All Day Tire Shop If you’re a car owner in Chicago, one thing is inevitable: when spring hits and the streets are riddled with potholes, you’re going to smash into one of these fissures and blow a tire. (And once fall rolls around and those potholes remain unfilled, you’ll probably rip up another one.) All […]
Category: Goods & Services 2015 Critics’ Picks
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best rug cleaner
Mathew Klujian & Sons klujianrugs.com Of all my household furnishings, my rug has been with me the longest. We’ve been through a lot together, my rug and I. For years, it has faithfully protected my feet from cold floors and covered up depressing-looking stains. And yet I treat it so shabbily! I track mud and […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best piercing shop for adults
Insight Studios insightstudiosonline.com As a piercing veteran, I’ve gotten over the adolescent impulse to rebel at the nearest body shop. I still have the urge to get pierced, but these days it’s in the most cautious, mature manner possible. At Insight, “Santi,” aka Juan Santiago, one of Insight Studios’ resident piercers, took hold of my […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best reason to kick off your shoes
Relax Feet relaxfeet.us Pulp Fiction’s Vincent Vega would agree that a foot massage is a touchy matter. Relax Feet takes them seriously, providing certified massage therapists, a soothing and thoughtfully decorated environment, clean premises, and very competitive fees. There’s even a separate room for two people where you can throw the most relaxing party ever—if […]
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Best new store for furniture and odd ceramics
Utotem Furniture utotemfurniture.com There used to be a convenience store chain in certain parts of the country called UtoteM, which was bought out by Circle K in the mid-80s. Pilsen’s year-old Utotem Furniture is nothing like those. One of the shop’s three owners, Jordan Grimes, is a furniture designer, and his work is sold in […]
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Best schvitz with a side of politics
Red Square redsquarechicago.com On a Sunday afternoon not long after Mayor Rahm Emanuel was forced into a runoff in his bid for a second term, Jesse Jackson sauntered through the men’s locker room of the Wicker Park sauna Red Square wearing nothing more than a towel and flip-flops. The reverend’s six-foot-three-inch frame entered my line […]
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Best record store for a musicological dig
Out of the Past outofthepastrecords.com Record collectors like to dig, but few shops in town really give you the sense you might actually unearth something quite like this West Garfield Park spot. At Out of the Past, you’ll want to set aside a few hours, roll up your sleeves, and prepare to get dust on […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best waterproof notebook
Field Notes Expedition edition fieldnotesbrand.com Field Notes provides the perfect pocket-size notebooks to make you feel like you’re in a Wes Anderson movie, exemplified by the charmingly specific details of the Expedition edition. It’s easy to imagine a pastel-tinted Anderson sequence outlining the 12 scientific tests the notebooks passed—they scored especially high marks in “tensile […]
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Best hidden bookstore
Open Books Pilsen open-books.org Open Books Pilsen isn’t hidden, exactly. But since it’s camouflaged as a garage on a quiet block of 19th Street, a few minutes’ walk from the taquerias and bakeries and thrift shops of the commercial strip on 19th, you could easily walk right by—unless you happen to peer through the door […]
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Best dessert-scented landscaping supply
Blommer’s cocoa-shell mulch blommer.com Last summer I started noticing that I’d get smacked in the face by the smell of chocolate whenever I stepped outside my apartment on a hot day. It took me weeks to figure out the source of the scent, which is reminiscent of a freshly toasted chocolate fudge Pop-Tart. Then one […]
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Best intimidating jewelry
Blue Buddha Boutique bluebuddhaboutique.com Anybody who’s in the business of brainwashing women into buying more clothing and accessories will tell you the best way to brighten up a blah outfit is to add some statement jewelry. There are plenty of stores in Chicago selling jewelry that will help you state that you are a fun, […]
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Best way to celebrate everyday accomplishments
Trophies You Deserve from I Am Home iamhome.us Though I feel I’ve accomplished a lot in my life, when I gaze upon my shelves I realize I don’t have much to show for it—though, yes, there’s my college diploma and that photograph of me with 1998 Olympic Gold medalist Tara Lipinski. Look, not everyone can […]
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Best unassuming treasure trove
The Antique and Resale Shoppe antiqueandresale.com If you travel on Harlem Avenue so far north that you’re practically in Niles, you’re likely to notice Nick’s Drive-In, with its mural of a stern-looking Uncle Sam instructing you to try the “best homemade gyros in America.” However, you might not spot the place right next door, the […]
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Best introduction to healing crystals
On the Rocks ontherockschicago.com When friends first started gushing about the healing power of crystals, I brushed it off as New Agey nonsense. But after stepping into On the Rocks, I realized how easily the interest could snowball into obsession. The store stocks a large variety of sparkling, visually mesmerizing crystals; the pleasing sight of […]
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Best place to step into an antique collector’s fever dream
Zap Props and Antiques zapprops.com At first glance, Zap Props and Antiques might seem like nothing more than an enormous, highly disorganized pile of junk, but this three-story, 36,000-square-foot warehouse, tucked away in one of Bridgeport’s more nondescript enclaves, is a ramshackle museum of ephemera. Everything belongs to owner and proprietor Bill Rawski, who rents […]