Airport, she sped up, angled her car toward the between-booth barricades that, in her defense, kind of do look like ramps, and flew right over the tolls. Sure, she suffered minor injuries, saw her car go up in flames and got arrested by police, but we'd be lying if we said we didn't understand her plight. We hate those tolls; it makes no sense that we have to pay just to get into the airport and drop our friends off at their departure gate. So, no, we don't blame her for going all General Lee on the place—we're actually thinking about doing it ourselves next time.

Best Skatepark

Guapo Skillz Center Skatepark

The days are long gone when crowds of kids gathered around a big ramp at Bachman Lake, sporting mullets and neon surf wear, to catch the city's best skateboarding stars in action. That's not entirely a bad thing, but what today's skaters have gained in fashion sense, they've largely lost in tight-knit community vibes that once coursed through Dallas' smaller skate scene. Keeping the old spirit alive, Guapo's a hangout built around old local skate legends, with an eye on "passing along the stoke" to the next generation. It may not look like much from the outside, but this warehouse in the Cedars is home to the best bowl and street-style skating in the city. It's a private club most days, but two or three times a month, open houses let any budding skater roll in and check it out.

  • 1300 Corinth St., Denton, 76208 Map

Best Flower Shop

Cebolla Fine Flowers

Luit and Jamie Huizenga or their employees are always up in the middle of the night making runs to D/FW Airport, because they import flowers directly from the bloemenmarkt, the Amsterdam Flower Market, rather than buying through broker/distributors in the United States. That makes Cebolla the place to go, not only for floral arrangements but for your own fresh robust cut flowers for your own creations. Luit is Dutch and knows the Amsterdam market like the back of his hand. Jamie is a genius designer. Together in an earlier life they created Dr. Delphinium. Their new store on Maple is a sight to behold whether you buy anything or not.

Browsing Penzeys Spices' selection of more than 250 different herbs, spices, seasonings, sprinkles and blends from around the world is enough to make one's head spin. Especially while trying to choose between numerous different peppercorns, chili powders or cinnamon (they stock more than a half-dozen different varieties of each), but, luckily, as you sniff your way around the store, the knowledgeable employees are always ready with suggestions to help you spice up any recipe from tacos, burgers or curries to cakes, cookies or custards. But the best part about Penzeys is that if you don't have time to make a trip to the store, there's always the expedited shipping from the company's online catalog. Penzeys has sold its world-wide array of spices by mail order for more than 20 years now, opening its first storefront in '97. (The Dallas spot opened in 2005.) Our new favorite purchase is the new salt-free Arizona Dreaming, which is an all-purpose blend that lends a "South of the Border" flavor to any dish. Warning though, once you go Penzeys Spices, you never really go back.

Best Way To Stick It To The Man (In Traffic Court)

Gioffredi & Associates

Never pay the fee for a red-light camera ticket. Just ignore it. The city can't prove you were driving the car, and all they'll do is send you warning letters. That's just one bit of free legal advice we—er, someone we know—happened to overhear in the waiting room at the law firm of John Gioffredi. That person we know had a traffic-ticket situation far more complicated than a mere red-light ticket, involving multiple petty offenses with steep fines that had built to a fiscally impossible sum. Yet the very day they walked in, all warrants were lifted and he was able to get his driver's license back after months of nearly pissing his pants every time he saw a cop in the rear-view mirror. To top it off, the cases were all dismissed without having to pay a dime in fines.

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