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Best Place to Get Your Hair Did While Listening to Rap

Studio 410

Earlier in the summer, Studio 410 hosted a Cinco de Mayo afterparty in its back parking lot. It was one of those nights where everything converged just so: good hip-hop, people dancing and the chance to roam around in Studio 410's salon/art space. During the day, Miriam Ortega and her team of stylists let the good vibes of that space influence the haircut and color you get. She also knows how to flip a wig like a pro.

Best Place to Get Back at Your Dad

The Anger Room

The Anger Room is just that: a space where you (or you and a friend) pay a fee and are set loose in a room to smash someone else's property with a bat — or use your hands, if you're more tactile. This alternative to therapy (or prison) offers everything from a 15-minute Office Space package to 25-minute extended jams for the more thoughtful patron. (The rooms are designed to imitate an office, kitchen or living space.) You can basically do everything short of Angela Bassett lighting her ex-husband's car on fire in Waiting To Exhale.

Best Place to Take a Bachelorette Party

DFW Gun Range's Tuesday Ladies Night

If you're not really into the hands-on throttling of a place like the Anger Room, DFW Gun Range's Tuesday night is the perfect place to take your lady, or have a ladies night. It's open to any experience level, and the firearm and range fees are waived on Tuesdays, so you can totally take your best friend who's about to get married and let her get in some target practice, and squeeze off a few rounds yourself.

Best Cabinet Maker

R Triplett Construction

Rick Triplett was close to a Ph.D. in cell biology when he decided cabinet-making would be a happier path. Now he's proprietor of a family-run business combining fine craftsmanship with high-tech production methods to produce quality cabinets at reasonable costs. Triplett Construction comes at the challenge from both ends, with highly skilled woodworkers on the job and sophisticated joinery equipment back at the shop. They take on jobs from tiny to huge and bring the same level of commitment to all of them. Before you opt to go full-bore IKEA on cabinets, you should give these guys a call. They may or may not come back with a bid in your ballpark, but if they do and you take it, you're going to have solid wood cabinets expertly fitted to your space.

Best Tailor

Unique Tailor

What's unique about Unique Tailor? They're cheap. They're fast. They do great work. And they don't talk to you with pins in their teeth. A lot of people have very difficult childhood associations with tailors because when their parents were getting them fitted for their first communions, they never thought to explain why the man with his sleeves rolled up was speaking gibberish with pins in his teeth. The people at Unique Tailor can do everything from complicated evening gowns to blue jeans, and they do it all with the same good cheer and efficiency and lack of pin-chewing. No appointments: Just show up with an armload of stuff and they'll get on it.

Best Wine/Liquor Store

Sigel's Epicurean Market Deli

Don't let Spec's attempted takeover of the fine spirits world distract you from this gem in Addison. Aside from a great selection of booze, wine and whatever else you need to wet your whistle, the deli in the back has a great variety of cheeses, house-made duck pot pies and gourmet sandwiches. Irish lass and cheesemonger Theresa Magee rarely forgets a face and will help you with pairings or possibly even set you up with a full roast duck. Plus, Sigel's various tastings and events make exploring new liquors easier then a rummage through Grandma's liquor cabinet.

Best Men's Umbrella

The Davek Solo at Ken's Man Shop

The Davek Solo, built with the patented "WindFibre" nine-rib frame, solid steel shaft, zinc alloy clip and genuine leather hand strap, protects you beneath a canopy 43 inches in diameter made of 190 thread-count micro-weave fabric, yet folds to an elegant 11.75 inches length at just more than a pound in weight. It is the North Texas urban man's ultimate weapon against our regional rainstorms that can seem like something out of the Bible. Who knows? Beneath a Davek Solo, you might make a safe dash to your car even after the hail starts, although obviously, when the hail gets to a certain size, you, your umbrella and your automobile are all toast anyway. At least when they find you, you'll have the remains of one very handsome umbrella clutched in your hand. At about $100, it's a small price for going out in style.

Best Socks

Nordstrom

Let's agree, first off, that you're going to pay between five and 10 bucks for one pair of socks. That is the price spectrum within which anything is possible, probably anywhere on earth but especially at the two main Nordstrom locations at NorthPark Center and the Galleria. Just for instance: Our own favorite Nordstrom sock for men is the Calvin Klein "No Show" totally invisible sock, which comes in a three-pack selling anywhere between 12 and 20 bucks depending on sales and special pricing. It's completely invisible, for the man who wants to be a too-cool-for-school sockless loafer guy but doesn't want to have to throw his loafers away every three days because of sock-less foot-odor issues (enough said). Invisible socks sound a little too much to you like a Hans Christian Andersen fable? No, no, they're tiny little foot bikinis buried down so deep in your loafers nobody can see them. That's just one example of the wonderful world of socks at Nordstrom.

Best Plumber

Eric Chapman, CSInc. Plumbing

So the truth is there are lots and lots of good, honest, competent plumbers in Dallas who will get the job done and not take you to the cleaners. But then there's the other kind. So at least you can use Eric Chapman as a benchmark for what to look for. Chapman advertises that he is a "licensed master plumber." Is he? Google "Texas licensing system," and you will get to a page that lets you make a "public license search by name." He's there, fully accredited as a master plumber. His ad also tells you that he's insured — another good thing — and that he gives free estimates and doesn't charge travel time. You can talk to his company ahead of time on the phone, and they will tell you exactly how the charges will work. On top of all that, he's a great plumber and has good plumbers working for him.

Best Plumbing Supply for Regular People

Teter's Faucet Supply Center

Ever get the feeling plumbers have secret sources they can go to and get way better plumbing stuff than what we regular people are allowed to purchase at the big-box stores? It's true. The good news is that Teter's also makes a point of dealing with us mere retail schlubs as well as the professionals. The name is a little misleading: Teter's doesn't just sell faucets. To the pros, the name conveys that they only sell true plumbing parts, not heating and air conditioning fixtures, and they also sell mainly replacement parts, not new construction installations. Why is that important? Because it makes them specialists. First thing you notice when you go in, you have to wait in line like at the library. There's even a certain quiet tone about the place like it's the library. That's because behind the counter you have these highly trained people who do nothing but replacement plumbing parts. You show them your crusty whatever it is from your toilet. They hold it up to the light. They say, "Ah, that's a Kimble Glastite, late '20s or early '30s, I think." You never knew toilet parts could be this cool.

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