Best antique store

Best dog groomer

on June 17, 2010 at 4:00AM

Bark Bark Club 5943 N. Broadway 773-878-7233 barkbarkclub.com Runners-up Chalie Mae Ammons Soggy Paws

Best vet

on June 17, 2010 at 4:00AM

My Vet Animal Hospital 1643 W. Cortland 773-235-8387 myvetanimalhospital.com Runners-up Jean Beauat Uptown Animal Hospital Blum Animal Hospital

Best place to get married

on June 17, 2010 at 4:00AM

Chicago Cultural Center 78 E. Washington 312-744-6630 chicagoculturalcenter.org Runners-up Salvage One Cafe Brauer

Best place to deliver a baby

on June 17, 2010 at 4:00AM

Northwestern Memorial Hospital-Prentice Women’s Hospital 250 E. Superior 312-926-2000 nmh.org/nm/prentice+womens+hospital Runners-up Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center At home

Best apartment finder

on June 17, 2010 at 4:00AM

Apartment People 773-248-8800 apartmentpeople.com Runners-up M. Fishman & Co. Craigslist

Best real estate agent

on June 17, 2010 at 4:00AM

Lisa Kay Coldwell Banker 1840 N. Clark 312-266-7000 coldwellbankeronline.com Runners-up Pamela PlotkinDream Town Realty Juliana YeagerReMax Edge

Best Pop-Up Vintage Shop

by Katherine Raz on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Revision Home 2132 W. Fulton 312-226-2221 revisionchicago.com An Orange Moon 2436 W. 59th 312-450-9821 theculturalpsychologist.blogspot.com A tie: It’s increasingly risky to open a real retail storefront these days, what with the sinking economy and having to pay someone to actually sit there and mind the till. These two women have taken the side door by opening pop-up vintage shops.

Best Neighborhood Garage Sale

by Katherine Raz on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Newgard Neighbors Sale Newgard Avenue between Devon and Pratt Who doesn’t love a neighborhood-wide garage sale? Hundreds of households packed into a four- or five-block grid, all opening their carports and yards to the traffic of used goods.

Best Thrift Store

by Katherine Raz on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Jubilee Furniture Co. 610 E. North, Carol Stream 630-337-1467 jubileefurniture.blogspot.com If you’re an avid thrifter you might find a few things not to like about Jubilee Furniture: There are no color-coded racks of clothing. There’s not much in the way of housewares.

Best Rock 'n' Roll Garden Designer

by Kiki Yablon on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Julia AdamsSummerSweet Garden Design summersweetchicago.com Before she even knew that Lounge Ax, the legendary club she’d co-owned for a decade, would be closing for good, Julia Adams had embarked on her next career: garden design. With an old friend, Dianne Andrews, Adams had begun taking classes through the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden; both ended up earning certification in ornamental plant materials and garden design.

Best Place to Get a Vintage Hairstyle

by Heather Kenny on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Tigerlilie Salon 4755 N. Lincoln 773-506-7870 tigerlilie.com If you’ve ever sighed over old photos featuring flappers with lacquered marcel waves or a black-and-white movie featuring a straight-talking heroine in a complicated rolled do, you’ve probably also lamented the rise of wash-and-wear hair. But the days of the wash-and-set live again at Tigerlilie Salon, where owners Antje Kastner and Angelica Rivera practice their top-notch vintage hair-wrangling skills on burlesque performers, actors for film and stage, and regular folks looking for something special.

Best Place to Buy Size 16 Jeans

by Anne Ford on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Vive la Femme 2048 N. Damen 773-772-7429 vivelafemme.com In most of the retail clothing world, sizes 14 and up are considered “plus.” But at Vive la Femme, which caters to larger figures, any woman size 12-18 is what owner Stephanie Sack calls an “in-betweenie”—someone whose figure is fuller than the average shop can outfit, but who might not have the right proportions for Lane Bryant. This is quite a dilemma especially when it comes to staples like jeans.

Best Place to Swap Black T-shirts With Dudes

by Miles Raymer on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Dudes Black T-Shirt Swap tiny.cc/dudesblacktshirts Dudes, especially punk dudes and metal dudes, tend to amass a lot of black T-shirts. I’d like to say there’s no such thing as having too many—black T-shirts make up roughly 50 percent of my wardrobe—but the fact is that a lot of us do have a surplus of too-big metal shirts, Johnny Cash shirts that give off more of a rockabilly vibe than we’re comfortable with, shirts from mediocre bands bought on impulse at a show after too many beers.

Best Mall

by Heather Kenny on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

900 Shops 900 N. Michigan 312-915-3916 shop900.com Woman cannot live on chic little boutiques alone—sometimes you need to go someplace with a mix of department stores, chains, and stand-alone shops. In other words: the mall.

Best Place to Buy an Unusual Engagement Ring

by Heather Kenny on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Gem 1710 N. Damen 773-384-7700 gemjewelryboutique.com An engagement ring doesn’t have to be a giant rock of ice—even Princess Diana went for something different, a blue sapphire surrounded by small diamonds. For those who want an engagement ring that they can wear and not the opposite, I always suggest Gem, a small jewelry boutique in Bucktown that offers creations by independent designers as well as vintage pieces—and has a reputation as a destination for couples seeking diamonds that were ethically sourced.

Best Jewelry Designer

by Heather Kenny on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Nancy Deal 773-484-7047 nancydeal@sbcglobal.net I first became aware of Nancy Deal’s work while organizing the Reader’s fashion issue in 2007, and I’ve never forgotten it—even though I hardly ever get to see it. In an age when most aspiring designers bombard editors with PR about sales and new collections, Deal is practically a hermit.

Best Place to Buy a Thoughtful, Inexpensive Gift

by Whet Moser on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

RR#1 814 N. Ashland 312-421-9079 rr1chicago.com I’m not too modest to admit that, for a guy, I have a stellar reputation for picking jewelry. But I can’t take sole credit.

Best Place to Buy 78 RPM Records

by Peter Margasak on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Jazz Record Mart 27 E. Illinois 312-222-1467 jazzmart.com Back in the mid-90s most local music stores heeded the consensus that vinyl was dead and stopped carrying it—not an unreasonable decision, particularly considering that the major labels had abandoned the format. But a few shops, like Reckless Records and Dr. Wax, refused to give up on LPs, and now the ones that survived are having the last laugh as vinyl sales surge.But even those holdouts look timid next to Jazz Record Mart, which has brazenly ignored the vagaries of the record business, not only maintaining a huge inventory of LPs during vinyl’s fallow years but continuing to sell records in the long-extinct 78 RPM format.

Best Art Sale

by Deanna Isaacs on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Recycled Art Saleat the Art Center 1957 Sheridan, Highland Park 847-432-1888 theartcenterhp.org Once a year the Art Center in Highland Park turns into a huge resale shop, offering thousands of artworks, many beautifully framed, at ridiculously low prices. Collected at the center year-round, the pieces are donated by folks of frequently impeccable taste and run the gamut from student work and posters to originals by name-brand artists.

Best Selection of Italian Horror-Movie Soundtracks

by Miles Raymer on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Dusty Groove 1120 N. Ashland 773-342-5800 dustygroove.com Every bin at Dusty Groove is likely to contain some fascinating shit you’ve never even heard of before, but the store’s most berserk section is soundtracks. Sure, you can probably find the latest Danny Elfman opus if you really want it, but instead of the usual graveyard of cut-rate Batman Forever CDs there’s tons of mostly vintage film music spanning a range of styles, from biker rock and blaxploitation funk to spy jazz and European porno lounge.

Best Cheap Tickets for Great Seats for Broadway in Chicago

by Deanna Isaacs on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre 24 W. Randolph 312-977-1701 broadwayinchicago.com Seriously myopic, I like to sit near the stage for live theater. But seriously cheap, I hate to pay New York prices for Broadway in Chicago productions.

Best Last-Minute Theater Tickets

by Deanna Isaacs on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Harris Theater for Music and Dance 205 E. Randolph 312-334-7777 harristheaterchicago.org You don’t have to be a student and you needn’t pay handling fees to get cheap rush tickets for Chicago Opera Theater’s innovative, consistently high-quality productions at the Harris Theater. Just show up at the box office at the right time—5-6 PM the same day for evening shows, noon-1 PM for matinees—and, depending on availability, which is almost always good, you’ll be able to pick up a ticket at half price.

Best Theater Community Service Organization

by Albert Williams on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Season of Concern 312-332-0518 seasonofconcern.org In May 1985, the Biscotto-Miller Fund was launched with a benefit performance, Arts Against AIDS (which I coproduced) at Second City. Named for stage manager Tom Biscotto and actor J. Pat Miller—whose deaths had driven home AIDS’s terrible implications for the local theater community—the fund’s purpose was to get money for medical care, food, housing, and other basic needs to Chicago theater artists with the disease.

Best Place for a Musical Prodigy to Get a Free Education (or Close to It)

by Michael Miner on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Merit School of Music 38 S. Peoria 312-786-9428 meritmusic.org She’s eight, but what a gift! The Merit School of Music offers after-school, weekend, and summer programs—not to mention private lessons—that will take her all the way through high school.

Best Film School

by Ed M. Koziarski on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Columbia College colum.edu The gleaming new Media Production Center at 1600 S. State is the jewel in the crown for Columbia College, by some measures the largest film school in the U.S., with 4,200 students in its School of Media Arts, which also includes TV and interactive media. Jeanne Gang (creator of the Aqua Tower on Columbus Drive) designed the $21 million, 35,500-square-foot center to facilitate collaboration across media disciplines, with two shooting stages, a motion-capture studio, animation suites, and shops for building props and costumes.

Best Dance School Everyone Thinks of as a Music School

by Laura Molzahn on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Old Town School of Folk Music 4544 N. Lincoln 909 W. Armitage 773-728-6000 oldtownschool.org So you think you can’t dance? Think again.

Best Dance Class

by Lauri Apple on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

House Danceat Breakdance Chicago 1439 W. Wellington 773-512-7384 breakdancechicago.com Whether you want to sharpen your skills for a B-girl audition or just put a bit of slick into your living room performances, Carlos Morris and Czarina Mirani can help. A personal trainer by day, Morris has performed for almost a decade in both local and national dance shows and Mirani—a B-girl with years of classical dance training—has worked as a choreographer and dancer with the Goodman, Strawdog, and other local theater companies.

Best Place to Buy a Restored Schwinn Cruiser

by Julia Thiel on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Mike Mitchell’s garage 708-522-9208 mikesclassicbikes.com For locally manufactured bikes, Mike Mitchell is the man to see. Schwinn shut down its Chicago factory in 1983, but Mitchell restores Chicago-made models from the 1960s and ’70s, taking them apart, cleaning them, and replacing any worn parts before putting them back together and reselling them for $250-$300 apiece at Randolph Street’s Chicago Antique Market or out of his garage in Oak Park.

Best Place to Restore Your Own Bike

by Julia Thiel on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

West Town Bikes 2459 W. Division 773-772-6523 westtownbikes.org West Town Bikes, which calls itself a “community bicycle learning workshop,” offers classes and workshops for adults, many of them free, along with youth programs like a bike club where kids can pimp their own rides. One of the most useful programs is open shop, Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons, where you can use the shop’s tools to maintain your own bike.

Best Pharmacy

by Michael Miner on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Carnegie Sargent’s Pharmacy & Health Center 845 N. Michigan 312-280-1220 forgoodhealth.com Any pharmacist can fill a bottle of pills. But third-generation pharmacist Mark Paley, director of Carnegie Sargent’s Pharmacy & Health Center, dispenses TLC.

Chicago Reader

Best antique store

Readers' Poll

Night and Day Vintage

The Antique and Resale Shoppe

Smythson Yeats Antiques

Location Details

The Antique and Resale Shoppe

Night and Day Vintage

Smythson Yeats Antiques

In This Section:

Best dog groomer

Best vet

Best place to get married

Best place to deliver a baby

Best apartment finder

Best real estate agent

Best Pop-Up Vintage Shop

Best Neighborhood Garage Sale

Best Thrift Store

Best Rock 'n' Roll Garden Designer

Best Place to Get a Vintage Hairstyle

Best Place to Buy Size 16 Jeans

Best Place to Swap Black T-shirts With Dudes

Best Mall

Best Place to Buy an Unusual Engagement Ring

Best Jewelry Designer

Best Place to Buy a Thoughtful, Inexpensive Gift

Best Place to Buy 78 RPM Records

Best Art Sale

Best Selection of Italian Horror-Movie Soundtracks

Best Cheap Tickets for Great Seats for Broadway in Chicago

Best Last-Minute Theater Tickets

Best Theater Community Service Organization

Best Place for a Musical Prodigy to Get a Free Education (or Close to It)

Best Film School

Best Dance School Everyone Thinks of as a Music School

Best Dance Class

Best Place to Buy a Restored Schwinn Cruiser

Best Place to Restore Your Own Bike

Best Pharmacy

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