Best Fully Clothed Rubdown 2016 | Foot Therapy Dallas | Best of Dallas® 2020 | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Dallas | Dallas Observer
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Best Fully Clothed Rubdown

Foot Therapy Dallas

The southeast corner of Central Expressway and Royal Lane is known to most as "oh, yeah right, that's where the Chicken Express is." But behind those fried tenders are strong, knowing hands with the power to relax even the most fried Dallasite. Knowledge of pressure points or reflexology isn't required; leave that to the practitioners at Foot Therapy. Also, the name could not be more of an undersell, in the most amazing way: For a freakishly low rate per hour, customers receive foot reflexology (as one would expect), as well as a full body rub that manages to both relax and invigorate. From scalp to toe, virtually every body part is either massaged, thumped, pounded or stretched, depending on the intensity requested by each client, and the problem areas pointed out by the client or simply sussed out by the therapist. And wow, can they suss. Aside from shoes and socks, clothes stay on, so the massage area is communal, but very calm — save the thumping sounds — and the cushy chair-pallets are so comfortable that under the face-covering towel, the outside world is quickly forgotten.

Best Place to Do Laundry

JR Coin Laundry

More and more people are getting hip to the fact that Dallas is, well, hip. And while natives like us are enjoying this long-awaited moment of validation, it also comes with downsides. More people moving here means it's harder to find an affordable apartment with a washer and dryer. But thankfully, if you're tired of twiddling your thumbs at the laundromat every week, we have a solution: JR Coin Laundry, a laundry that also offers an excellent and cheap wash and fold service. For just 99 cents a pound they'll wash your clothes for you and even hang them when necessary. If you get there by early afternoon you can almost always pick them back up the same day. When you do you'll find your items have been handled as carefully as if you'd washed them yourself, and best of all, you don't have to pair your socks.

Best Gift Shop

The DIME store

The Denton Independent Maker Exchange, or DIME store, is a shared collective of makers in Denton, giving local crafters a physical alternative to Etsy. The store carries hand-crafted goods like embroidered wooden jewelry, bow ties for dogs, organic soy candles, plush mushroom characters and prideful Denton paraphernalia. The store resides in a quaint house less than half a mile off the courthouse square. Besides shopping, DIME offers crafting courses like hand lettering, calligraphy, embroidery and weaving. The collective also participates with First Fridays, staying open late once a month to offer late night shopping with refreshments.

Readers' Pick:

Resurrected Designs

Best Mosaics

CAC Mosaic Designs

Connie Chantilis is an artist who works in a variety of materials — glass, stone, shells, shattered pots — to create bewitching mosaics. She wraps her work around furniture, hangs it as wall pieces, builds it up from the ground as garden sculpture. She never creates a piece you wouldn't enjoy standing before and studying for at least an hour. The best way to see her work is on her web page, where she also lists a full calendar of shows around town and around the country where she is invited to exhibit.

Best Extremely Expensive Landfill Antiques

B Gover Ltd.

Looking for a paint-peeling chicken-farm egg rack with dodgy looking substances still stuck in the cracks for $1,800? No, didn't think you were, but it might be an interesting field trip for you anyway to visit this shop on the far outer edge of the antique-o-sphere, way beyond primitive, light years past shabby chic, in the land of antique deconstructivism where a French fainting couch can look, well, sort of deconstructed, with all the upholstery peeled off and springs sticking out and a price that makes you faint all over again. This is the place to go if you want to see where it's all headed. Landfill chic? Dystopian dope? Who knows? But it's all right here and not really anywhere else — a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.

Best Fancy Rain Barrels

Barrels by Lisa and Avelino Jimenez at Northhaven Gardens

Note that we did not say cheapest or best buy or anything. Handmade in their studio at Regalos de la Tierra Pottery in Silver City, New Mexico, these rain barrels are terra cotta sculpture, so prepare yourself for a little bit of sticker shock. But the other way to look at it is this: Those big ugly green and brown plastic rain barrels look sort of like emergency septic tanks. The rain barrels from Regalos de la Tierra are truly beautiful complements to the garden plants around them.

Best Florist with a Lunchroom

Grange Hall

Grange Hall itself is a florist, gift and decoration shop specializing in quirky juxtapositions of flowers, minerals, small antlers we don't want to know too much about and that sort of thing. The restaurant occupies an elegant intimate room decorated sparely with floral arrangements and whatnots from the shop. It's definitely not the right place to watch a Cowboys game, but it might be exactly the right place for some shopping and a long conversation over lunch.

Best Wine/Liquor App

Drizly

Drizly is like your favorite liquor store without leaving the house. Depending on where you live within the app's large service area, a few taps will summon your favorite suds or bottle from shops like Goody Goody or Pogo's Wine & Spirits in under an hour. The prices are just about what you'd pay in store, so, for the cost of a tip and a $5 delivery fee, you can avoid the shameful eye the liquor store casts on you every time you buy Taaka instead of Tito's.

Best Wine/Liquor Store

Spec's

There are a number of Spec's in town, but this one is a destination liquor store. It's cavernous — about as big as a Target — and filled with all the alcoholic goodies one's heart could desire. Some liquors stores specialize, featuring maybe a great whiskey selection, a wide variety of local beer or several unique bottles of wine. Spec's has all three and a lot more, including a surprisingly decent party food selection. It's a one-stop shop.

Readers' Pick (tie):

Spec's

Total Wine & More

Best Place to Buy Letterpressed Cards

We Are 1976

We Are 1976 is the shop in Dallas to discover cool, internationally sourced designer-created gifts and artist prints. Abundant in obscure treasures from San Francisco,Tokyo and Dallas, these objects are begging to be gifted to your coolest friend. But We Are 1976 also carries a trove of unique letterpressed cards from their own studio and other print shops. Each card is a work of art. We Are 1976 understands the draw to precious paperie and can indulge your enthusiasm with a variety of printing, calligraphy and letterpress workshops in store.

Best Of Dallas®

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