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• Best Place to Get a Well-Written Autograph

  Every Picture Tells a Story

  Every Picture Tells a Story is not your average indie bookseller. It's a gallery whose art is books, specifically illustrated books, often (but not only) those for children. It's also a prime venue for author signings, and they get some pretty stellar names. Among them: Stan Lee, Ray Bradbury, Norman Corwin, Buzz Aldrin and Ray Harryhausen. Often working in conjunction… More >>

• Best Almost-Free Wedding Venue

  Beverly Hills Municipal Courthouse

  The Beverly Hills Municipal Courthouse might be famous only because of people like Lindsay Lohan, but there's a better reason it deserves some love. Past the metal detectors, to the left of the marriage-license booth, stands an unassuming little wedding chapel, with a resident judge who marries couples every 15 minutes. Rumor has it that's where Roman Polanski and Sharon… More >>

• Best Place to Get Skinned

  Olympic Spa

  Once you've come to accept — even embrace! — the very graphic reality of Olympic Spa, that you're flopping around butt-naked with the women of Koreatown all day, you'll realize the pampered lifestyle of a much fancier lady isn't so far out of reach. That's right, princess: For the price of one and a half Patron shots, you can fade… More >>

• Best Knee Job

  The Barai

  Every mini-mall east of La Brea Avenue has one: a bare-bones Thai massage place, squeezed into a small storefront. Budget basic decor — small Buddha shrine, desktop fountain, photo of a sun-drenched Thai beach — often matches the ho-hum massage. At The Barai in Silver Lake, on a quickly bypassed stretch of Hyperion, the décor is in that spartan mode… More >>

• Best Art School With a Twist

  Mountain School of Arts

  No accreditation, no degrees, no pay, no tuition — the only thing you have to shell out for is your drinks. Run out of the top floor of the Mountain Bar, Chinatown's legendary Mountain School of Arts attracts a special variety of students, mostly from Europe, who want to come to Los Angeles to study, but perhaps aren't as interested… More >>

• Best Recharging, Balancing, Etc.

  House of Intuition

  House of Intuition proprietress Marlene Vargas took one look at me and placed a shard of serpentine in my hand. "It'll recharge your batteries," she tells me. You'd be hard-pressed to find a metaphysical center more genuine than this Eastside oasis, which Vargas rightly describes as a "spiritual detox center" for the seeker and the cynic alike. You can simply… More >>

• Best Artful Tuesdays and Wednesdays

  Roski School at USC

  If any youngish artist of talent had a hankering to go to grad school and more or less get himself perched on the first rung of being a "professional artist," I'd tell him to go to the Roski School at USC. Run with great aplomb these last years by Charlie White, USC's grad art program, with its special mix of… More >>

• Best Inside-Out Library

  Max and Lore Zeller Library at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles

  "The system was created by a little old lady in a hat in the 1930s — she didn't know diddly about filing, but she knew what Jung would've loved," says librarian Nancy at the Max and Lore Zeller Library at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, who assures me that I don't have to be a Jungian analyst-in-training to… More >>

• Best Reason to Have a Heart Attack Near the Beverly Center

  Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

  Having a heart attack? Direct your ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Should you eventually need a heart transplant, you'll be in excellent hands. In 2010, Cedars did the most adult heart transplants in the United States — and in the world. Their 30-day postoperative mortality rate is under 2 percent. Their one-year survival rate is a whopping 92 percent —… More >>

• Best Place to Dig Up Your Family Tree

  Los Angeles Family History Library

  "What you really want," Sister Daniel of the Los Angeles Family History Library tells me, "are birth, death, marriage and burial." Records, that is. Don't let the golden trumpeter throw you off; the best way to find your roots is by visiting the friendly folks of the Latter Day Saints. An introduction to genealogical research plays on continuous PowerPoint loop… More >>

• Best Cheap Pokes

  Eagle Rock Community Acupuncture

  Your qi, your back and your wallet out of whack? In China, acupuncture has been used for thousands of years to alleviate everything from circulatory to digestive troubles, gynecological to neurological issues, pain both chronic and specific, and a double rainbow of other ailments. In the West, those barely-there needles are just as efficacious, but they require repeat and costly… More >>

• Best Place to Meet a Cute Marine

  Pacific Surfliner

  The desire to get the hell out of L.A. for the weekend is a familiar one, but a new appreciation for the delights of the City of Angels can be found by heading into town, instead of hightailing it out. Riding Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner into Union Station from points south on a Friday night forces you to remember that you… More >>

• Best Restroom While Jogging on the Beach

  Shutters on the Beach

  For a bathroom stop while jogging on the beach in Santa Monica, the obvious choice is to either (1) stand in line at the city's artsy new public stalls designed by Roesling Nakamura Terada Architects; or (2) turn due west across the sand and work up the nerve to wade into the cold ocean before time runs out. But there's… More >>

• Best Restaurant Bathroom Stall

  The Penthouse at the Huntley Hotel

  We all secretly prefer the handicapped stall. You know it and I know it. But at The Penthouse at the Huntley Hotel, aka the rooftop bar, the handicapped-stall experience is essential. And that's in both the men's and the women's bathrooms, which are mirror images of each other. Don't bother with the small stall, or even the urinal. If the… More >>

• Best Free Wi-Fi on the Westside

  Hammer Museum Courtyard

  While Los Angeles politicos fork over fistfuls of cash for a certain billionaire's downtown art crib, three other museums offer Angelenos heaping helpings of free experience. Among the Getty, LACMA and the Hammer, those free offerings are: that top-of-the-world garden and museum (the Getty), ever-expanding outdoor grounds as free galleries and music space (LACMA), and the Hammer's best quasi-public workplace… More >>

• Best Amoeba-Adjacent Public Restroom

  Groundwork

  Everyone knows it's more fun to shop for music at Amoeba Records after you've had a few. The store's just a couple blocks from Cat & Fiddle Pub. See where we're going here? A couple pints in you, and you're in a much better frame of mind to finger-walk through the stacks of CDs and vinyl that await. It's all… More >>

• Best Luxury Office That's Not Your Office

  Casa del Mar lobby bar

  The scene in Knocked Up where Paul Rudd's character is on Ecstasy and can't choose among various chairs comes to mind when navigating the 17 seating options of the Casa del Mar lobby bar's vast, jaw-dropping atrium. Do I sit in the comfortable couch by the books in the library area, or the wicker chair at a dining table? Do… More >>

• Best Vintage Butcher's Sign

  Harvey's Guss Meat Co.

  The best meat art in Los Angeles isn't Lady Gaga's thoroughly rotted meat dress, it's the mural adorning Harvey's Guss Meat Co. A gaggle of farm animals placidly stares out from a truck trundling toward the slaughterhouse. Anthropomorphized animals cheerfully exhorting you to eat them are always freaky. You'd be forgiven for never noticing the place — the entrance is… More >>

• Best Modern Art Museum for Your Health

  Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

  If you want Calder, Oldenberg, Warhol, Lichtenstein and other icons, the medical center to the stars, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, is the place to go. Problem is, you might have to break a leg to get into the show or have a friend who's been assigned a room. That's because most of the good stuff is located on walls in patient-care… More >>

• Best Combination of Old and New L.A.

  Chapman Market

  If Koreatown epitomizes cultural hybridization — the layering of cultures over time — nothing epitomizes Koreatown like the Chapman Market buildings. They are anchored by a pair of stately, matching stone edifices, almost fortresslike in their solidity despite the picture windows lining the tres chic clothing shops on Eighth Street. Chapman Market was built in 1929 to house the world's… More >>

• Best Out-of-This-World Gift Shop

  Stellar Emporium

  The iconic castle that overlooks the city and serves as the Rocketeer's preferred launch pad also boasts an eclectic gift shop where aw-shucks Huell Howser DVDs compete for shelf space with glossy calendars depicting sweet Hubble porn. Griffith Observatory's Stellar Emporium truly shines when it comes to hoodwinking your kids into learning: Pick up a faux Barbie decked out in… More >>

• Best Foot Massage

  Exotic Spa

  From the name, you might think Exotic Spa was that kind of massage place. Instead, it's the spot where you will get the best foot massage in San Gabriel. In recent years, foot-massage places have popped up in this part of town like mushrooms in an overwatered lawn. They all cost about the same — $15-$20 for an hourlong massage… More >>

• Best Store for Midcentury Lifestyle

  Mohawk General Store

  Mohawk General Store is where midcentury modern geeks go for a dose of style reality. The whole MCM thing has been chugging along here in L.A. for quite some time now, and there's been a backlash against Eames this and Noguchi that. The midcentury aesthetic is cold, soulless, its detractors say. But as a lifestyle store selling relaxed and elegant… More >>

• Best Asian Grocery That's Not 99 Ranch

  Hawaii Supermarket

  "Let's go to the aquarium!" my uncle said to me once, when I was 6. Off we went, into an amazing display of enormous crabs, colorful fish and slimy eels. We bought a crab, which they were nice enough to steam for us before we left. As it turned out, this was 99 Ranch, not the aquarium, but I was… More >>

• Best Atelier for Actual Women, not Manikins

  Pamela Barish

  Clothing designer Pamela Barish's feminine riffs irreverently juxtaposing fabrics and cuts produce instant sassy classics. It's no wonder they're worn by the trendsetting A-list Brit society set and the rock & roll crowd with whom Barish once ran. Studies in detail, they often deliver the unexpected: Loose, lacy cuffs spring from a conservatively cut coat; a magenta silk liner peeks… More >>

• Best Place to Adopt a Pony

  Fair Hills Farms

  The rough road to Fair Hills Farms, rumbling past dry gulches and rock outcroppings, is so not Los Angeles and so not a phony excuse to own an SUV. You jostle along, inspired to blurt out unfamiliar words like "butte!" and "rattler!" The Brittan family — Mickey, Linda, Grayden and Alie — run a club for polo pony owners at… More >>

• Best Safety-Net Parking

  City Lots 614 and 671

  Parking in Miracle Mile is bat-shit ridiculous. Even if you have a permit. Permits aren't the issue — it's finding a space. But there's hope. Let's say one night you have the audacity to not rush straight home after work to claim your curb and instead, oh, grab some happy hour dollar tacos with pals. Now it's — gasp! —… More >>

• Best Japanese Fetishist Store

  Tortoise General Store

  Japanese fetishists on this side of the Pacific Ocean are numerous and obsessive, as the simplicity, beauty and technical ingenuity of wares designed in Japan often contrast starkly with the big-box junk we tend to fill our homes with. Venice's Tortoise General Store was started in 2003 by Tokyo transplants Taku and Keiko Shinomoto, who wanted to offer alternatives to… More >>

• Best Fashion-Inspired Art Gallery Inside a Bookshop

  The Last Bookstore's Brutique

  For fans of independent booksellers, the Last Bookstore in downtown L.A. no doubt is already on the radar. But with its recent move to new 10,000-square-foot digs on the busy, colorful corner of Spring and Fifth, the Last Bookstore is expanding more than its inventory. With a stage and a sound system, a roomy exhibition space and plenty of places… More >>

• Best Place to Pimp Your Ride ... Tastefully

  CEC

  There was a time in L.A. when sports car tuning meant blinding chrome, rims the size of Ferris wheels and candy-coated bodies. The Great Recession put a sting on the bling, and all of a sudden every celebrity had a matte-black ride. One tuner had it right all along: CEC in West L.A. has been tastefully transforming German cars for… More >>

• Best Power of Suggestion

  Painless Waxing

  No floating tea candles or Enya music in this tiny studio in the back of a West Hollywood salon — just a white bed, a fluorescent light and a table where the implements of torture reside. But Painless Waxing delivers where it counts, and very nearly manages to live up to its name. Maybe it's owner Larisa's charming accent, which… More >>

• Best Old-School Westside Barber

  L&R Barbershop's Rafael Victorin

  It's a little funny that, just a few doors down from the relatively new Floyd's 99 Barbershop in Mar Vista, stuffed with hipsters blithely getting $30-plus hair treatment in a chain-store environment that tries painfully to re-create simpler times, there's the real thing: L&R Barbershop, where Rafael Victorin runs the show alongside his haircutting nephew, has been standing on Grand… More >>

• Best Self-Improvement Arts & Crafts Cafe

  Made by DWC

  Intimate boutiques selling locally made, sustainably sourced cacti, candles and sundry craftiness are familiar sights from the Boardwalk to Eagle Rock, but it's a rare blossom in the bit of downtown east of Main Street. The Downtown Women's Center has been improving the lots of homeless ladies since 1978, when it opened a "safe space" downtown that's part-residence, part–community center.… More >>

• Best Place to Get a Dapper Button-up Shirt

  Steven Alan Outpost

  The Steven Alan Outpost is the national clothing retailer's local "outlet" store, but instead of having to drive for hours into the suburbs, you can find it smack-dab on the near-east side of town. Shopping here presents numerous advantages over a traditional, first-run store. The Outpost feels like a boutique, for one thing, in that it's not often particularly crowded… More >>

• Best Place in West Hollywood to Find Leather ... for Your Feet

  Boot Star

  Boot Star on the Sunset Strip serves up kicks to all sorts of clients — from those familiar with the range to those who've only seen one in a John Wayne movie. Count Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and David Letterman as fans. Founded in 2002, this urban cowboy shop doesn't put just cowhide in the fashion spotlight. Guys — and… More >>

• Best Exotic Meats

  Harmony Farms

  Michael Pollan and Jonathan Safran Foer have helped bring ethically raised meat into the popular consciousness in recent years. Less publicized has been the rise in demand for more "exotic" meats — alligator, rattlesnake and the like. Well, at Harmony Farms you can find it all. Having been in the butcher business since 1972, the family-owned shop not only has… More >>

• Best Plant Store for Classing Up Your Dive

  Zuma Canyon Orchids

  Back in the 1970s, the McPhersons and Vasquezes, neighbors who lived near famed Zuma Beach, turned their near-obsession for orchids into Zuma Canyon Orchids. Perfecting their flowers in their own private lab, using the filtered sunlight of their coastal woodland enclave, they produced lines of globally recognized, award-winning phalaenopsis and dendrobium orchids. Today, anyone can walk into the humungous greenhouse… More >>

• Best Place to Listen to Glitter Rock While Getting Your Hair Cut

  Franky's

  Women have a plethora of options when it comes to salons. But guys looking for a cut often can't do much better than a run-down, decaying barbershop. Smelling of shaving cream and Barbicide, they're often stocked with decade-old copies of The Sporting News, and staffed by octogenarian scissor-wielders making stock conversation over oldies radio. Franky's in Silver Lake, however, is… More >>

• Best UFO Parts Supply

  Apex Electronics & Surplus

  Whether it's finding a replacement bead condenser for a 1955 Interocitor or picking up a spare drop tank for your Vietnam-vintage F5-A fighter jet, Apex Electronics & Surplus is L.A.'s otherworldly first stop in any gadgeteer's quest for the obsolete, the exotic, the out-of-production or the not-yet-imagined. Specializing in electronic, electrical and mechanical salvage, Apex has been dealing in the… More >>

• Best Palace of Cheap Produce

  Super King

  Super King has the feel of a Third World market in the best possible sense: It's busy, wide open, with heaping bundles of fresh fruit and vegetables on display and great deals around every corner. Cardboard boxes brimming with corn (three ears for 99 cents), bananas (two pounds for 99 cents) and potatoes (3 pounds for 99 cents) are stationed… More >>

• Best Dog Baby-sitting Place

  Chateau Marmutt

  When L.A.'s in-the-know dog lovers want to pamper their puppies, they take them to Chateau Marmutt for a spa day. What constitutes a perfect pup spa day? How about, for starters, "Aromatherapy Grooming"? (Hint: Honeysuckle is involved.) Marmutt's experienced technicians will brush her teeth, educate her in the arts of basic canine manners and even, um, take care of her… More >>

• Best Place to Join a Commune

  Bikerowave

  The volunteers at DIY bike shop Bikerowave in Mar Vista won't fix your bike for you. They'll tell you exactly how to grease those wheel bearings and repair that punctured tube, and they'll ride along with you for each twist and turn, but your hands will be the ones getting dirty. Along the way, you'll say "please," "thank you" and… More >>

• Best Place to Play With Your Little Guy

  The Last Grenadier

  Burbank is the land of bizarre treasures, and on North Hollywood Way you'll find one such jewel: The Last Grenadier. It may not be as welcoming, large or well lit as the mall shops, and the staff may not say a single word to you the entire time you're there. But for many members of the gaming world, those are… More >>

• Best Place to Get a Black Flag Tattoo

  3rd St. Tattoo

  The South Bay has been influential in punk rock since the movement's earliest days, having spawned the fashions, trends and music that influenced its culture worldwide. Oh, and let's not forget the importance of tattoos, which for many are just as important as the tunes. For this reason, an essential player in the scene throughout the years has been Fletcher… More >>

• Best Green Furnishings and Building Materials

  Livingreen

  Nestled in a residential, tree-lined Culver City neighborhood, Livingreen is the Tiffany's of home design and raw building materials — only it's green, sustainable and healthy. Half of the Zenlike store is filled with gorgeous handmade furniture featuring recycled materials, as well as organic-cotton bedding, energy-efficient lighting and nursery accessories with nontoxic finishes. The stuffed toy animals are made from… More >>

• Best Men's-Care Place

  Old Glory Barber Shop & Tattoo

  Patronizing a chain barber salon not only makes you feel like an assembly-line product, but it often means you're going to walk out with a substandard cut. (When you get home, your wife will comfort you with the thought that it will look better "when it grows out.") Old Glory Barber Shop & Tattoo, however, is a spot where men… More >>

• Best Place to Get Your Graphic Novel Geek On

  Gallery Nucleus

  Although far from Westside and downtown gallery enclaves, the aptly named Gallery Nucleus is truly at the heart of the artsy L.A. graphic novel and anime scene. Think groundbreaking artwork from well-known artists, such as New York Times best-selling author Kazu Kibuishi, creator of the lyrically drawn Amulet and Flight series, or Academy Award nominee Don Hertzfeldt, master of the… More >>

• Best Eastside Alternative to Netflix

  Videotheque

  For those who think the video-rental business is so last-century, Videotheque will change your mind. Founded in 2003 by Francophone Mark Wright, this brick-and-mortar indie is a highly curated and friendly space that offers many perks Netflix doesn't. Browsing the aisles, you'll rediscover the pleasure of physically perusing treasures such as imported DVDs, out-of-print VHS tapes, essential releases from the… More >>

• Best Grocery for Saving the World in a Time-Efficient Manner

  Fresco Community Market

  So-called "conscious shoppers" — those who consider the impact of how their food is raised and processed — often are faced with multiple stops on grocery day. Depending upon where you live, you might have to swing by McCall's for meat, the local farmers market for vegetables, Gelson's for foreign foods and maybe Whole Foods for cheese. Pretty soon you've… More >>

• Best Persian Bookstore

  Ketab Corporation

  Although no one bookstore can do justice to Iran's expansive heritage of literature and cinema, Ketab Corporation will give the uninitiated a pretty good indication of its depth and richness. The bookstore/film library has documentaries on everything from art and history to the cities of Iran, while the books cover topics ranging from astrology and law to women's literature. While… More >>

• Best Place for Schmancy Booze

  Du Vin Wine & Spirits

  Whether you're looking to emulate the A-listers, pick up a gift for the host or simply step up your spiritual knowledge (er, your knowledge of spirits), Du Vin Wine & Spirits in West Hollywood is your spot. Rene Averseng and Stacie Hunt say theirs is the only Southern California wine shop specializing in European wines, and we haven't found any… More >>

• Best Selection of Gently Used Designer Party Clothes

  Council Thrift Shop

  Consignment chain Council Thrift Shop's Ventura Boulevard location is a true gem for the thrift-minded. Whether you're in the market for a sleek blazer or you're throwing a Dynasty-themed costume party, it will be the only stop you need to make. Its selection of vintage and contemporary items is constantly refreshed but never lacking in quality. Prices vary by label,… More >>

• Best Twilight Market Experience

  Monrovia Family Festival

  The throngs of people, tree-lined streets and old buildings might make you think you've arrived on the set of The Andy Griffith Show. The four-block-long Monrovia Family Festival, held 5-9 p.m. every Friday on Myrtle Avenue in Old Town Monrovia, is quintessential Main Street USA. To the south there's the Certified Farmers Market; to the north, a kiddie area complete… More >>

• Best Place to Get a Manzilian

  The Factory Hair & Makeup Studio

  Sure, folks aren't throwing around terms like "metrosexual" and "manscaping" much anymore (thankfully); nonetheless, nowadays it's considered OK for men to take care of themselves. Beauty shops, however, still tend to cater mainly to females; some even go so far as requiring would-be male customers to get a reference from a regular female customer. The Factory Hair & Makeup Studio… More >>

• Best Cutting-Edge Menswear and Vintage Magazines/Books

  Reserve L.A.

  Reserve L.A. is as much about culture as clothing. First and foremost, it serves as the flagship store for the clothing lines Fresh Jive and Warriors of Radness, the latter of which was nominated America's best new menswear designer of 2011 by GQ. These two brands represent the yin and yang of Los Angeles: Fresh Jive features going-out wear appropriate… More >>

• Best Brows

  Joan Wolf

  Nope, this is not Anastasia of Beverly Hills, where you'll pay big bucks for someone to pluck and shape your brows only to have them grow back in a matter of days. This is a tattoo, expertly applied by brow artist Joan Wolf, who has worked as a permanent cosmetic professional for two decades. Before you balk, these are not… More >>

• Best Succulents and Cacti

  California Nursery Specialties

  All cacti are succulents. But not all succulents are cacti. That's the first lesson Dave Bernstein teaches you at California Nursery Specialties, but that's not all you'll learn at this paradise of water-wise plants that he started 30 years ago. As King of the Succulents, he reigns over a one-and-a-half-acre kingdom of 100,000 cacti, succulents and tropicals — all harvested… More >>

• Best Brunette Specialist

  Neil George Salon's Kazumi Morton

  The question "Is it true blondes have more fun?" would never have been posed by a Clairol commercial in the 1960s if Kazumi Morton had been around. Because after trusting your brown or inky monotone tresses to her skilled hands, you'll go from dismal to dramatic with warm, subtly sun-kissed locks in less than an hour. The secret behind Morton's… More >>

• Best Tattoo Removal

  Celebrity Laser Spa

  Ready to remove that cute little butterfly butt-cheek tattoo that now soars across your more-than-ample ass like a wayward 747? Or your former lover's initials — now that he's not your BFF but M.I.A.? Dr. Alex Kaplan at Celebrity Laser Spa knows from tattoo removals. As a longtime volunteer removing tattoos for former gang members through Homeboy Industries, he's seen… More >>

• Best Salon to Make You Feel Hip, Even if You Aren't

  Hairroin

  You could call Hairroin "edgy," but that wouldn't do it justice, considering that after you get your cut they'll give you favors like car air fresheners featuring skeletons in pretty updos, or pens that look exactly like syringes. (Seriously. Folks do a double take when we pull ours out at the grocery store.) But even with a heavily pierced, tatted-up… More >>

• Best Race Track-Turned-Swap Meet

  Saugus Speedway

  Decommissioned in 1995, Saugus Speedway still seems haunted by hurtling stock cars, its peeling bleachers calling up visions of ghosts. Yet every few days it bursts back into life, albeit as a swap meet. On Tuesday and Saturday it's less crowded, but Sundays really get the deal-hounds drooling. Amidst the usual $1 knickknacks, knock-off T-shirts and endless bric-a-brac lurk some… More >>

• Best Recession-Proof Facial

  Raya Taver Spa

  For years Raya Taver Spa has been the destination for dermis-obsessed dames on a budget. The 29-year-old European spa boasts of its "recession-proof prices," and it's true. For $67 — a price that hasn't changed in five years — you get multiple topical applications and masks tailored to your skin type, a steam treatment, a facial massage and the benefits… More >>

• Best Place to Pick Up Pennies

  Pick Your Part Auto Recyclers

  Cars are so important in our lives, and not just for getting around. Relationships begin and end in them; life is conceived and cut tragically short in them; your success is shinily announced and shabbily betrayed by them. For this reason, the soulless, shadeless acres of Pick Your Part Auto Recyclers offer up a thousand skeletonized stories. There is odd… More >>

• Best Badass (If Slightly Expensive) Vintage T-Shirts

  World of Vintage T-Shirts

  It's mandatory that every cool dude in L.A. has to own at least five vintage T-shirts, and we're not talking Urban Outfitters' faux vintage, either. World of Vintage T-Shirts is the best purveyor to meet your needs, then, assuming you're willing to drop a bit of cash. It boasts everything from old-timey sport T's to authentic concert shirts to duds… More >>

• Best Flea Market for the Record Collector/Obsessive

  Pasadena City College Flea Market

  For the determined record collector, it doesn't get much better than Pasadena City College's flea market. On the first Sunday of every month, music geeks unite at the spot to dig through new and old LPs. For the most devoted vinyl enthusiasts, this is your place, the safe haven where you don't have to be ashamed, where you can, in… More >>

• Best One-Stop Gift Shopping

  Lula Mae

  You know that friend of yours who always upstages the $10 bottle of wine you pull out of your purse when she shows up at parties with the most adorable, clever little trinket wrapped perfectly in a colorful vintage gift bag? Well that smug bitch probably has been shopping at Lula Mae for years now. It's a small Pasadena shop… More >>

• Best Poke 'n' Smoke

  Botox on the Beach

  Morton W. Barke, director of both Botox on the Beach and the Medical Marijuana Evaluation Center in Venice, is a genius. Other than a pint of Chunky Monkey after a bong hit, what could possibly go together better then a medical marijuana prescription and Botox? I call it the Fry and Bake. Fry your face at the beach, and then… More >>

• Best Hidden Gift Shopping

  Emerald Forest

  I wear a lot of jewelry; no, I mean A LOT (at the moment I am wearing nine rings, 20 bangles and two necklaces). But I am also really picky about what and where I buy. Only in the Emerald Forest am I never able to leave without a box in my hand. I lust after the Jennifer Shon silk… More >>

• Best Secret Couture Spot

  H&M at the Beverly Center - CLOSED

  While every outpost of the impossibly cheap chain store has a slightly different selection from the next, the H&M at the Beverly Center is in a class by itself. For one thing, it's huge: When Forever 21 moved into the old movie theater space on the top floor of the mall earlier this year, H&M expanded into the old Forever… More >>

• Best Bitters

  Bar Keeper

  The cocktail culture store near Sunset Junction in Silver Lake has the best selection of flavored bitters and cocktail waters I've ever seen — and Bar Keeper lets you taste whatever you want. The tiny, beautifully curated shop also sells glassware, bar furniture and accoutrements, cocktail books, T-shirts and, of course, booze. Their selection of the latter is not terribly… More >>

• Best Men's Vintage Boutique

  Jake Vintage

  Jake Vintage, a matchbook-sized shop, is its vintage-mad neighborhood's go-to spot for Mad Men–style menswear. Owner Jonathan Kanarek personally stocks his store with not just carefully curated clothes but also cigarette cases, martini shakers, cufflinks and all manner of antique dude things. The intimate environment, kitted out with vintage guitars and vinyl, attracts movie star and rocker clientele, but all… More >>

• Best Taste of Home for Homesick Brits

  Santa Monica's Little Britain

  Craving good strong tea, McVitie's digestive biscuits, Irish cheddar cheese or other delights from the U.K.? Make your way to Little Britain, aka Santa Monica, to the nexus of suppliers around the intersection of Second Street and Santa Monica Boulevard. Start with an authentic pub lunch at Ye Olde King's Head, a British pub filled with expats watching live sports… More >>

• Best Kids' Indoor Play Yard

  Little Barn

  Indoor play places can be a blessing for paranoid moms: Your tyke is confined to a small space and, for the most part, interaction with dirt and other grime is minimized. But these areas — often featuring toy cars, bouncy houses and primary-colored ball pits — are pretty much the same. Not Little Barn. Located near downtown, the venue's attention… More >>

• Best Place to Fix a Moth-Eaten Sweater

  Alex's

  The sign over the door says, "We fix damages on clothes: Burns, Moth Holes, Rip, [sic] Tears, etc. We also fix sweaters." And that's exactly what Alex's Reweaving has been doing since 1984 (and in its current location since 1989). The family-owned business employs mother, daughter, aunt and cousins, who learned to do the delicate repair work from spending after-school… More >>

• Best Place for Hipster Christmas Gifts

  Unique L.A.

  Wondering where to find the ideal Star Wars-spoofing T-shirt, felt cactus, letterpress cards or jewelry made from typewriter keys? Mark your calendar now for the holiday versions of Unique L.A. (Dec. 3-4) and Renegade Craft Fair (Dec. 10-11). At their summer editions, both drew vendors offering a divine assortment of hand-crafted items of adornment and decoration, organic soaps, pet treats… More >>

• Best Record Store for Actual Records

  Atomic Records

  Atomic Records specializes in two things that some people today may not be so familiar with: real jazz and actual records. By jazz, we do not mean Kenny G or Dave Koz, but authentic jazz going back through big band, bebop, acid, modern, swing and Dixieland. By actual records, we mean those big, round, black, shiny things with all the… More >>

• Best Place to Treat Your Pet Like a Prince

  My Pet Garden

  Joel Tatum, owner of My Pet Garden, is a former L.A. Zoo zookeeper who worked closely with rhinoceroses. You may not own a rhino, but Joel also loves the smaller critters — including cats, dogs and birds — and the core philosophy of his store is built around nutrition. Tatum insists that he won't carry a product if his staff… More >>

• Best Family-Owned Nursery as a Tale of the American Dream

  Bellefontaine Nursery

  In 1905, Kuniyoshi Uchida and a friend arrived in San Francisco from Japan to work on the railroads. Cut to two generations, many offspring and much diligent gardening and nursery work later. Cousins Alan and Dale Uchida run the successful and much-loved Pasadena plant resource, Bellefontaine Nursery. Bellefontaine features mainly organic fertilizers; specializes in drought-resistant, succulent and local varieties; and… More >>

• Best Bike Shop for Improving the World

  Rolling Cowboys

  A position of rarefied, near-heroic honor should be reserved for Angelenos committed to nonautomotive modes of transportation. To Daniel Gellis, owner of Rolling Cowboys in Arlington Heights, bicycle ownership and ridership are not just a matter of positive citizenship and environmental benefit, they're also about maintaining vigorous health, appreciating elegant, cutting-edge machinery, enjoying a like-minded social scene and just plain… More >>

• Best Wizard at Tailoring

  Eddie's Tailor Shop

  First of all, there's an actual Eddie at Eddie's Tailor Shop. It's not just a cutesy-gruff, old-timey name devised by business suits to fool the public into thinking the place is a mom-and-pop shop. Not only does Eddie own and run the place with a kooky fastidiousness — nay, obsession — regarding the traditional art of tailoring and the concept… More >>

• Best Honest Mechanic-Gentleman-Philosopher

  Jim Matson Automotive

  Few things give an auto mechanic hard-core street cred faster than inspecting a customer's car and prescribing the most simple repairs — perhaps a $30 hose or a 12-buck sparkplug. Better still is the mechanic who ascribes the problem to a freakish, early-morning fuel-line burp or squeaky, WD-40–thirsty struts and then recommends the customer hit the bricks with wallet fully… More >>

• Best Non-Beverly Hills Shoe Repair

  Willie's Shoe Service

  Arturo's Shoe Fixx and Progressive Shoe Repair in Beverly Hills might be the names more likely overheard at Barneys or at upscale resale shop Decades. But Willie's Shoe Service, a shoe and leather repair service founded by Willie Rivera in 1956, has its own storied Hollywood history, and allows customers to avoid the belly of the 90210 beast entirely. Willie's… More >>

• Best Auto Body Custom Car Paint Jobs

  Eddie's Auto Body

  Eddie Solis is the ultimate Eastside homeboy–meets–West Coast Choppers fusion. He typically wears a bandanna and is especially proud of the Chicano mural gracing the side of his bustling shop. Custom work takes place in a garage adjacent to an auto paint store that's still open to the public but merely a convenience for Eddie's work. The garage, parking lot… More >>

• Best Trendsetter Salon With an Edge

  Goodform of Hollywood Salon

  Goodform of Hollywood Salon does it all — and started some of it. Feather extensions? Way before most everybody. Clientele? Pro skateboarders and Hollywood hot stuff, including loyal A-lister Kim Kardashian. Goodform is the love project of stylists and their friends. Although it would never say this, we can: These people are cooler than you. The people who just get… More >>

• Best Salon to the Stars — and You

  Chris McMillan Salon

  Chris McMillan is known for Jennifer Aniston's hair. As Chris McMillan Salon manager Damian Hardy says, that's "the biggest understatement in the world." At the cozy shop that feels like a small ranch-style home, McMillan is sought after to set the looks for feature films. Refreshingly, McMillan is obsessed with hair — not celebrity. As one client put it, "I… More >>

• Best Eastside Bike Store on the Westside

  Manny's Low Rider

  At cramped, dimly lit Manny's Low Rider bikes, you won't find the best stuff on display hanging up on the walls and ceilings — that's where Manny stores a lot of his extensive and relatively inexpensive bike-parts inventory. Sure, current-model beach cruisers and messenger bikes pack the storefront, but a legendary Schwinn, the 1950 Phantom, isn't even at the shop. A… More >>

• Best Luggage Hospital

  Ben's Luggage

  Have you heard of a zipper pull? It's one of those stringy items made of rope or plastic or leather that you pull to close the zipper on your luggage. When your zipper pull breaks, you, being zipper-pull brain-dead, head to the nearest luggage mega-store like LAX Luggage. It'll take a few days to fix, they say. If you want… More >>

• Best Budget Framer

  The Hanging Co.

  Grey Goose farther north up Hillhurst is where you're likely to bring signed and numbered pieces, or works of art that deserve UV-coated glass and a hand-carved maple frame. But if you can get past the ill-advised noose that's part of the shop's logo, The Hanging Co. can be trusted to frame everything from simple spray-mounted posters to delicate vintage… More >>

• Best Well-Edited Boutique Kids' Section

  Yolk

  In a charming single-story building with Streamline Moderne touches on Silver Lake Boulevard next to LA Mill, Yolk manages to stock an impeccably edited yet relatively comprehensive assortment of clothes, toys, gear, books, and tools for kids, mostly with a chic eco-bent and an emphasis on Scandinavian design. Peruse books, women's clothing and housewares up front, then make your way… More >>

• Best Non-Chain Everything Kids' Store in Koreatown

  Kidsland

  To find just about every baby and kid product that's recently hit the U.S. market at Kidsland in Koreatown, you'll have to walk through unpleasantly lit passages in a generic high-rise office building at a bustling intersection. Square footage for test-driving strollers is limited compared with some other emporiums targeted at junior's every need, and the sheer amount of stuff… More >>

• Best Tennis Proprietor and Tale-Teller

  The Racket Doctor

  The sporting goods market is dominated by big-box, Walmart-style outlets, where you'll find baseball helmets, soccer shorts and Lakers jerseys all in the same aisle. If you need some professional advice, you're pretty much on your own. The clerks are likely to know something about a lot of sports but not enough about a particular one to be of much… More >>

• Best Expensive Sweatpants

  Free City

  Known for its pricey sweatpants and hoodies favored by the celeb set, Free City's flagship store works hard to constantly reinvent itself. Owner Nina Garduno says she was inspired by the retail vibe in Copenhagen, where folks shop at uniquely cool and colorful spots (as opposed to boring big-box stores). Having moved from Malibu to Hollywood last year, Free City… More >>

• Best Mechanic if You're Over 200,000 Miles

  Long Automotive

  You're probably used to auto mechanics doing a lot of upselling. At Long Automotive, they practice downselling. "Hey Long, do I need new brakes?" "No, they're OK." "What about the struts?" "No, you don't need that." When Long says something needs to be fixed, you can be confident that it's actually broken. And whatever you expect it to cost, the… More >>

• Best Cheap Frame Store

  Frugal Phil's Frame Factory Outlet

  Part of being an adult is having things framed. When you were in the dorms, it was OK to tape the John Belushi "College" poster to the wall. That doesn't fly anymore. But that does not mean you have to go waste several hundred dollars at Aaron Brothers. Not when there's Frugal Phil's Frame Factory Outlet. The first thing to… More >>

• Best Specialty Bookstore, Auto & Aviation

  Autobooks-Aerobooks

  SoCal is known for its car culture and as the birthplace of the aerospace industry. Those two come together in literary, and other, forms at Autobooks-Aerobooks, a Burbank institution since 1951. If you're looking for a book on the Elva sports car, Russian fighter planes from 1920 on, a diecast replica of "Sneaky" Pete Robinson's top fuel dragster or the… More >>

• Best Little Tokyo Grab-Bag Shopping

  Kimski Makes

  Though this sector of Little Tokyo is ripe with tourists, it's the locals who shop at Kimski Makes, a hip haven for Japanese girls and those who want to dress like them. Upon entering the shop, a large plastic dinosaur greets you, reminding you that you're not in Forever 21 land anymore (though the prices are comparable: $30-$40 for dresses,… More >>

• Best High-Cultish Custom Facials

  Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery

  When getting a facial, it's best to pick a spot that does clinical procedures, such as Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery, which offers only certified medical aestheticians. This means you get to skip what often turns out to be well-intentioned hippie drivel that lesser spas feed you in the form of advice and procedures, in favor of a more aggressive approach.… More >>

• Best Half-Naked Vintage Shopping

  Shareen's

  Step aside, boys. Shareen's is a girl's-only vintage clubhouse. This warehouse of tutus, candy and magazines contrasts with its rather gritty setting in industrial downtown, but once inside you'll feel safe and welcomed by Shareen herself — or one of her stylish girls. Somebody will ask if it's your first visit, and if so, they'll help you navigate the initially… More >>

• Best Fancy Edibles Gift Store

  Julienne's

  Everyone goes on about the beloved Julienne San Marino bistro (and complains about the fact that it isn't open on Sundays), but the attached petite marché gourmet deserves its own 15 minutes. Long and narrow, this hybrid bakery, gourmet market and store is stuffed to the brim with delectable wares and foodstuffs. In every corner, multiple fridges offer all sorts… More >>

• Best Ironic Baubles for a Best Friend

  Spitfire Girl

  Spitfire Girl is sort of like a less mass-produced, more authentic version of Urban Outfitters' indie accessories department. Though the name of the store reflects the loose theme (and it follows that everything is made in the USA) of a sort of cowboys-and-Indians setup, the underlying concept seems to be animal-themed, with seahorses and owls being a general favorite (as… More >>

• Best Motorcycle Repair Shop

  Illuminati Motorcycles

  Near the intersection of Silver Lake and Sunset boulevards, Illuminati Motorcycles is a pit-stop bike shop that waits for sick and aging two-wheeled vehicles to be fixed, cleaned up and re-released onto the streets of L.A., where rising gas prices have led to a growing population of bike enthusiasts. Illuminati's proprietor, Barron Gunter, not only repairs motorcycles, he sells them,… More >>

• Best Collection of Vintage-Style Jewelry

  Swag

  Entering Swag is like stumbling into a Paris flea market. The shelves and display tables are crammed with handbags, candles, stationery, vintage sterling silver and glassware, antique chandeliers and velvet bedspreads. But the best thing about Swag is its huge collection of La Vie Parisienne jewelry, elegant designs rendered from original molds and stampings created by French artists of the… More >>

• Best Venice-Based Marijuana Dispensary That Looks Like a Beverly Hills Boutique

  The Farmacy on Abbot Kinney

  Like it or not, medical marijuana has become part of SoCal culture, and the Farmacy on Abbot Kinney knows that an inviting store layout, along with sexy packaging and knowledgeable customer service, is almost as important as the quality of the cannabis itself. With an interior that looks more like a Sephora or a Mac store than a pot outlet,… More >>

• Best Indie Record Store

  Wombleton Records

  Last year, husband-and-wife team Ian Marshall and Jade Gordon opened Wombleton Records, an elegant and uplifting little spot in Highland Park that carries original pressings of '60s psychedelia, vintage soul, Britpop, reggae and other hard-to-find imported gems. Unlike L.A.'s more famous independent multimedia megalopolis, Amoeba, Wombleton forgoes fluorescent lights and music posters for ornate wallpaper, Persian rugs, houseplants and custom… More >>

• Best Place to Monkey Around

  Monkeyhouse Toys

  These days, not only do kids love to play with toys but so do their parents. While Silver Lake's Monkeyhouse Toys might technically be geared toward children, the independent store and art gallery recognizes that adults are the ones spending the money, so they make sure to have a great selection of art, books and grown-up toys, too. While kids… More >>

• Best B&B for When Your Parents Visit You in Silver Lake

  Sanborn Guest House

  So you landed in Silver Lake after art school. You've got three roommates and your temp job barely covers the rent. Your parents are wondering what you're up to. You've got a video installation that's opening soon, and you know it's not their thing. But y'know what, they want to connect. So you invite them out. But here's the dilemma:… More >>

• Best Source for Ironic T-Shirts

  West L.A. Goodwill

  Looking for that perfect T-shirt? The one with both text and subtext? Well, you could go to a specialty shop and pay way too much for something that says "Roger's Garden Supply" with a little lawnmower icon. But you'll be paying a pretty steep curatorial fee. Someone has gone to the trouble of filtering out all the literal T-shirts and… More >>

• Best Feral Cat Spay Clinic

  Fixnation

  Cats don't always land on their feet. Last year, 7,000 unwanted felines were euthanized in county shelters already brimming with little victims of the detestable economy. An estimated 1 million homeless and feral cats roam the streets of Los Angeles. You might leave kibble for a feral cat colony in a nearby parking lot; perhaps you found a mewing litter… More >>

• Best Fresh Organic Egg Peddler

  The Kendor Farm

  You're lost, driving down Vanowen Street in the Lake Balboa district of the San Fernando Valley, musing about whether this road's tired and thrashed apartment buildings are uglier than Lincoln Boulevard's beat-down and claptrap storefronts. Nah, you think — when suddenly you spot an out-of-place sign that would be well nigh impossible in your own neighborhood. It reads "The Kendor… More >>

• Best Shop for Bizarre, Funky and Funny Things

  Black Market

  You'll find a thousand and one cute, weird, bright, clever, bizarre, shiny, funky, funny things at Black Market on Sawtelle. On paper, you would call Black Market a "lifestyle" store. In person, it looks like nothing so much as the living room of a creative, hyperacquisitive, impossibly hip youth obsessed with Asian and American pop culture and possessed of considerable… More >>

• Best Real Artists Art Supply Store

  Utrecht

  Who would have thought that an avowed Eastside artist would pick a West Los Angeles art supply destination as her pick of the city? But it's true: Painter Lisa Adams, who is in the collections of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art and the Laguna Museum of Art, swears by Utrecht. And it's no wonder. This is the L.A.… More >>

• Best Place to Buy Wholesale Feathers

  Feather Place

  If you need a leopard or a spaceship, within a few hours, I could find you one. L.A. is secretly the biggest manufacturing base in the whole country, and that, coupled with the culture-obliterating entertainment juggernaut of Hollywood, means that whatever you might need made, stored or growling for any reason, there's likely someone here who has it for a… More >>

• Best Korean Spa

  Natura

  Located in the basement of the old I. Magnin building on Wilshire, the best deal at Natura is the body scrub plus massage for $80 (other options are just the scrub for $45 or an hourlong acupressure massage for $70). The cost of your treatment at this Korean spa gives you access to two saunas (steam and dry), a Jacuzzi,… More >>

• Best Kosher Market

  Glatt Mart

  One of the two largest markets on the Kosher Corridor — the swath of Pico Boulevard that stretches from Beverly Drive to La Cienega — Glatt Mart may be a couple cents more expensive than nearby Elat Market, but it's cleaner, newer and doesn't require shoppers to wear steel-toed boots and elbow pads just to push their carts down the… More >>

• Best Horror Prop House

  Dapper Cadaver

  "Anything with a vampire or a killer or 'massacre' in the title, we're involved with," B.J. Winslow, proprietor of Dapper Cadaver, the premier "death-related" prop house, tells me proudly. "I'm just happy to come to work every day and see an entire wall of my business piled floor to ceiling with corpses." Corpses so realistic they were recently awarded a… More >>

• Best Bookstore for Insatiable Readers

  Piccolo Books

  Want to strain your back for a sawbuck? Try carrying a $10 haul from one of Piccolo Books' (aka Dollar Books) two enormous used bookstores, which opened this year in the shells of deceased Borders megastores. At Piccolo's in West L.A. and Long Beach, you can get 10 books for that 10 bucks from a selection of more than 100,000… More >>

• Best (in the World) Water-Sports Shop

  Dive N' Surf

  Forget the angling over which city deserves the corny moniker "Surf City." The Dive N' Surf in Redondo Beach is actual ground zero for the Southern California water sports culture. Ocean-obsessed twin boys from Missouri, Bob and Bill Meistrell moved to Manhattan Beach in 1944. In 1953, upon their return from the Big War, the brothers launched a water-going revolution… More >>

• Best Longtime Local Fave-Clothing Store

  Sequin

  Long before the advent of the personal shopper, Westside women trusted Sara. At her eponymous boutique on Montana Avenue, boldfaced names gathered together outfits that radiated carefree elegance with accents of ethnicity — call it California Style. Stunning shirts or stylish tees, perfectly cut jeans or slacks, unique footwear and accessories from across the globe. While Sara has moved her… More >>

• Best Hats for Yesterday and Today

  Goorin Bros.

  Sartorially speaking, Los Angeles is, without a doubt, having a hat moment. Day or night, indoors or out, the city is lousy with porkpies. But the truest hat fetishists remain unashamed. You mad hatters will want to visit a Goorin Bros. hat shop. In L.A., there are three: quaint little places, all, the original Melrose Goorin, the Old Town Pasadena… More >>

• Best Specialty Bookstore

  Mystery and Imagination Bookstore

  Specialization is for insects — and bookstores. Malcolm and Christine Bell have been in the specialty book trade since 1975, and for many years have run Los Angeles' only brick-and-mortar bookshop specializing in sci-fi, fiction, fantasy and horror. (The space actually is two stores in one, having absorbed Bookfellows' rare editions some years back.) Verne, Wells, Poe and Lovecraft all… More >>

• Best Dr. Dolittle Impression

  Village Vet

  I walked past an alleyway in Atwater Village and saw a skinny black cat. Half her fur had fallen off. She had no teeth. Ribs protruded through her scabby skin. But the kitty — I named her Skeletor — was sweet, and purred when I approached her. Wearing some oven mitts, I gently lowered Skeletor into a cardboard box and… More >>

• Best Merch-Free Museum Bookstore

  Art Catalogues

  Nothing against mugs and tote bags and silk scarves and elegant notebooks sporting reproductions of history's most recognizable artworks, but at LACMA there is a tchotchke-free zone where art lovers can let their inner bibliophile range free. Operated independently by local treasure and art-book expert Dagny Corcoran, Art Catalogues — on the campus' lower level, down by Chris Burden's lampposts… More >>

• Best Place to Plan the Perfect Getaway

  Traveler's Bookcase

  Whether you're jetting to Paris or Phuket, there's a wide selection of books for travelers — or L.A. denizens with a critical case of wanderlust — at independent bookstore Traveler's Bookcase. And it's not just your typical Fodor's or Lonely Planet guide that fills this frequent flier's library. There are oversized Taschen tomes that capture Berlin and London, among other… More >>

• Best Acupuncture Treatment

  Ona Spa

  Acupuncturists like to deny it, but those needles can smart. Not in a pokey way, in an electric-shock way. For wimps who still want the benefits of acupuncture, Ona Spa in West Hollywood has developed a $200, two-hour treatment that actually makes needle-sticking pleasant. Their brilliant idea: Precede the acupuncture with a customized hourlong full-body massage. The "Ona Radiance" starts… More >>

• Best Pinball Palace (and Tailoring!)

  Pins and Needles

  Hidden away on the second floor of the cavernous uber-rehearsal complex known as Bedrock, you will find Pins and Needles, the largest collection of vintage pinball games this side of Las Vegas' Pinball Hall of Fame — from Space Invaders and Star Trek to the signature machines of Dolly Parton and the Harlem Globetrotters. Kitschy art and collectibles are hung… More >>

• Best Two Alternatives to Whole Foods "Parking Lot"

  Co-Opportunity

  Looking for a health food store not filled with serene yoga enthusiasts who will run you down rather than miss out on a choice parking spot? Westside locals have two sanctuaries from the overrun Whole Foods Venice, with its beefy security guards patrolling the ka-ching!-oriented space. If you're more interested in low-key and gluten-free, we've found your places: Rainbow Acres… More >>

• Best Rare Sneakers

  Undefeated

  Undefeated is the temple where sneaker snobs go to worship their shoe of choice. The precise brand of sneaker varies from snob to snob — perhaps it's the Star Wars x Adidas Originals, or the Black/Varsity Red-White Nike Air Diamond Turf, or the Comme des Garçons Converse, or even the Puma Clyde Undftd collaboration made by the store's own in-house… More >>

• Best Gallery at an Art Store

  Raw Materials

  Downtown's Raw Materials, purveyor of art supplies and provider of ancillary production and presentation services, takes a unique approach to the art of window-dressing. It's not unusual for an art store to put pictures on its walls, be they framed posters or original work by loyal customers. And it makes sense that Raw Materials' owners would know a lot of… More >>

• Best "Curated" Bookstore

  Family Los Angeles

  I say this as a semiprofessional curator myself, but there's something fantastically pretentious about "a curated bookstore." Owned by Orthodox Fairfax land barons the Harkham brothers, Family Los Angeles is just such a bookstore. Affectations aside, it's not the place one goes to discover the unusual in the stacks — it's more of a temple to all the literary and… More >>

• Best Spare-No-Expense Bed and Breakfast

  Tuscali Mountain Inn

  It's like voyeuristically living in the best neighborhood in Los Angeles to stay overnight at "luxury" B&B Tuscali Mountain Inn. Innkeepers Teresa and Bruce Royer opened the inn in 2008 on three acres next to Topanga State Park, in rolling foothills above Woodland Hills. Not the least bit quaint, this is a high-end experience (room rates are $245 to $295),… More >>

• Best Flowers as Art

  Holly Flora

  Sick of sending your sweetie the same old tired dozen roses? Try Holly Flora instead. Proprietresses Holly Vesecky and Rebecca Uchtman are more floral sculptors than garden-variety florists. Remember when Machine Gallery took over the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and someone built a giant replica of Sam Francis' Toward Disappearance out of white carnations? That was Vesecky's handiwork.… More >>

• Best Surfboard Maker Who Knows Your Moods

  Anderson Surfboards

  Naming a best surfboard maker is like heralding a No. 1 sushi chef. It's possible, but as Jonathan Gold might tell you, the best sushi chef is the one who gets to know your tastes over time. A board "shaper" is an artist and engineer. But most of all he's a surfing therapist. He knows roughly how much you weigh,… More >>

• Best Mobile Spanish Gourmet Grocery

  Cristina's From Spain

  Try finding authentic Spanish sausage for paella. Just try it. The arrival of Cristina's From Spain — a venture invisibly tucked inside of Purgatory Pizza — just made your search easier. Owners Cristina Rodriguez and Tony Testa import olives, almonds and cheese from Spain (check out the Iberico), make their own gazpacho (all gluten-free, no less) and tortilla Española, both… More >>

• Best Specialty Pet Store

  Paw Boutique

  Paw Boutique launched eight years ago in Pasadena because the Mutts & Moms pet rescue needed a place to show animals to potential adopters. Besides having an adoption location, "We wanted the right products for our rescue," says Vanessa Chekroun, co-owner/co-rescuer with Marina Baktis. That means organic and natural pet food, healthy treats, holistic supplements and chemical-free grooming products and… More >>

• Best L.A.-Obsessed Circulating Bookstore

  Libros Schmibros

  If you are prone to fretting about the future of American culture, specifically about the younger generation's alleged lack of intellectual curiosity, a quick visit to the gloriously unique Boyle Heights bookstore and lending library Libros Schmibros will almost certainly put your mind at ease. The steady stream of patrons looking to cheaply buy or freely borrow from the shop's… More >>

• Best Place for Parents to Grab a Cappuccino

  The COOP

  Yes, it can be difficult to find kid-friendly joints that are also adult-friendly, but The COOP in Studio City has both groups covered. While the kiddos rock out on a lighted disco floor or swim through an orange-and-yellow plastic ball pit, moms and dads can sip a latte or cappuccino in an adjoining café at this mod-inspired play space on… More >>

• Best Cheap Fuzz Removal

  Ana Electrolysis & Laser Hair Removal

  God bless Armenians, who face their tendency toward natural hirsuteness head-on. At Ana Electrolysis & Laser Hair Removal, for example, you can zap your beard, bush and back rug into oblivion for less than it would cost for a night out at the Bigfoot Lodge across the street. Ana Electrolysis, in business since 1989, is located in a weird cream-colored… More >>

• Best Stylin' Haberdashery

  Confederacy

  Dudes, when you're ready to surrender your hoodies and grubby track pants, head to Confederacy in Silver Lake. Superstylist Ilaria Urbinati (who styles Giovanni Ribisi and Bradley Cooper) co-owns this elegant store. Guys come here specifically for suits — simple, deftly tailored numbers evoking the clean, masculine Mad Men era. They come for Calvin Klein button-down striped dress shirts to… More >>

• Best Bank of America Branch

  Bank of America Westwood

  Walking into the Bank of America branch in the heart of Westwood Village feels like entering a real financial institution, not some dingy, hole-in-the-wall banking outpost. Imposing marble pillars and a long marble wall, where UCLA students stop to gossip and nearby shoppers sit and rest, greet bankers as they enter an enormous foyer. To the right is a cavernous… More >>

• Best Corner Hardware Store

  Franklin's Hardware

  Walk into Franklin's Hardware on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills with your broken rotary sander, your stuck drill bit or your snapped PVC sprinkler pipe, and an angel will immediately take you under wing and get your project back on track. Ultrapersonalized shopping help has been in force here since long before the annoying proliferation of Home Depots — almost within… More >>

• Best Place to Get a Shave From Sweeney Todd ... Without Being Turned Into Pie

  Sweeney Todd's Barber Shop

  Six words: hot towels and a straight razor. Sweeney Todd's Barber Shop in Los Feliz is a vintage-inspired man space where Henry Mancini is king and TVs aren't allowed. Not only are haircuts and shaves on the menu, but bachelor parties are also available. (Just don't mention Mrs. Lovett.) Peer through the window of this midcentury throwback, established in 1927… More >>

• Best Streetwear Shop

  The Hundreds

  Bobby Kim and Ben Shenassafar developed The Hundreds' unique, concrete-level sartorial sense from Southern California's skate-, punk- and hip-hop scenes. That's the essence of streetwear: cutting-edge clothes for youth in styles that haven't been co-opted by corporate sensibilities. Eight years after its founding, The Hundreds' clothes are distributed all over the world and can be seen on the backs of… More >>

• Best Impromptu Pet Therapy

  Bark N' Bitches

  Maybe you love dogs, but your landlord won't let you have one. You have to find ways to get your pooch fix, but going to a dog park sans dog would be totally creeper, right? This is why we pop into Bark N' Bitches on Fairfax whenever we walk by. Not only is it a good place to grab gifts… More >>

• Best Electronics That Don't Fit in a Pocket

  Rewind Audio

  Oscar and Jen Carpinteyro weren't alive when the vintage 1970s and '80s turntables, receivers and speakers they sell at Rewind Audio filled the cinder-block shelves in bedrooms of teenagers crazy for Devo and the Specials. This is not the insanely priced stuff sought by audiophiles but great, quotidian, mainstream electronics, such as the classic Technics 1200, weighing in at 25… More >>

• Best Spot for Grown-Up Toys

  Munky King

  Melrose Avenue spot Munky King offers a great selection of toys you’re never too old to collect, sold at a wide range of prices. If you’re a fan of blind box items — tiny toys that you buy without knowing what you’re getting — then you’ll want to check out the selection here. We’re fans of Kid Robot’s Adult Swim… More >>