Best Photo Booth 2015 | Photowagon | Best of Dallas® 2020 | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Dallas | Dallas Observer
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Best Photo Booth

Photowagon

If an unassuming 1958 Cardinal travel trailer is parked at the next event you attend, don't hesitate. Hop inside, grab an American flag or a pair of oversized sunglasses and flash a smile. You're at the coolest photo booth in town. It pops up at some of the city's most fun events, from Record Store Day at Good Records to Gorilla vs. Bear at the Granada Theater, and if the Photowagon is there, then you're hanging with the cool cats. The mobile photo booth, affectionately known as Lady Bird, is in such high demand the owners are adding a new trailer to the family, making it twice as likely they'll be at your next party.

972-352-3765, photo-wagon.com

Best Apartment Community

The Village

You've probably noticed that a new "luxury" apartment community is under construction in Dallas on just about every corner. They all promise the same overpriced granite countertops, a pool with swanky-looking fountains and the chance to live in the next cool neighborhood. Of course, you can't afford it. Neither can we. And it's not conveniently located near a highway. Plus, that dog friendly one-bedroom unit isn't available anymore. But it is available at The Village, one of the city's largest apartment communities. There are multiple swimming pools, running trails and duck ponds, not to mention numerous apartments cheap enough that you can pay your rent on time and furnish your living room. With convenient access to Greenville Avenue and Central Expressway, your getting to work on time will be a breeze.

Best Nail Salon

Inwood Village Nailery

Nail treatments are a luxury, but that doesn't mean all nail salons are relaxing or spa-like. We eschew the salons where apathetic nail techs blab on cellphones or to each other as they're filing our toesies. If you're looking for something more soothing, give the almost unsettlingly quiet Inwood Village Nailery a visit. The decor is minimal (no fancy massaging recliners, just regular chairs). It's clean, too, and the technicians concentrate on the little details. Nothing nicer than some peace and quiet with the polish.

Best Hair Salon

Avalon Salon

When drifting from hair stylist to hair stylist, you enter each new cut with hope tinged with dread about your locks. Will the new cut be too short? Will the color be brassy? Sure, hair grows and dye jobs fade, but no one wants to look like a doofus, even temporarily. When you book an appointment at any of Avalon Salon's three locations, you can rest easy that your stylist will be well trained and eager to create the most flattering cut and color possible, even if you don't give direction or have a particular look in mind. They're solid pros with scissors and brushes. We wouldn't tease you about that.

Best Bike Shop

Transit Bicycle Co.

Bike culture is really taking off in Dallas, which is a great thing. (Now only if there were dedicated bike lanes to ride them in.) But with the rise in bike life comes snobbery and pretension at certain shops. Not at Transit Bicycle Co. on Greenville Avenue, where the staff are as eager to help with your beat-up cruiser as they are with a fancy new Italian road bike. Whether you need a tune-up, accessories, apparel or simply have a biking-related question, the people at Transit are geared up to be your friends.

Best Gift Shop

TenOverSix

So you need to buy a prezzie but have no idea where to start. TenOverSix, a sleek, Los Angeles-based boutique with a second outpost in The Joule Hotel in downtown Dallas, is gift heaven. Owners Joe and Kristen Cole and Brady Cunningham have sharp eyes for good design and a tendency to stock the unexpected. Clothes and accessories from designers Chris Benz, Pamela Love, Maison Kitsune and Phillip Lim are in the mix, which is constantly rotated and updated. Price points start low for dainty bangles and organic lip balms, a $15 handmade wooden box or a DVD of the latest Frederick Wiseman documentary. Splurge, if you must, on a leather tote from Marlow Goods (still under a thou). Variety is this boutique's gift to shoppers.

Best Eyewear Selection

Glass Optical

Online eyeglass retailers such as Warby Parker have become popular because they offer stylish frames at an affordable price point. But when optometrist Stephen Wilkes and his son Paul opened Glass Optical on Davis Street in Oak Cliff last year, we realized what we were missing. Get an eye exam from a doctor with 30 years of experience and then shop from his curated selection of handmade eyewear that outdoes the online outfits and those chain eyewear shops. There are lots of trendy frame styles and cute sunglasses here, whether you require a prescription or not. And take your time. Glasses are art for your face.

Best Cheap Massage

Sole Therapy

Massages are great any way you can get them, but there's nothing better than a spontaneous rubdown. Spas are expensive and require appointments well in advance, so when you're feeling particularly tense after a long work day, unless you can convince your unenthusiastic significant other to help you out, you're massage-less. Enter Sole Therapy. For $35, the reflexology joint next to a Tom Thumb in a strip center will give you a great hour-long, deep tissue, full-body massage, no appointment necessary. You're fully clothed and in a room with other people, but if you can adapt to the eccentric aspects of the experience, you'll find plenty to like, like the green tea foot soak to start and the healing hands ironing out those knots in your neck.

Best Dallas Fashion Designer

Charles Smith II

Charles Smith II has whatever "it" is, and it's brought him success in the realms of basketball, modeling and now fashion design. The New York-born designer moved to Dallas to play basketball at Lincoln High School and his skills on the court got him scouted by the NBA. Even now that he's switched tracks to fashion, with a degree from the Art Institute of Dallas, he has no intention of fleeing to his much more fashion-oriented hometown; Smith is determined to influence Dallas' high fashion scene for the better. His signature aesthetic is gothic (imagine what a bagpipe-playing motorcycle gang might wear), featuring a lot of black and white, leathers and zippers. He's put out a couple of high-end couture lines, but recently launched a more affordable ready-to-wear line, S2. You can purchase his wares online now, but look for them in brick and mortar stores in Dallas soon.

smiththesecond.com

Best First Date Activity

Voodoo Chile

They say questions such as "Do you like scary movies?" can be high predictors of compatibility. We just skip the cutesy small-talk and take dates to Voodoo Chile, a record/art/vintage clothing/glass pipe/gift shop in a red one-story house off Lower Greenville. It's a bastion of character and weirdness. And Voodoo Chile has plenty in common with scary movies anyway. Art by mysterious owner Jimi Fukushita is laden with creepy, provocative imagery and the shop stocks a bunch of books about the Third Reich. You can learn a lot about a date just by asking, "Have you read Mein Kampf?"

Best Of Dallas®

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