Shopping & Services >>

• Readers' Poll
  Best Manicures/Pedicures Silk Nail Salon Best Massages Kabuki Springs & Spa Best Hair Salon Spaghetti & Ravioli (S&R) Best Pet Supplies Noe Valley Pet Co. Best Garden Supplies Floorcraft Garden Center Best Sex Supplies Good Vibrations Best Place to Buy LPs Amoeba Music... More >>
• Best DVD Selection
  Amoeba Music
  Amoeba's already known far and wide for its amazing array of LPs, CDs, 45s, and other musical forms, but equally impressive is its huge selection of DVDs. New, used, rare, and out-of-print titles are bought and sold by the thousands each week, keeping the turnover lively and the assortment... More >>
• Best Close Shave
  Jun Yu
  It's getting more and more difficult to find a barber willing to soap up your kisser, scrape off your stubble, and slap on a little Vitalis for good measure, but Jun Yu performs this bygone ritual with professional panache on a regular basis. Make your way into his tiny, memento-crowded... More >>
• Best Magic Shop
  Misdirections Magic Shop
  When you have a hankering to divine the thoughts of others, escape from a straitjacket, saw a lady in half, or confound your friends and neighbors in general, head to this Inner Sunset temple to the art of prestidigitation. Everything you need to baffle, amuse, and amaze is on the premises:... More >>
• Best Record Store
  Open Mind Music
  The joy of discovery -- whether of great new material you'd never have come across or old stuff you've searched for forever -- is the best part of record-hunting at Open Mind Music. The store probably has less than half the stock of Amoeba, but here you can listen to vinyl before you buy it... More >>
• Best Alternative to Public Transportation
  City CarShare
  Since 2001, City CarShare has been trying to wean Bay Area folks off their dependence on owning a car, and with 4,000 members (up 30 percent from a year ago), it looks like the nonprofit is making headway. Like similar programs in cities such as Portland, Ore., Chicago, and Seattle, City... More >>
• Best Secondhand Clothes
  Clothes Contact 473 Valencia (at 16th Street), 621-3212 Clothes Contact is one of the few places in town where you can still purchase your couture not by label or fabric but by gross tonnage, a popular concept back in the pre-dot-com '90s. Used clothing, fabrics, buttons, and patches are... More >>
• Best Gender-Illusionist Supplies
  Retro Fit
  Steven LeMay -- owner of Retro Fit and 1999 SF Weekly Wild Side Model Search winner -- is something of a fashion chameleon. On his boutique's calling card, he's pictured in four separate photos: as a skirt-suited lady of the 1940s, as a slacker dude complete with knit cap, as an attitudinal... More >>
• Best Jeans
  AB Fits 1519 Grant (at Union) and 40 Grant (at Geary), both 982-5726, www.abfits.com In the rapid-fire world of chic jeans, fit is everything, and the gurus at AB Fits know how to fit. The dressing rooms in the North Beach location contain no mirrors, and once you walk out, everything... More >>
• Best Gifts
  Nest
  Spend a few minutes in Nest, and one thing becomes instantly clear: The buyers are geniuses. This French-themed store is small, a shoe box compared to a big-box retailer, yet it sells nearly everything -- from clothing, bedding, and tableware to books, chandeliers, furniture, knickknacks, and... More >>
• Best Car Repair
  Cowden Automotive
  We once had a 1987 Honda that Cowden Automotive perpetually kept two steps ahead of a systemwide failure. We'd bring it in with our dilemma ("We need to drive to Mammoth, possibly in a blizzard"), and Cowden's mechanics would fix just enough of the car to get the job done, as our wallet... More >>
• Best Cheap Bed
  HI-SF Fisherman's Wharf Hotel
  At $22 a night, the HI-SF Fisherman's Wharf hostel at Fort Mason is a happily inexpensive place to rest your head. Despite its name, the hostel is far removed from the waterfront mall. Housed in a historic two-story Civil War-era building next to a meadow -- a meadow! -- and perched on the... More >>
• Best Graffiti Supplies
  Graffiti has come a long way in the past 30 years. Once an illicit juvenile pastime that drew the scorn of anyone over the age of 20, it has arguably become the most vibrant and visible of all modern forms of art. The style is now a primer for an ever-expanding niche dubbed "urban art," and... More >>
• Best Place to Buy Art
  The Canvas Gallery
  Unlike cafes that feature a few watercolors on the wall and call themselves galleries, the Canvas is a whopping 1,100 square feet of art space plus 2,900 additional square feet of cafe and lounge with more art interspersed. The point of all this fusion is to get apathetic coffee-sippers to... More >>
• Best Bed-and-Breakfast
  The Chateau Tivoli
  If the painted lady is the quintessential San Franciscan signifier, the Chateau Tivoli is the exemplar of exemplars. Built in 1892, this Alamo Square fixture has a history that's also distinctly S.F.: In 1975, it operated as the Center for Release and Integration, a major organization in the... More >>
• Best Jewelry Bargains
  Jewelrymart
  The enormous Giftcenter & Jewelrymart in SOMA houses more than 125 gem and jewelry sellers hawking their goods at rock-bottom wholesale prices. To enter you have to call one of the sellers and be put on the guest list, because the Jewelrymart's not open to the public. But once you get past the... More >>
• Best Furniture
  New Deal
  New Deal may be the best all-purpose custom furniture and accessory store in San Francisco. A modest corner shop packed with gorgeous innovations by local and international designers, its contemporary, retro, and classic influences effortlessly mingle in big pieces that know how to work a... More >>
• Best Sex Toys
  Good Vibrations 603 Valencia (at 17th Street), 522-5460, www.goodvibes.com Good Vibrations makes the business of fucking fascinating. Foreplay at the Mission District sex toy emporium begins with its trademark vibrator museum: a revolving display of a dozen quaint devices (such as... More >>
• Best Cosmetics
  Lush 240 Powell (at O'Farrell), 693-9633, www.lush.com In the world of ubiquitous floral-reeking bath and body supplies, Lush peddles some of the most inventive products available. A U.K.-based company that deals in handmade, all-natural cosmetics, it's known for its frothy bubble baths... More >>
• Best Herbs and Natural Medicine
  The Scarlet Sage Herb Co.
  Scarlet Sage is a treasure trove of holistic knowledge, containing everything an herbal enthusiast could ever want -- sans the hollow New Age trappings. Don't get sidetracked by the voluminous selection of tarot decks and scented candles: Scarlet Sage is, first and foremost, a retail store... More >>
• Best Urban Retreat
  One Taste 1074 Folsom (at Seventh Street), 503-1100, www.onetastesf.com This self-described "urban retreat center" is a rare slice of heaven crammed into a decrepit South of Market corner. A community center that focuses on mindful living in all its manifestations, One Taste offers a... More >>
• Best Recreation/Learning Center
  Jewish Community Center of San Francisco
  3200 California (at Presidio), 292-1200, www.jccsf.org After reopening last spring, the JCCSF, as it's affectionately known, startled regulars with the size of its new $60 million recreation and learning center, a three-story brick monolith on California Street. The schedule of activities... More >>
• Best Pet Store
  Bow Wow Meow
  As Donald Trump would say, the pet industry is a billion-dollar business. But most stores leave something to be desired: You either get an impersonal corporate box, an exclusive salon, or a crumbling hodgepodge run by a crazy cat lady. Bow Wow Meow is different -- or rather, it's a little bit of... More >>
• Best Corporate Field Trip
  Sur La Table
  Most corporate field trips in the city are a bore. A bay cruise? Too cold. Motorized cable car ride? Too phony. But one store wisely appeals to the perennial fascinations of the corporate set: cooking shows and wine. After hours, Sur La Table opens its deluxe kitchen to business groups,... More >>
• Best Carwash
  Tower Hand Car Wash
  We like ambition in a carwash, and Tower has it. The company has taken the "anything goes" philosophy of highway gas empires and stuffed it into a corner lot at the eternally jammed intersection of South Van Ness and Mission. Check out these features: a full cafe inside the minimart, serving... More >>
• Best Flowers
  The San Francisco Flower Mart
  640 Brannan (at Sixth Street), 392-7944, www.sfflmart.com In the early morning, this block-long market does a bustling wholesale trade; after 10 a.m., it's open to the public. But despite the crowds, there's an eerie small-town, Twilight Zone vibe that's tough to shake, what with the quaint... More >>
• Best Way to Show Guests Around
  GoCar Rentals 2715 Hyde (at North Point), (800) 914-6227, www.gocarsf.com Next time the family visits, strap everyone into a GoCar, the world's first GPS-guided talking vehicle, and let technology take over. These tiny, three-wheeled convertibles cover city history and tell drivers where... More >>
• Best Tech Store
  Apple Store 1 Stockton (at Ellis), 392-0202, www.apple.com/retail/sanfrancisco Nobody had any right to expect Apple to build a store this cool, except maybe Mac users. From the metallic exterior to the airy interior, this slick gallery is a potent weapon to lure Windows users. Although... More >>
• Best Kids' Stuff
  Miranda's Mama 3785 Balboa (at 39th Avenue), 221-5862, www.mirandasmama.com If you've got a bun in the oven, Miranda's Mama has a great selection of flattering and inexpensive shirts and pants for the expecting woman, but the store's most prominent feature is its assortment of new and... More >>
• Best Lingerie Store
  Alla Prima
  Alla Prima is one of the only San Francisco stores to carry the gorgeous Italian lingerie line La Perla. But every undergarment at this boutique's two locations is a work of art. There are understated bras and panties you can wear every day, as well as dramatic pieces for extra-sexy... More >>
• Best Secondhand Kids' Clothes
  Chloe's Closet and Chloe's Other Closet 451A and 443 Cortland (at Moultrie), 642-3300, www.chloescloset.com There's nothing more frustrating than realizing your kid has outgrown her clothes before she's even worn them. And that particularly sucks when the garment is some über-pricey... More >>
• Best Cheap Bay Cruise
  Local Commuter Ferries Golden Gate Ferry, 923-2000, www.goldengateferry.org Angel Island-Tiburon Ferry, 435-2131, www.angelislandferry.com Alameda/Oakland Ferry, (510) 749-5837, www.eastbayferry.com There's no shortage of fancy vessels willing to take you out on a little water... More >>
• Best Communal Baths
  Kabuki Springs & Spa
  There's nothing like a good, hot soak to soothe your soul and set aside your troubles. And when that soak also includes a steam room, dry sauna, and complimentary sea salt body scrub, you've got nothing more to worry about besides staying awake in the sauna. Kabuki Springs' communal baths... More >>
• Best Costume Rental
  American Conservatory Theater
  Each Halloween San Francisco's costume shops overflow with folks looking to rent kitschy gear for an evening -- did you want to be a flapper, a chicken, or a medieval warrior? But the most elegant, amazing costumes by far are to be found at ACT's Costume Shop, an offshoot of the famed... More >>
• Best Travel Bookstore
  Get Lost Travel Books 1825 Market (at Pearl), 437-0529, www.getlostbooks.com The experience of browsing in a great travel bookstore should feel like you're already on vacation. Get Lost is just that kind of trip. You can't beat its exhaustive collection of guidebooks (we found one on... More >>
• Best Place to Buy 45s and 78s
  Amoeba Music
  Most people have never even seen a 78 -- that old-style record once pressed in multiple colors, shapes, and sizes -- unless they happen to have musical pack rats for grandparents. And there are a great many who think a 45 is a gun rather than a 7-inch record that's still a favorite of indie... More >>
• Best Store for Japan-o-Philes
  Chamalyn
  Schoolgirl heaven is at 19th and Valencia streets, and if you have any adolescent love of special snacks and ornate stationery, Chamalyn can be heaven for you, too. This new shop imports Japan's innocent oddities by the bushel; the small storefront holds zillions of tiny goodies, from lychee-... More >>
• Best Place to Meditate While Shopping (1 Comment)
  The Love of Ganesha
  Tucked a block off bustling Haight Street, the inviting Love of Ganesha sells eye-catching and inexpensive treasures from Tibet. The owner is wonderfully kind and often offers shoppers tea and pastries with which to warm up as they wander the store. Even more surprising and thoughtful is the... More >>
• Best Consignment Store
  Cris
  You deserve to wear Prada. We know you do. And we also know you're not made of money. Few people are. Well, fortunately for the rest of us, those few are consigning their clothes to Cris. This little secondhand boutique on upper Polk Street sells designer duds (mostly for women) in excellent... More >>
• Best Pulp Fiction
  Kayo Books
  Little wonder why Kayo Books is a favorite of classic kitschmeisters like filmmaker John Waters. It's a store full of wondrous impulse buys with a gift for almost anyone, and it doesn't feel caked in dust despite a focus on older media. Specializing in paperbacks circa 1940 to 1970, Kayo... More >>
• Best Cybercafe
  Brain Wash Cafe and Laundromat
  This South of Market hangout gets our vote as the coolest cybercafe this side of Amsterdam. What else can you say about a place where you can chow down on buffalo wings or Chinese chicken salad after stuffing your dirty laundry into a washer? You can also surf the Net, play one of the pinball... More >>
• Best Party Supply Store
  Angray Fantastico
  You've already spent an arm and a leg on liquor, so why cough up a lung for decorations, plates, cups, and napkins? Thank God for Angray Fantastico, a cut-rate warehouse filled with party odds and ends near the Flower Mart. Here you can find everything from tiki torches to tablecloths for much... More >>
• Best Affordable Acupuncture (3 Comments)
  American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine
  San Francisco's best-kept health care secret for anyone on a budget and in need of relief, ACTCM's clinic offers a full array of acupuncture and massage, six days a week, performed by interns at various learning stages. The interns are fully supervised by highly skilled instructors schooled in... More >>
• Best Welding Supplies
  Airgas 525 23rd St. (at Illinois), 648-9353, www.airgas.com The new Bay Bridge span may be a boondoggle, but if exploited properly by natives, it could solve the region's outsourcing problem. Thousands of jobs in areas such as financial services, engineering, programming, and other San... More >>
• Best Mexican Art Store
  Polanco
  From vintage statues of saints from the time of the conquistadors to gorgeous papier-mâché skeletons from contemporary Mexican artists, Polanco's folk and fine arts from south of the border are eye-popping. Although the store has been a favorite of serious collectors since it opened... More >>
• Best Place to Learn a Romance Language
  San Francisco Italian Athletic Club
  Put to rest your questions about what goes on behind the heavy wooden door and red-and-white facade of this North Beach institution and step inside for un po' di cultura e apprendimento. In the spring, fall, and winter, the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club offers weekly classes taught by... More >>
• Best Jazz Vinyl
  Groove Yard
  Though there are plenty of good rationalizations -- aesthetic and auditory -- for collecting jazz on vinyl, the pursuit often gets vilified as inherently pretentious, like knowing how to fox trot or writing a villanelle. We'd like to yank the white ear buds out of those businessmen on BART who... More >>
• Best Used Bookstores
  The good used bookstore is a civic necessity: You can tell a town or a neighborhood is in decline when such shops start disappearing. The Castro District hasn't been the same since its used shop shut down several years ago. A phantom experience in hyperspace isn't right either. We like to... More >>
• Best Hippie Shop
  The Sword and the Rose
  The best part about this occult shop is getting there. First you walk gingerly between two buildings and into a verdant, cozy patio. At the rear you come to a little hobbit hole surrounded by vines. Open the door and you enter a dimly lit, tiny, wonderful-smelling oasis of calmness. There are... More >>
• Best Flea Market Stereo Equipment
  Mission Village Market
  Maybe it's an addiction to high-volume Supertramp, or perhaps the habit of falling asleep with the stereo on, but in the last few years we've worn out one piece of rinky-dink, Third World audio equipment after the next. It's a budget audiophile's cruel chicken-and-egg situation: We buy cheap... More >>
• Best Hardware Store
  Hundley is a hardware store in the most literal of senses, its showroom floor a veritable explosion of knobs, hooks, pulls, handles, hinges, doorstops, and bath setups (matching towel bars, shelves, soap dishes, toothbrush holders, mirrors, etc.), with some cleaning supplies thrown in as well.... More >>
• Best Toy Shopping for Adults
  Kidrobot 1512 Haight (at Ashbury), 487-9000, www.kidrobot.com Toys aren't just for children anymore, and Kidrobot exists so that you can benefit from this simple and wonderful fact. The store (which also has locations in New York and Los Angeles) showcases vinyl figurines of all sizes... More >>
• Best Piñatas
  Piñata Art Studio & Gallery
  The piñatas displayed at this tiny Excelsior storefront are so beautiful and festive that you almost hate to whack the hell out of them with a baseball bat. Handcrafted in a back-room workshop, they hang from the walls and rafters in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, just waiting for your... More >>
• Best Emergency Dog/Cat Sitters
  Fetch! Pet Care
  Fetch! Pet Care, founded by a Berkeley businessman and now spreading like wildfire throughout the state, is not your typical pet-sitting operation. For one thing, it handles crisis extraordinarily well. For example, we were recently away for two weeks in Southeast Asia and discovered via... More >>
• Best Bookstore
  City Lights
  Although it's a required stop on the Columbus Avenue tourist crawl, bordering Jack Kerouac Alley and Vesuvio Cafe, City Lights, founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, retains its pioneer spirit. The floors creak, which is nice, and the bookshelves look like they were built over time, on site, by... More >>