Letters to the Editor
As one of the many post-secondary students living and loving in the HRM, it’s a bit of a kick in the pants to see Dalhousie take the top spot in university-related categories in the recent Best Of issue. As far as I can tell, 20-something university students are an important demographic of Coast readership -…
Letters to the Editor
Nov 5/05 ~ Day 16. I quit smoking 16 days ago. After many days of teetering mind loss, little by little I’m starting to feel somewhat like myself again. My boyfriend of 10 years has also kicked the habit and it’s probably one of the hardest tests this relationship has been thru. It’s a beautiful…
Love the way we bitch
This week’s bitch: BIKE GRIPE
LETTERHEAD
Readers respond to Lezlie Lowe’s “Take a Pill” column from last week.
In the Radar
We first used the term “publisister” in this space on June 16 of this year, in our first item about Tom Cruise’s Summer of Crazy. A publisister is a publicist who is also the client’s sister, in the familial vein of momager (a mother who is also her child’s manager, like Hilary Duff’s). Cruise’s sister…
Drum roll please
If this year’s DRUM! is any indication, Halifax is a thriving, underappreciated percussion hot spot. But the event shouldn’t be confused with the seven-year-old Drumfest, which aims to expose various forms of percussion on a global scale as performed by local talent. To be held November 4 and 5 at Saint Matthew’s United Church, each…
Got wood?
One Stop Wood Shop opened last Saturday at the corner of Elm and Chebucto. The store will specialize in furniture made by owner and carpenter Jason Cullen. Cullen creates custom-made pieces, and also has a number of pieces on display that are available for purchase. He specializes in a wide range of furniture, from funky…
At your service
The most recent issue of Naturally Green, the glossy and colourful newsletter produced by HRM’s communications department to promote the city’s collective environmental efforts, includes a story entitled, “Scavenging, A Blight on the Community.” The hyperbolic headline has provoked reactions from some SuperCitizens. “It blew my mind how insensitive and inflammatory it was,” says Dennis…
Q & A period
Dear Lezlie, I read with interest your column in last week’s Coast. I’m one of those women you talk about, one of the wacky bunch who second-guess Mother Nature’s plan for us ovary-bearers. Contrary to the belief of women and doctors in the industrialized world, women aren’t really meant to cycle every 28-35 days. This…
Q & A period
To Lezlie Lowe, I read your column (“Take a pill,” Oct 27) and totally agree with you; however, when you mentioned the pills you mentioned Diane. I’d like to point out Diane 35 is actually an acne medication, not an oral contraceptive. On March 20, 2005, CBC’s Marketplace aired an episode on the misuse of…
Best Optometrist
It was a tough battle for best optometrist, with the top three spots being decided by a difference of one vote. But Jeff Sangster came out on top, and he says being an optometrist is a “happy” profession because people are usually quite pleased when you can help improve their vision. The 33-year-old doctor has…
Best Professor
Professor MacIntosh loves philosophy because of its inclusive nature: “It’s a subject where you can contribute at a high level without too much training because it’s the study of the concepts of things.” He lists among his interests epistemology, metaethics, decision and action theory and metaphysics. Wha?? No matter, he clearly knows what he’s talking…
Best Place to Dumpster Dive
What is it with everyone? Just can’t get enough Timbits? The number one place to dive, according to Coast readers, is Tim Hortons. No doubt that’s partly due to ReadyMade magazine freaks constructing furniture out of tossed doughnut boxes, plus the really busy season: the annual Roll-Up-The-Rim contest. After all, you can’t win if you…
Best Photographer
Without digital cameras, none of this would have been possible. Relative newcomer Shaun Lowe says he started snapping photos seriously in 2001, but his interest really took off around 2003 after he picked up his first digi-cam. Says Lowe, “It just ballooned from that point. To have that feedback right away, I would know what…
Best Section Of The Coast
Q: Sometimes I like to turn off all the lights in my house, light a single candle, and then read Savage Love while rubbing peanut butter all over my body and fondling a mannequin. Is there something wrong with me? –Yearning for Erotic Statues 1st runner-up Shoptalk 2nd runner-up Love the way we bitch
Best Actor (Male)
We’re worried about you, Mike. Trailer Park Boys is now heading into its sixth season, and your character, Bubbles, is as popular as ever. That’s all well and good, but we’re more concerned about your health. Specifically, how long can you wear those coke-bottle glasses before you start to go blind? At the very least,…
Best Local Film
This was a close one, with the skater-made feature The Teeth Beneath grinding out a single-vote victory over those Trailer Park fellas. The 45-minute film tells the simple story of a monster that is unleashed in the basement of a skate shop, forcing the shop employees to do battle with the beast, in order to…
Best University / College
Charles Crosby is not only the spokesperson for Dalhousie University, he’s a ’92 Arts grad. Crosby has no trouble reeling off reasons for Dal coming first in the hearts of Coast readers. “We’re the most comprehensive university in the Atlantic region, in terms of what we can offer—medicine, law, theatre, across the board,” he says,…
Best Place To Celebrate Your Birthday
There’s always the “badda-boom badda-bing” and a big menu with lots of choices. But if it’s your birthday, manager Frank Yunace says, “We embarrass the person, basically. Sing Happy Birthday. Make them stand on their chair. Bring out the big wheel so they can spin for East Side Mario prizes.” You look like a monkey,…
Best Comic Book Store
Eight years in a row for Strange Adventures. Balou the dog is still around. Owner Calum Johnston says, “We enjoy what we do. We have a great selection and knowledge we try to share.” There’s no hard sell at Strange Adventures. Johnston’s job, as he sees it, is to get you in the door and…
Best Comic Book Store
Eight years in a row for Strange Adventures. Balou the dog is still around. Owner Calum Johnston says, “We enjoy what we do. We have a great selection and knowledge we try to share.” There’s no hard sell at Strange Adventures. Johnston’s job, as he sees it, is to get you in the door and…
Best Theatre Production
Maybe it was spurred on by the success of the Hollywood movie, or maybe it was the flashy production values, or maybe it was the raw, steamy sex appeal (OK, it was probably the sex appeal), but Chicago turned out to be a major hit at Neptune. After completing its initial run in the spring…
Best Salesperson
The fact that Mike Drake was too busy helping customers to spend much time talking to a reporter probably explains a lot about the Strange Adventures manager’s win. After a bit of small talk—“It’s easy to be good at your job when you have a great boss and great customers,” Drake said—he excused himself so…
Best Furniture Store
The favourite of Coast readers in 2004, Attica maintains its title as Halifax’s best furniture store in 2005. Why? It might have something to do with their unofficial motto, adopted from William Morris, leader of the Arts and Crafts movement: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe…
Best Musical Instrument Store
“Whether you’re in a band, or you’re a new band parent, chances are we’ve got what you’re looking for,” says Musicstop’s marketing manager Emily Huner, and chances are that your next stop will be the Musicstop on Cunard. Defeating its closest rival by a wide margin, Musicstop must be doing something right. Huner attributes the…
Best Word To Describe Halifax
Awww. Isn’t that sweet. Two years in a row. Oh, wait. I guess home life can be a lot of things: good, bad or ugly. But there’s the water, and the beaches nearby, and the parks, and Cathy Jones, and the bus station, and the good coffee, and the great book stores, and if you…
Best Place To Get Stoned
Same shit, different day: the Halifax Common won last year too. And why not? Wide open sky, darkness at night, the pretty fountain and the sense that no one can find you. Just now they’re ripping up a part of the field near Cunard Street to put in washrooms, so you won’t have to pee…
Best Real Estate Agent
Ahh, there’s no place like real estate. That’s what Rosemary Porter’s found in the three and a half years she’s been selling homes. Her first taste of the real estate industry came in 2001 with the purchase of her own home in Dartmouth. Oddly enough, she says she had to be “dragged kicking and screaming…
Best Place To People Watch
If you got Velcro-ed to a wall anywhere on Spring Garden Road between Barrington and South Park Streets, you’d see everybody you ever knew, and it wouldn’t take all that much time. The churchgoers and the panhandlers outside the Basilica; the boho juniors hanging out at Dalhousie Architecture; the librarians going for bagels; the artsy…
Best Theatre Company
Now in its 42nd season, Neptune blew away the competition for best theatre company. The 2004-2005 season was a memorable one at Neptune; the company set a record for the highest number of season subscriptions as well as the highest overall season attendance, proving that Halifax has a healthy appetite for live theatre. 1st runner-up…
Best Second-Hand Bookstore
If contest results were equivalent to novels, John W. Doull would be COA-B023-1103-B in hard cover; the competition, one of those skinny, orange-bound Penguin paperbacks. Repeating last year’s victory, John W. Doull outstrips his closest competitor by roughly three votes to one. Put it down to the store’s funkiness (“Not a word I use often,”…
Best Author
Lesley Choyce continues his literary dominance, picking up yet another win for best author. According to Choyce, “I think the only reason I do well in this is because I surf.” With all due respect, we think there’s more to it than that. Choyce has most recently focused his considerable writing talents on young adult…
Best TV Production
They drink, they curse, they grow weed and they get thrown in jail. Do your mothers know you’re voting for this show? Once again, the Trailer Park Boys take home top honours as the best local TV/film production, mockumenting the lives of Ricky, Julian, Bubbles and the rest of the gang down at the Sunnyvale…
Best Landlord
The key to Jimmy Georgantas’s success as a landlord is that he takes care of the basics. “Sometimes things go wrong, I jump on it,” he says. He started investing in real estate about 20 years ago, and now owns “four or five” units, housing up to a dozen people. One of his tenants has…
Best Place To Skinny Dip
Well, you know that Crystal Crescent Beach includes a nudie section, but you voted Chocolate Lake best place to skinny dip anyway. It’s closer and the water is warmer. Skinny-dipping is like peeing outside: you feel like you’re fooling the whole world. Plus the water feels so good on your business bits. And you have…
Best Taxi Company
Casino Taxi has been a family-owned company since the 1950s. Paula George, the company controller, says it makes her proud to see the continuation of the company her grandfather founded so long ago. That pride extends to the service they provide. Requirements for Casino cab drivers include being courteous, following a dress code, and having…
Best DVD Store
Whether you’re looking for a new release or an old favourite, HMV is the place to start your search for that perfect DVD. “Customer service is very important to us,” says store manager Nadia Fortin. “We try to pay careful attention to what our customers are looking for, so that we can help them find…
Best Pick-up Bar
The Palace repeats the dubious honour of being named best pick-up bar in Halifax—and simultaneously, best place to break up. How does The Palace do it, year after year? You could be cynical and say it’s all just booze, perfume and hormones, or you could take the optimistic view and use the word we prefer:…
Best Second-Hand Clothing Store
“We’re not a rummage-through-the-sales-racks, second-hand store,” says owner Sarah Dunsworth about Junk and Foibles. “This isn’t the kind of place where you have to search through racks and racks of clothes before you find the one great piece.” Instead, Junk and Foibles staffers do all the hard work for you, scouting out and buying “cream…
Best Karaoke Night
Seems that when you’re talking about karaoke, size does matter. “We’re a bigger bar, which means we’ve got a lot more people, being louder, having more fun,” says Justin Scully, manager of Oasis, when asked why his bar’s karaoke night is so successful. “We’ve got a younger crowd, and a lot of regulars, and even…
Best Optical Store
You don’t need to be wearing your prescription lenses to see why Gaudet Optical on Quinpool is tops in its category this year. “Ours is a small niche practice that has come of age through the most genuine form of advertising—personal referrals,” says owner Doug Gaudet. Our voters sent in a winning number of referrals,…
Best Activity For Meeting People
Birds of a feather…If you’re a hip, swell, swilling, GGG (good, giving and game), enough-cash-to-drink-out kind of hipster and you want to meet someone like you, well, then you go out to the places you like best. And we do have a lot of bars. A healthy-heart salute to Ultimate Frisbee for coming in second…
A cut below
A strange thing happened when i was watching the new DVD of Francis Coppola’s The Outsiders. I waited for the monologue that gets me every time. Johnny is stargazing with his friend Ponyboy and says, “It seems like there’s gotta be someplace without Greasers, Socs. There must be some place with just plain ordinary people.”…
Best Therapist
“Most people would never come near me unless a big bump happened in their lives,” explains therapist Ann Wetmore, who also won this category last year. Most of the people she treats are “super-copers” she says, but have run into a traumatic event, like the breakup of a marriage. She helps clients regain their ability…
Best Bank Branch
The first rule of customer service is the customer is always right. In RBC bank speak, it’s the “client first initiative now,” which is a fancy way of saying that you, the person depositing your fistfull of dollars, gets looked after properly. With this landslide victory, Coast readers, you’ve said they’re succeeding. Branch manager Bernadette…
Best Visual Artist
What is a visual artist, exactly? Are they graphic designers? Publishers? Photographers? Painters? Well, they’re probably a bit of everything, depending on what the job calls for. Lately, Seth Smith and Paul Hammond of Yo Rodeo! have been pushed into the album cover game. They’re currently working on a cover for Jon Epworth, and they’ve…
Best Second-Hand Record Store
Cassette tape? Eight-track? Vinyl? If you’re looking for it, Taz Records might very well have it—and if they don’t now, they will sometime, and they’ll call you when it comes in. “We deal with a lot of obscurities,” says assistant manager John Graham. “Music from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s, imports from England to Brazil;…
Best Festival
This year’s Buskers Festival featured one of the most diverse lineups of performers ever, from extreme martial artists to fireworks demonstrations to skilled “didgeridooists” (not a real word—yet). So how does Kim Hendrickson, executive director of the festival, keep finding these crazy people? “We have contacts around the world, and I meet them regularly at…
Best Student Hangout
Last year the Grawood took the top spot in this hotly contested category; this year, the tables are turned. Saint Mary’s University Student Association President and Gorsebrook patron Zach Churchill says the bar’s success has to do with its popular weekly events. “We have a very popular open mic night on Wednesday nights,” he says,…
Best Laundromat
It’s another clean sweep for the Bluenose Laundromat and little wonder. They’ve got it all: 30 washers, double-sized dryers, plenty of table space to fold and sort your laundry, lots of seating and a restaurant right upstairs. Owner Maria Zelios says even with all that, it’s the atmosphere that keeps people coming back. “It’s pretty…
Best Place To Walk Your Dog
Once again, a huge number of readers voted in this category, some possibly helping Ruff and Rover to fill out ballots. Please be assured, our anti-ballot stuffing squad includes retired K-9 sniffers; we are confident that no dog voted twice. Mary Clancy walks every morning with Jake and Dylan and Princess. “It’s a wonderful place,”…
Best Travel Agency
When your company takes two of the top three spots in a best-of competition, you know you’re doing something right. According to Robert Wooden, marketing manager for the Atlantic region, Travel CUTS is doing plenty right. “We have the best prices for students and budget travellers.” In fact, there are a variety of trips you…
Best Dentist
They say people have, on average, seven career changes in their lifetime. Dentistry is career number two for Mariette Chiasson—previously a nurse—who is now a five-time winner in this category. It’s clear she’s doing something right, but she says it’s not her; it’s her office. “The kids like it because it has a homey feel,”…
Best News Anchor
Steve Murphy cruises to his fourth-straight win as best news anchor, running away with the popular vote. Murphy says that after so many wins in this category, he has considered taking himself out of the running so that other local anchors might receive some well-deserved props. “There are lots of people doing our work in…
Best Place To Have Sex Outside
Forget nooners in a secluded parking lot overlooking the Bedford basin; Haligonians are making it happen in Point Pleasant Park. Not wind, nor sleet, nor rain, nor lack of cover will deter Halifax’s outdoors-lovers from getting busy in the great outdoors. Hurricane Juan and the subsequent loss of foliage in the park didn’t seem to…
Best Gallery
The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia owns this category, picking up top honours for the 10th year in a row. It was a big year for the gallery; their Rodin exhibition brought in record attendance numbers. Still, after that many wins, the AGNS’s manager of development Jeff Gray could be forgiven for being a little…
Best Local website
Wi-five! Halifaxlocals.com wins for the second straight year as the best local website, keeping us all in the loop about the Halifax music scene. The site relies on an open-source, message board-style format that keeps things current—and unpredictable. “On the front page of Halifaxlocals, you’ll typically see a lot of show posters, but that was…
Best Activity To Do With Your Parents
“Roger? Ro-ger! Did you see what our daughter has in her kitchen cupboards? I almost fainted! Orphan garlic cloves, cheap noodle products and microwave popcorn! What is it with kids? Sweetie, you know how to cook. Me and Pops are going want to see you eat at least one good meal this week, and not…
Best Summer Activity
As I was saying. As you were saying. Coast readers vote swimming a full four fathoms deeper as the best thing to do in summer, and since going to the beach is runner-up, I guess we really mean it. Lakes, rivers, oceans, ponds: they’re all close by. 1st runner-up Go to the beach 2nd runner-up…
Best Yoga Instructor
“I love backbends,” says Maxine Munro, the yoga instructor you voted as best in Haligonia. Her favourite pose is the Fish Pose, or “Matsyasana,” where she lies on her back, pressing the crown of her head into the floor, which forces her back to arch. “It’s energizing, lets you tackle your day with enthusiasm and…
Best Doctor
Empathy, notes Glenn Andrea, has a large role to play in being a good doctor. Patients want someone “who’s going to listen to their concerns, someone who’s knowledgeable, and someone that can address their issues.” About 60 percent of his patients are university students, and after 14 years of practising medicine, the youthful, dark-haired doctor…
Best Newspaper Writer
If Stephen Cooke could change one thing about his job…he probably wouldn’t. “Nah, not really,” says Cooke. “It changes everyday anyway. Every day it’s a different artist, different movie. I don’t dream of too much.” Actually, the entertainment writer for The Chronicle Herald might make one slight adjustment—there are times when he’d like to do…
Best Place To Meet A Secret Lover
One would think it might be easier to keep secret love a secret indoors, but not in this city, it seems. Apparently Haligonians prefer the “It’s so obvious, it can’t possibly be true” disguise over any sort of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” tomfoolery in any of the city’s fine hotels. Nope, we’d rather meet our…
Best Nightclub
Reflections has a long reputation for being the best place to dance; now it’s been crowned Halifax’s best nightclub too. “Above all, this is a place to go, relax and have fun,” says manager Mike Schmid. “This is a no-labels bar, and we work very hard to make it feel comfortable, friendly and safe for…
Shades of grey
I was leaning against a meeting room wall on the ramparts of Citadel Hill last week when businessman Bill Black waltzed in to the strains of the Stones’ Paint It Black. About 75 portly, south end Tories applauded enthusiastically as Mick and the boys wailed about death and depression. “I see the girls walk by…
Best Massage Therapist
It seems we have an old-fashioned, new-age rivalry on our hands, as Julie Kells, who lost to Beth Chase by one vote last year, narrowly pushes past Chase this year to take first place. After six years practising Swedish and deep-tissue massage at her clinic, Kells believes the key to a good experience is making…
Best Tattoo Artist
Andy loves the fish scales on his hand. Of the considerable artwork on his body—he has no idea how many tats he actually has—the fish scales he had done six or seven years ago are, by far, his favourite. He’s been a tattoo artist for 8 of his 28 years and says his favourite thing…
Best Lawyer
Editor’s note: After racking up a string of Best Lawyer victories, Anne Derrick got a promotion in September 2005 to become a judge. Two months later she got a second promotion, becoming the first inductee into the Best of Halifax Hall of Fame. In honour of her ascension (to the Hall, not the bench) the…
Best DVD Rental Store
There’s no polite way to say this. Video Difference has simply crushed its competition in this year’s voters’ poll, giving it another Coast plaque to add to its collection. The victory makes “landslide” appear close by comparison. Tom Michael, owner of Video Difference, says at the beginning, in 1982, he was selling televisions and VCRs.…
Best Pick-up Line
Last year’s winner was the perennially cheesy and totally overused “How you doin’?” and we’re pleased to see that this old standby has been relegated to third place. In our dismay at 2004’s winner, we said we’d be looking for something slightly more refined in 2005, but instead, we ended up with “Hi.” Is this…
Best Sex-toy Shop
Clean, bright and well organized, Venus Envy isn’t just a great place to buy a sex toy, says manager Maggie Haywood. “This is a place where you can come to have a conversation—about sex toys, yes, but about many other issues surrounding sexuality too.” The staff is well educated and approachable, but if you’d rather…
Best Graffiti Wall
The Nova Scotia Power parking lot should be reclassified as more than just a graffiti wall; the site is so stuffed with murals and tags, some of the art has started to spill over onto the ground. The graffiti now extends to the paved floor of the parking lot, creating a truly immersive den of…
Grand ideas
It’s easy to criticize the parking lot in the Grand Parade. As a prime piece of public land and a centrepiece for the city, there are plenty of uses for the square that would be more inspiring than a car park. Now that city council has resolved to stop using the public square as a…
Best Athlete (Female)
Adrienne Power runs like the wind. Al Scott is director of athletics at Dalhousie University, where Power was the shining light of sprinting for five years. “She will be remembered,” says Scott, “as one of our finest athletes.” Last spring, Power won three gold medals at the CIS National Track and Field meet, and set…
Best Tattoo/Piercing Joint
Utility has hammered its competition once again, winning top spot for at least the third year running. Sasha Snow, assistant manager and piercing apprentice, figures it’s because of their company policies. Like the “no shit-talking policy” they have, which means no slagging of any kind—not from or about customers, and not from or about employees—and…
Best Drag King
Ben Dover has once again moonwalked his way to being crowned Halifax’s chosen Drag King. Lord Dover has seems to have created his own little fiefdom, taking not only this year’s and last year’s Coast readers’ poll in landslide victories, but also winning Best Drag King at the 2005 High Heel Awards and first prize…
Best Fitness Instructor
It would have to be quite a fitness instructor to knock consistently voted-in favourite Nicolle Spagnoli out of top spot. Enter Tracey Kornblum. She’s known for her outrageous sense of humour (“they can’t believe I tell them to do that”), multi-level classes (“Every single class should be all-level”) and love of all things lunge (“I…
Best Retail Clothing (Men)
“We shop the world market for clothes and bring the best to Halifax,” says Ross McNeil, owner of Dugger’s. “We’re all about great products and great service. We try to create a friendly environment where you can shop at leisure or be waited on hand and foot.” Passionate, knowledgeable staff are happy to help you…
Best Activist Organization
After 34 years of saving the planet, how does the Ecology Action Centre keep itself vital? According to managing director Mark Butler, it’s as simple as listening to the EAC’s 700-plus membership. “It’s a pretty grassroots approach,” says Butler. “We don’t have a board that says these are the five areas that we’re going to…
Best Halifamous Person
Trailer Park Boy Mike Smith squeezes into top spot over last year’s winner, Joel Plaskett. If you need any evidence of Smith’s celebrity status, just take a stroll downtown and look at the multiple portraits of Bubbles that now appear in shop windows and unlicenced graffiti tributes. The guy is everywhere, and behind the Bubbles…
The Weather Man
The Weather Man finds director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) in Alexander Payne (Sideways) mode. Verbinski’s lack of distinct style makes such excursions possible, and this one mostly works. He’s better at being Payne than Steven Spielberg. Pitched between empathy and fatalism, the title character is minor Chicago celebrity David Spritz (Nicolas Cage), who’s…
Best Mechanic
There are three people every woman should have in her Rolodex: a good doctor, lawyer and mechanic. (Or was that three people every woman should date?) Anyway, we all know how tough it is to find a good, trustworthy and affordable mechanic. Ladies, never mind good, Halifax voted Tom McDonnell the best. Pat McDonnell, Tom’s…
Best Winter Activity
Nothing like a nice spring ski on sparkly granular snow. The fine folks at Tourism Nova Scotia say the closest downhill skiing is at Martok, near Windsor, and the Beachville-Lakeside-Timberlea Trail is a good one for cross-country. Either way, skiing is a great way to meet winter head on, instead of hiding inside. And the…
Best Spa
The highest level or degree that can possibly be attained. That’s the textbook definition. The Halifax definition is the aptly named Summit Spa. Eight wins in eight years say you love this place. So does Summit manager Michelle Carter: “It’s really nice to take care of other people.” In these stressful times, it’s good to…
Best Hair Salon
Once again, Thumpers has delivered a solid, uh, thumping to its competition, nearly doubling the votes registered for the runner-up. More and more the Halifax salon finds itself going head-to-head with the spas in town, as hair care is seen as merely one of many services to be offered. Maybe it’s the hair-only focus that…
Best Place For A First Date
“We’ve got great ambience,” says Victor Syperek, “and lots of intimate corners where you can tuck yourselves away; either to be alone, or to sit and people watch.” The low lighting is sexy and the setting is private—with an option for entertainment, if things start going downhill. Factor in the plentiful, affordable food and drink…
Best City Councillor
Dawn Sloane completes the elusive Best of Halifax hat-trick, winning best city councillor for the third year in a row. She’s so good in fact, she’s running out of ways to describe her own awesomeness. “I guess it’s because I’m down to earth, but I said that last year, so I can’t say that again,”…
Best Place To Dance
Whatever kind of music you like to dance to, chances are you’ll find it at Reflections. “We’ve got a great variety here, from live heavy metal to dance, from DJs to drag,” says manager Mike Schmid. “We try to have something for everyone.” And it looks like “everyone” appreciates their efforts: this is the ninth…
HOPE’s up
Dana Robertson has just given away a loaf of bread. During an in-studio radio appearance earlier this week, his band, Moncton punk rockers HOPE, partook in an interview and gave away concert tickets, CDs and a loaf of bread (as a mystery bonus prize) to a lucky caller. Foodstuffs aside, HOPE has another bun that’s…
Best Athlete (Male)
The phenom. I forget what about. Going to save Canada’s national game, I remember that much; I just didn’t know lacrosse was in trouble. And he’s a nice guy. And something about the Penguins… 1st runner-up Jake Gallagher 2nd runner-up colm Gribbin
Best Swimming Pool
On the outside, Centennial’s roof has nifty lane markings. Inside, it’s up to business manager Kate Aher, who is to the point: “It’s a clean pool. I do my job. It runs on schedule and my lifeguards are there.” 1970 Gottingen, 490-7219 1st runner-up Dalplex, 6260 South, 494-2137 2nd runner-up Dartmouth Sportsplex, 110 Wyse, 463-1115
Best Drag Queen
Talk about a helluva three-way; this category has been a neck and neck race between Lulu LaRude, Dita Parlow and Brooke Prescott for years. After ruling the roost for four years, Dita Parlow must now step down, for there’s a new monarch in town—Lulu LaRude. One of the duties of any proper queen is to…
Best Place To Steal Wireless Internet
Last year, Second Cup scooped best wi-fi hotspot. I’m not sure that you actually have to steal wireless internet anymore; airports, schools, coffee shops and whatnot advertise the fact they can beam you up. They want you to come skulking around; that way you might buy whatever it is they sell. 1st runner-up Spring Garden…
Best Newsstand / Magazine Store
Atlantic News offers over 5,200 magazines and newspapers, but if you still can’t find what you’re looking for, no worries—they’re used to taking requests. “We get requests for magazines every single day,” says co-owner Michele Gerrard. “We get requests for ones that we do carry and for ones that we don’t carry. If we don’t…
Best Activity To Do While Intoxicated
Dance Halifax, a city of drunken, dancing fools? Well, yes. In 2003, dancing beat out sex as your favourite thing to do drunk by a narrow margin; last year, dancing left sex eating dust in second place. Now it looks like sex has been relegated to third place, lagging far behind your true favourite, and…
Best Independent Bookstore
Tucked away in the middle of Park Lane Mall, Frog Hollow is the Haligonian book lover’s favourite destination. It’s stocked to the brim with books, and knowledgeable, friendly staffers are always on hand to help. Owner Mary Jo Anderson says, “We’re small but we’re passionate—we’d rather have one copy of 10 different great books that…
Group Mug
Nova Scotia is flush with tourist towns, the communities so often called “quaint” and “charming” that they become cliches themselves; villages so tourism-based that come late October, I imagine the locals folding up the main streets like so many cardboard façades, tucking them under their arms and heading off somewhere for the winter. As I…
Best Beach
Far enough out of town to feel like you’re really somewhere else, with something for everyone. Crystal Crescent is actually three beaches linked by beautiful walks on smooth dirt paths. Even off-season it’s a beautiful place to hike. Beach number three is known as the gay nude beach. Lawrencetown Beach was a close second: surfers…
Best Volunteer Activity
Same one-two winner results as last year. You just don’t know until you’ve tried it—volunteering in a hospital is great fun. You get into a certain frame of mind that lets the normally crustaceous get along with many different folks. At the IWK, volunteering requires an eight-month commitment, doing one shift a week. Rosanne Dempsey,…
Best Tailor
Lillian Botis has always sewn. The 52-year-old began sewing when she was just 12 years old, learning from her seamstress mother. Her brothers took up the family trade as well—both are now tailors here in Halifax. With that kind of pedigree, it should be a surprise to no one to see she’s got the top…
Best Hair Stylist
Alexis Klenck has been a licensed hairstylist for three and a half years, but she’s been doing hair for much longer than that. In elementary school (“like grade 4 or 5”), she copied her sister and dyed her hair blue-black. She loved it; her mom, not so much. But that was just the beginning and…
Best Place To Break Up
We’re not saying that you should be suspicious if your significant other suggests a night out at The Palace. We’re just saying that you should be suspicious if your significant other suggests a night out at The Palace. However, if such a night out does take place, and if said night out does involve a…
Best Member Of Legislature
Danny Graham’s well-deserved victory as best MLA comes as the former Liberal leader steps away from political life to spend more time with his family. Through his work in the legislature, Graham was able to improve the lives of many Nova Scotians by re-examining public policy, a passion that he says will continue as he…
Best Indie Filmmaker
It’s so hard to incite a good old-fashioned indie filmmaker feud. They’re all too damn modest these days. After a tight finish, Thom Fitzgerald, whose Three Needles was the opening night film at the 2005 Atlantic Film Festival, had nothing but good things to say about first runner-up Jay Dahl: “He’s very funny. And since…
Ground Zero
My wife spent yesterday in New Orleans, getting the house ready to put on the market. She woke up at 5 a.m. to drive in with a friend. She cleaned the kids’ rooms, hung the pictures back on the walls, stacked the Saturday, Aug. 28, issue of the Times-Picayune — the one with the “Katrina…
Best Cheap Thrill
I suppose the novelty wears off if you commute via ferry each day. For the rest of us, two dollars buys a little slice of naval paradise, plus views of Dartmouth, Halifax and the bridges–all worth the proverbial million bucks. Up on deck you can play King of the World or stand steady, chin jutted…
Best Antique Store
“The variety is a great thing,” says one employee, “we get a lot of things we’ve never seen before.” Urban Cottage gets most of its stock through consignments, so shoppers get the benefits of very diverse sources. John Beatty has owned Urban for three years; it was the original owner who wrote the computer program…
Best Dressed (Female)
“Classy girlie” is how Fran Middleton would describe her boss’s style. Middleton works at Wildflower, a women’s clothing store owned by Jill Strong—your pick this year as Halifax’s most nattily dressed woman. “Classy” explains Middleton, “because when [Jill]’s at work, she looks really professional, like a blazer or cropped blazer, maybe jeans and heels. But…
Best Public Washroom
This category used to be in Best of Food, but that didn’t seem quite right, so now it’s here. Last year Casino Nova Scotia pinched this category like a big old loaf and it’s back again in 2005. Clean, big and stocked with lots of fluffy paper products; losers and winners alike always enjoy a…
Best Retail Clothing (Women)
“Our customers really respond to the lifestyle aesthetic of Biscuit,” says storeowner Wendy Friedman. “We’ve got everything from jeans and casual wear to cocktail dresses—quality pieces that our customers can integrate into their own personal styles. We sell clothes that people want to wear—not clothes that will wear them.” And if you’re not sure just…
Best Member Of Parliament
Love her or hate her (but probably love her), New Democrat Alexa McDonough always lets you know exactly where she stands. For that, you’ve at least gotta respect her. “There’s a lot of cynicism surrounding politicians these days,” says McDonough. “Although there may be many people who don’t totally agree with my point of view,…
Best Place To Play Pool
Dooly’s on Barrington has been winning this category for a long time, and some might think that at this point, it might just be winning on momentum. They’d be wrong. A recent call reveals that they’re busy—really busy, too busy to talk. It’s not momentum, then, it’s business. And since Dooly’s business is the business…
Best Gym
Come the snow and we still got go. Haligonians hit the gym in droves. The Park Lane location is one of nine Nubody’s gyms in the city, with more than 50 pieces of cardio equipment. Mara Panacci is a marketing assistant at the gym’s headquarters in Dartmouth. She says Nubody’s “offers a lot in terms…
Best Bike Store
Bike mechanic Roger Nelson answers the phone with a bellow, but he settles right down and gives out good reasons why Idealbikes (they’re the young pup on the scene: 18 months at the Barrington Street location; three years all together) is great. “We have the best mechanics and give the best customer service.” Nelson also…
Best Dressed (Male)
Ben Fong doesn’t like to take things too seriously. But he’s voted best dressed, so we figure he must put a little thought towards his duds. “Presentation is always important,” Fong says, “depending on what your situation is. [Dressing] is about respecting other people in their spaces as well as having your own identity.” Fong,…
Best Thursday Night
Johnny Demestihas sighs. The manager of Argyle is still searching for the secret to his bar’s Thursday night success. “If I knew what the secret was,” he says, “I’d stretch it out all week!” It might be the martinis; it might be that the weekend really does start a day early in Halifax. But Demestihas…
Best Political Cartoonist
You try to be funny—and topical—every day, week in, week out, for 20 years. Not only that, but you’ve also got to draw some of the most nuanced caricatures in the country. You try to think of 100 different ways to portray Paul Martin. Not easy, is it? Well, now you know how Bruce MacKinnon,…
Best Use of Taxpayers’ Money
The harbour clean-up wins again for best use of taxpayers’ money, but if things go as planned, it won’t be long before it’s off the ballot forever. According to James Campbell, spokesperson for the HRM’s Harbour Solutions Project, the new and improved sanitation network should be up and operational on both sides of the harbour…
Best Place To Start Your Night
Haligonians looking for a place to start off their night are most likely to head to the Shoe Shop. “We’ve got really good food,” says bar owner Victor Syperek, “and you get a lot of it for a reasonable price.” With a little bit of nosh under your belt, you can soak in the casual…
Best Naturopath
“I used to get called a witch doctor,” says Sarah Baillie, remembering her first few years practising in Halifax. But that was over six years ago; now she gets called Halifax’s favourite naturopath, handily winning this category year after year. She loves her naturopathic practice because she has the time to listen to her patients’…
Best Camera Store
Lisa Marie Noseworthy works the Carsand-Mosher front counter, and she knows good photography. “It’s not just the quality of the film,” she says, “it’s also having a good lens and going to a place with high quality paper and someone who is trained. Then you get the best you can possibly get.” Noseworthy has a…
Best Neighbourhood
South end versus north end is our version of the east coast/west coast rivalry. True, the battle for Halifax is not nearly as famous, but it’s just as fierce; more people vote on this category than almost any other. While the rappers duke it out for hip-hop supremacy, ours is more of a campaign for…
Best Thursday night
Johnny Demestihas sighs. The manager of Argyle is still searching for the secret to his bar’s Thursday night success. “If I knew what the secret was,” he says, “I’d stretch it out all week!” It might be the martinis; it might be that the weekend really does start a day early in Halifax. But Demestihas…
Best Retail Record Store
“It’s just nice to be able to put good music in people’s hands,” says Sean Passmore, manager of Sam the Record Man and self-described music-geek of the first order. Passmore attributes his store’s success to the store’s great selection and enthusiastic, knowledgeable sales staff. “Because we aren’t part of a chain, we can make our…
Best Actor (Female)
Eighteen-year-old Ellen Page is currently out on the west coast shooting X-Men 3 in Vancouver. The big-budget superhero romp is sure to be a major release when it comes out in 2006, probably turning our home-grown actress into a big-time star. As Kitty Pryde (or “Shadowcat”), Page’s performance is sure to be scrutinized by comic…
Best Place To End Your Night
“It’s an iconic street corner in Halifax,” says Paul MacKinnon, executive director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, about our voters’ favourite place to end their night. “Pizza Corner is definitely one of the things that makes Halifax special.” Well known by native Haligonians, as well as by people who came here to study, Pizza…
Best Lake
Well, no wonder. Willy Wonka swims in Chocolate Lake—it’s like swimming in chocolate. It is chocolate! You didn’t know that? Also, it’s a lake close to downtown and on the bus route. Don’t swim too late in the season though—the chocolate turns green. 1st runner-up Lake Banook 2nd runner-up Long Lake
Best Car Dealership
We’ve got a good product,” says owner Mike Velemirovich, “with a quirky reputation and a quirky history.” And the staff at Hillcrest Volkswagen tend to be quirky too. “We treat the sales staff right, by doing away with commissions on sales, and so they treat customers right. We are just interested in you buying a…
Best New Building
A good building is one that can be enjoyed equally by those inside and by onlookers passing by. By your votes, Halifax, you’ve anointed the new Paramount complex on South Park Street as just such a building. “The city views are extraordinary from [inside] both buildings” writes Lindsay Downie, executive director of marketing and communications…
Best Movie Theatre
Less is more at the Oxford Theatre, a perennial favourite in the best theatre category. While multiplex monsters have taken over the movie biz, the Oxford remains one of the few single-screen holdouts. Although the Oxford is owned by Empire Theatres, which primarily manages those aforementioned multiplexes, the management is very aware of the Oxford’s…
Best Radio Personality
It was a close one, but BJ Burke from the mighty Q manages to defend his title as best radio personality. After a career that has taken him from coast to coast as a broadcaster, Burke is happy to be giving Halifax airwaves an irreverent jolt. “The kind of show we’re doing now at Q,…
Best Flea Market
Whether you’re a flea market aficionado or not, Penhorn Mall’s weekly flea market probably has something among its 350 tables that will pique your interest. “We’ve got something for everyone,” says Rob Rock, who organizes the market. “From crafts, antiques and collectibles, to wholesale items, baked goods and people selling used items that they found…
Best Jewellery Store
Each showcase in our store has a different personality,” says Fireworks Gallery manager Leslie Lawrence, “just like the people who shop here.” Entering its 28th year in business, Fireworks is the destination for Haligonians who are searching for that special piece of jewellery. “We try to keep trendy but our pieces are still classic and…
