Gayest and Greatest

Community Biz

Finest Furniture Store That You Can Afford: IKEA
7810 Katy Frwy, 713/688-7867
Where would we be without IKEA? With its affordably adaptable style, IKEA makes us able to show off that decorating gene even when on a budget. Lose the furniture in a divorce? No worries–just venture over to the giant IKEA on I-10 and you can get a new look in no time. Plus, IKEA holds a place in our GLBT Consumer Hall of Fame because of their groundbreaking ad back in 1994 that featured two men shopping for a table together–making it one of the first national companies to use a gay couple in their marketing to a mainstream audience.

Finest Furniture Store You Wish You Could Afford: Cantoni
9889 Westheimer, 713/787-9494
Dahhling! This Dallas-based modern furniture store located in the Galleria corridor came to Houston in 1992 and quickly moved to its current gigantic location, chock-full of contemporary furniture that could make even Carolyn Farb swoon. Founder Michael Wilkov supports the community by opening his space to charity and other events, and by providing us something to strive for: greenbacks enough to frequent his establishment! Whether window shopping or, for you lucky ones, actually purchasing, you rank Cantoni as your number-one highbrow home store.

Antiques to Make Auntie Jealous: Free for All
This category got a wide variety of responses, with some readers volunteering entire areas both real (the Heights) and in cyberspace (eBay). Other favorites? Reeves, Kings, Junque, Hart Galleries, and Carl Moore Antiques. No wonder Auntie’s jealous.

HALL OF FAME
Mod Music Store: Soundwaves
3509 Montrose, 713/520-9283 (plus multiple locations)
Soundwaves is, far and away, your choice for the gayest and the greatest music store around, knocking out second-place Record Rack by triple the votes. The great location and terrific selection of music (as well as goofy little trinkets) make this a fun place to shop and to people-watch, as well as to find items a few bucks cheaper than the outrageous prices charged by many national chains.

TUG-OF-WAR
Best Bookstore: Crossroads/Lobo
1111 Westheimer, 713/942-0147 / 3939 Montrose, 713/522-5156
Crossroads and Lobo, ever rivals in this category, tied each other up (figuratively, sweetie, figuratively) this year for your favorite bookstore. Actually, as your votes confirm, Houston is a great bookstore town, with runners-up Bookstop and Half-Price Books only a few votes behind the first-place winners. In addition to the books, videos, and various gay adornments available at Lobo and at Crossroads, you can drop in for coffee or a sweet (and I mean a dessert–shame on you!), before or after you rent your adult video (see next section!) at Lobo, or before you venture next door from Crossroads for your appointment with your favorite hairdresser, Paul Richards, at Hair Works.

Best Adult Video Rental: Lobo
3939 Montrose, 713/522-5156
Whether its highbrow gay literature or brow-raising adult video you seek, Lobo is your favorite spot for all things media. The subtle divide between the bookstore area and the adult video section in the layout of the store is a classy touch, whether or not it is intentional.

Best Video Rental: Hollywood Video
1201 Westheimer, 713/520-1883
I can’t help it; I always have waves of nostalgia for the old Tower Theatre wash over me whenever I enter the expanse of videotapes that is Hollywood. Despite this feeling, I do love the great selection of gay and lesbian titles (where else would you find The Making of Bar Girls?). With their convenient location and whore-ish red carpeting, Hollywood still feels more hometown than national chain–if we had to lose the Tower, at least it was to a gay-friendly establishment like this one.

Most Luscious Lingerie/Coolest Clothes for Girls: Erotic Cabaret
1222 Westheimer, 713/528-4565 & 6509 Westheimer, 713/783-1897
We must have had an entirely different set of voters this year in this category, since last time we asked this specific question, your answer was the GAP! As for Erotic Cabaret, this crazy place has been around as part of the Montrose landscape for 19 years, opening a second location down the road a ways, but never moving from the first. Self-described as a "trashy Neiman Marcus," the Cabaret gets a wide variety of shoppers of any and all genders and persuasions. Well, what do you expect?–they sell shoes in sizes from 5 to 16!

HALL OF FAME
Coolest Clothes for Boys: Basic Brothers
1232 Westheimer, 713/522-1626
Where else but Basic Brothers? OK, maybe technically not a Hall-of-Famer (barely beaten by Neiman’s in 1997), but, hey, we love this place! A great place to browse (and to buy, if you’re spending someone else’s money) for everything from jockeys to jumpsuits (love that retro look), Basic Brothers has been there for our community and for our closets (CLOTHES closets) for as long as we can remember. Grab the gold card and go!

Best Place to Hide Your Erotic Playthings
Most of you seem to prefer places "under" (under the bed, under the pillow, underwear drawer), but several enterprising readers suggested other anatomical locations. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Top Tattoo Parlor: Shaw’s Tattoo
1660 Westheimer, 713/528-1255
With runners-up Extreme Skin Art and Miss Fortune’s Tattoos close behind, this little joint at the corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy is the best place to imprint your body (permanently) with the latest image of your choice.

HALL OF FAME Finest Fitness Gym: Fitness Exchange 4040 Milam, 713/524-9932 The gym that Montrose calls home, Fitness Exchange has won this category every year thus far–although they tied this year with 24-Hour Fitness for the top spot. Bally’s and Club Houston weren’t far behind. 24-Hour Fitness, with multiple locations, certainly provides a great workout and great flexibility, but for many of readers there is no gym but Fitness Exchange.

UPSTART
Greatest Grocery Store: Central Market
3815 Westheimer, 713/386-1700
Wow! Who’d have thought a grocery store that bumps up against the 610 Loop would rank over the seamy but fascinating Kroger on Montrose and the sincere earth-motherings of Whole Foods? This Austin-transplant that opened in May wasted no time in becoming your favorite place for sundries. And why not? It’s bigger than life, with a produce selection that would make the Green Giant jealous, as well as the greatest variety of meat, poultry, and seafood available anywhere in the city–maybe in the state. The café is a great place to hang out and snack, and Scott at the coffee bar makes the most incredible coffee shooters this java junkie has ever had. Check out their catering menu, and for heaven’s sake, buy your sweetie some flowers at the eye-catching floral department. When was the last time you did that, after all?

UPSET
Most Mod Movie Theatre: Edwards (runners-up: Angelika, River Oaks)
3839 Weslayan, 713/871-8880 & 7600 Katy Frwy., 713/263-0808
What is it about this joint that bumped it to the top of the list, over contenders such as the fabulous Angelika (OK, the parking situation sucks right now), and our first love, the River Oaks Theatre? Please explain! But we do have to admit that we enjoy the Katy Edwards’ sideshow atmosphere with its pavement fountains, karaoke, outdoor pavilions, and sidewalk cafés (Café Adobe, that is)–it does make for more of a Saturday night experience than your normal catch-a-flick-and-go-home routine.

Favorite Lodging (Houston): Lovett Inn
501 Lovett, 713/522-5224
Innkeeper Tom Fricke has combined charm and queenly comfort to make the Lovett Inn the primo queer B&B in Houston. Plus, so many groups have made use of the Lovett Inn’s gracious facilities, for years before we had a community center, it filled that much needed vacancy.

Favorite Lodging (away from the urb): Hollywood @ Galveston
Seawall & 31st, 888/899-0899
Galveston, oh Galveston–yes, like that old saw of a song, your choice for overnight lodging on the island is campy, relaxed, and a little bit trashy, in the way we like best! Both male and female guests hang out on the second floor deck that overlooks the Seawall, or soak themselves in the first-floor pool, or sing along with live entertainment in the Lucille Ballroom. As long as we aren't having a torrential downpour, happy hour happens out on the deck, where you can slurp up your favorite beverage while getting your beauty tan. So grab your Speedo and a friend–or better yet, meet a new one there.

Best Local Website: www.outsmartmagazine.com
Thanks for the vote of confidence! Other local cyber spots you admire: South Beach's website (www.southbeachthenightclub.com, see especially their "Post Your Tale" community kiss-and-tell message board), KHOU.com, the HoustonGayGuide.com, Eroticattire.com (owned by Basic Brothers), and KPRC online (www.click2houston.com).

Best National Website: www.gay.com
This portal site for the gay and lesbian community is absolutely jammed with information relating to us; in fact, it’s so jammed, some of us find it difficult to read and to navigate. Despite that, we like it. We like the activist section, the intelligent film reviews, and the inter-site links that will take you to more information on the topics you find interesting. It’s definitely a website you can get lost in . . . but maybe that’s not such a bad thing!

TUG-OF-WAR
Local Business Most Supportive of the GLBT Community: Chase Bank/ Gallery Furniture
Whether it’s Empower, or the Pride Parade, these guys are there front and center for the GLBT community. (And don’t you know that both of our supportive local winners are in the business of Saving You Money.)

3-WAY
National Business Most Supportive: Starbucks/Continental/Tanqueray
These companies support the gay community in both word and deed, with domestic partnership benefits and unambiguous antidiscrimination policies.