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Best Spice Shop

Penzeys

Although you can certainly find any spice your heart desires here, it's the spice blends (the Pasta Sprinkle is simply indispensable) and smartly boxed spice sets (the assortment of baking spices makes a great gift) that are the main draw here at Penzeys. Well, that and the ability to open and smell any spice jar until you find exactly the right one you need.

Best Tailoring

Le Silhouette

Do yourself a favor the next time you need an item of clothing altered. Take it to an actual alterations shop, and not just your local dry cleaner. The best one we've found is Le Silhouette, which you've likely driven past dozens of times on Alabama but never noticed. That's because it's in a tiny bungalow, where the two women who run the place do magical things with clothing. We took an XXL vintage brocade jacket there and had it whittled down to our size, which they managed to accomplish expertly, without damaging the structured shape or the delicate, decades-old fabric. They might not have it ready by 5 p.m. the next day, but they'll do the best job.

Best Time Machine

Another Time Soda Fountain & Cafe

Photo by Troy Fields
If the glorious chocolate malts and grape phosphates at Another Time don't take you back, the renovated soda fountain in historic downtown Richmond, overlooking a beautiful train museum, certainly will. After polishing off your patty melt and banana split, keep the time warp going by visiting all of the many antique dealers all around Another Time — you'll work off those milkshake calories while you're at it.

Best Male Lingerie

Male Uwear

Underwear, thongderwear, boxer-brief-dongderwear. Male U-Wear has it all at its delightful little shop in — where else? — Montrose. Any pair you can imagine, they've got: plaid print, fruit print or even the kind perforated with a sexy cock peephole. Male U-Wear stocks the best array of swimsuits, from Speedo-type coverage on up. Whether you're gay or straight, the charming salesmen make you feel right at home and are happy to recommend some scented candles or lube to go along with your man-gerie. It's all in the name of putting your package in a stylish banana hammock.

Best Sexy Lingerie

Top Drawer Lingerie

Tucked in Uptown Park, Top Drawer Lingerie is the perfect solution for those days when local ladies need a boost. And we're not just talking about the bras. The whole store is daintily feminine, and it feels like a parlor, complete with a chandelier. Lacy panties, silk teddies, and bras that will actually fit are laid out neatly around the store and hung artfully. Top Drawer isn't cheap, but on the plus side, you won't look or feel cheap. These pieces are classy. With undercoverings this cute, you're guaranteed to feel like a girl in a panty store.

Best Farmers' Market

Canino Produce Co.

It's possible to walk out of Canino Produce Co. with a good week's supply of produce for less than $20, which may be the least interesting thing about the sprawling warehouse-like facility on Airline Drive. Opened in 1958 and now occupying more than 20,000 square feet, Canino has any sort of fruit or vegetable you can name, fresh from the dirt (and about as cheap), and many more you can't — one time we stumbled across a whole bin of some kind of Italian squash, each about the size of a small baseball bat. It gets more interesting the further back you go, with cactus, dried peppers and all sorts of other south-of-the-border delicacies. Don't miss the good-size nursery if you're in a gardening kind of mood, and Canino's selection of sauces, salsas, salad dressings and garnishes — most of them homemade by mom-and-pop Texas companies — is equally impressive.

Best Window Shopping

19th Street

Though in constant flux, one thing about 19th Street in the Heights hasn't changed in years — it beats the Galleria by a mile (several blocks, actually) when it comes to window shopping. For one thing, the items in the windows on 19th Street are things you can actually afford. Vintage fashions at Replay complement the Heywood Wakefield furniture in the little antique store next to Shade. If you prefer modern wear, just around the corner is Buffalo Exchange, where you can find modern designers at gently used prices. And while the Galleria has AC, more and more restaurants and cafes are popping up on 19th, where you can rest and refill before hitting the shops again.

Best Fashion Innovation

Green by Adeline

Houston's only 100 percent eco-fashion boutique, Green by Adeline focuses on "fashion with a conscience," designing clothes that are sustainable and comfortable out of ecologically sound fabrics like bamboo, beech tree and wood cellulose. Adeline Sung, who has lived in Houston for two decades, studied fashion in Milan and Paris before making Houston her home. Her line mainly features clothes with a timeless but modern look to them — after all, you can't save the world with throwaway fashion trends.

Best Gay Porn Store

Black Hawk Leather & Video

Don't let the blackened windows at this Montrose haunt scare you, because inside, Black Hawk Leather & Video is a bright, happy gay man's playground. Racks of the highest-caliber porn live here, including favorites like Jizz Gym, Key West Cum and Oink Pigs at Play. It's a classy, clean one-stop shop to ensure that your viewing is at its most pleasurable. A whole wall of multiracial dildos of every length and girth are ready for the lubing of their life — and so are you, with Black Hawk's floor-to-ceiling lube collection. If you're into leather, hangers of harnesses and leather thongs await. When you leave, you'll smell like a fine Italian leather shoe store, but you'll feel ready to get totally dirty.

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