bEST of GOODS + SERVICES SEE ON STORY 8 PG. 3
BEST BICYCLE SHOP
THICK BIKES
1408 Bingham St., South Side 412-390-3590 or www.thickbikes.com
_________ Thick Bikes is a full-service bike shop with a down-to-earth attitude. Visitors can find two floors of bikes — new and used, plus walls of accessories and decades of experience from the floor-staff and mechanics. They won’t sell you crap: Owner Chris Beech posts a list of what he won’t sell to document his belief in every product on display. _________
Vinyl fantasy: Dave’s customer Carmen Brown flips through the racks.
2nd: Kraynick’s Bike Shop, Garfield 3rd: Trek of Pittsburgh, multiple locations
BEST CAR DEALER
MINI OF PITTSBURGH
4900 Baum Blvd., Bloomfield 412-682-0788 or www.miniofpittsburgh.com
“IT’S LIKE A MUSEUM OF MUSIC.”
_________ Quite a coup for a dealership specializing in just one make, and with just one location, to capture the checkered flag. But the sporty retro styling of models like the flagship Cooper — named after British racing legend John Cooper — still excites drivers. Mini of Pittsburgh caters to their taste with new and used vehicles, and a service department that draws raves. _________ 2nd: #1 Cochran, multiple locations 3rd: Day Automotive, multiple locations
{PHOTO BY JOHN COLOMBO}
BEST LOCAL STORE TO BUY FURNITURE
LEVIN FURNITURE Multiple locations, 800-262-5200 or www.levinfurniture.com
_________ When Sam Levin opened his first hardware and furniture shop, in 1920, he could not have imagined that it would grow into 24 stores across two states offering everything imaginable to furnish a home. In addition to standard furniture store, Levin also has 10 stores focused on selling mattresses. _________ 2nd: Perlora, South Side 3rd: IKEA, Robinson Township CONTINUES ON PG. 37
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER
In fact, Panasiuk recently added a whole new rack for all the fresh vinyl, from vintage Stax to new Nine Inch Nails. Vinyl is actually outselling the CDs and DVDs at his South Side store — the last of four locations that Panasiuk once ran in the region. The others, he says, were done in by downloads and Wal-Mart. The selection here is mostly rock, but with ample jazz, blues, folk and soul sections. “It seems incredibly meticulous,” says twentysomething Julie Cronan, a first-time customer. “It seems almost like a personal collection, which is cool. It’s like a museum of music.” Long-time customers love Panasiuk’s prices; $2.99 used LPs and $5.99 CDs are typical. So who’s buying that new vinyl, at $20 or more per platter? Kids, Panasiuk says. If half of Panasiuk’s in-store customer base is people over 50 who never took to downloading, the other half is young folks looking for something “new.” That includes Mark Schneider, who on a recent first visit to Dave’s bought a reissue of De La Soul’s Three Feet High and Rising. Schneider and his girlfriend now enjoy it on his newlypurchased reconditioned turntable.
BEST LOCAL STORE TO BUY MUSIC
DAVE’’S MUSIC MINE DAVE 1210 E. Carson St., South Side 412-488-8800 or www.davesmusicmine.com {BY BILL O’DRISCOLL} AT DAVE’S Music Mine, most of the records are still used, but there’s something new happening, too: vinyl. Yep, the LP format, left for dead 20 years ago, is back. Sales of new vinyl, though still just a percent or two of all U.S. music sales, have doubled in the past few years. Vinyl
incarnations of major new releases complement re-issued classics. And Music Mine owner and founder Dave Panasiuk is staying on top of it all. The “key to why we’re still around,” he says, “[is] constantly trying to change with the times.”
“It sits in the living room and we listen to it every day,” says Schneider, of Brookline. “I really have appreciated the purer sound that comes from the [vinyl] record.” Other Dave’s customers, meanwhile, are sticking with plain old CDs. “I’m a technophobe,” says Fred Orlansky, who’s grabbed some live Warren Zevon and Dire Straits and a Lawrence of Arabia DVD. “This is the last format I’m gonna do.” Like many Dave’s regulars, Orlansky enjoys the two-floor joint’s cozily stuffed rec(ord)-room vibe. Panasiuk’s wife, Michelle, often works alongside his other three employees. “[Panusiak] and Michelle are just very nice people,” says Orlansky, of Squirrel Hill. But even with those regulars, and despite the sales boost from vinyl, Panusiak makes two-thirds of his sales online — mostly with pricey, out-of-print CD rarities. So why bother with bricks-andmortar at all? “I couldn’t stand being in front of a computer all day,” says Panasiuk, who still lives in Oakland, where he grew up. “I want to interact with customers” — not least so he can proselytize about the glory of vinyl. After all, he says, “It’s the only medium right now that’s going to increase in value if you sit on it.” D RI S C OL L @ P G HC I T Y PA P E R. C OM