This year’s editorial picks for the Best Goods & Services finds City Paper writers going to Nats games, browsing other people’s treasures online, and getting tattooed. We do it all for you, dear reader, so take a moment to check out our favorites for 2024, and click here to see the results of the readers’ poll, including the Best Best Bookstore, Best Cannabis Dispensary, Best Consignment Shop, Best Plumber, and Best DUI Attorney.
To see what readers selected in our People & Places categories, click here.
To see what readers selected in our Arts & Entertainment categories, click here.
To see what readers selected in our Food & Drink categories, click here.
And in case you missed them, check out our editorial picks for the Best People & Places, Arts & Entertainment, and Food & Drink.
BEST DEAL
$5 Nationals Tickets
Here is a list of things you can buy for $5: a pack of gum, a scratch off, a four-pack of toilet paper, a single beer, and one ticket to a Nats game. Depending on your circumstances, there is one clear front-runner. Sure, the Nats are out of playoff contention, but they’ve still got a solid group of talented young players who one day could make up the core of a dangerous ball club. Plus, the reduced cost of entry takes away the sting of the $15 beers they’re hawking in there. District residents can purchase tickets (starting at) $5 for sections 401 and 402 for home games: Prices for “prime” games ($9), “marquee” games ($15), and “diamond” games ($25) still aren’t bad. You can buy them at the box office on N Street NE or online. —Mitch Ryals
BEST CAR MECHANIC FOR COUCH POTATOES
Roda
It is hard to think of a more loathsome task than hauling your car over to a mechanic, waiting around for a few hours amid the oil cans and windshield wipers, and then forking over a couple hundred bucks for the privilege. Roda to the rescue.
The service, based out of a car dealership in Rockville, will send someone to pick up your ailing automobile (no matter its condition), and then all you have to do is wait—at your house, your job, wherever. Within an hour or two, Roda sends over an online estimate, complete with videos of any problems observed by their mechanics—and thanks to their many promotions, their prices are often better than other auto shops. They’ll even run your car through a quick wash before driving it back. If only every errand could be made so easy. —Alex Koma
BEST MIDDLE-OF-THE-NIGHT DOG DOCTOR
Veterinary Emergency Group
If there’s one thing all pet owners can agree on, it’s that going to the animal emergency room is a literal nightmare. Your pet is sick, you’re scared, your pet’s scared, and they’re always taken away from you to be examined behind closed doors. (What happens back there? This keeps me up at night.)
VEG, aka Veterinary Emergency Group, is saying no more to closed doors and pet parents in waiting rooms. At VEG on M Street NW, you and your pup are ushered into the main room where the staff, vets included, are bustling between exam tables and a computer station. Crates line a couple walls to hold dogs and cats that need to stay overnight for monitoring. While I was there recently, one couple came in with leftovers to sit with their dog who couldn’t go home yet. Other pet owners sit on couches with their fur babies while vets take vitals and blood. Our vet and tech sat on the floor with us to make my 13-pound Chihuahua mix more comfortable. Another dog got a little high on gas, head lolling on his mother’s leg, while the vet tended to a torn claw. No separation required. During our four hours spanning two visits (between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.), the stellar staff worked as a team, jumping in to answer questions, offer water and snacks, and just coo at the scared pups. They made the process much less stressful. Because when you’re at an emergency vet, everyone needs to be taken care of. —Sarah Marloff
BEST DIGITAL THIRD SPACE
D.C. Buy Nothing Facebook Groups
In the age of curated clothing swaps and Instagram Story sales, neighborhood Buy Nothing Facebook groups continue to reign supreme when it comes to helping you obtain literally anything you can think of. But they also help you learn more about your neighborhood. Where else in our beautiful city can you fight with your neighbors for stale Halloween candy, hundreds of hangers, board games, original art, discarded furniture, or a wedding dress? These are all offerings from the past month in my neighborhood’s group; not a single item went unclaimed. Once you pass the rigorous security test (What are the names of the two closest cross streets to your home? Describe in your own words what simmering is), you’re welcomed into a Willy Wonka Factory-esque digital platform where no ask or desire is off-limits. I’ll keep snooping and commenting “Interested!” on Buy Nothing posts until the end of time, or Facebook, whichever comes first. —Serena Zets
BEST PLACE TO GET LOST IN QUEER HISTORY
Rainbow History Project
The Rainbow History Project is a local treasure. The archive lives online and off and contains an endless trove of D.C.’s queer and trans history, all of which is free and accessible to history stans, researchers, and reporters, or anyone else who wants to know more about the folk who paved the way for gay life in the District. Prefer to listen? The entirely volunteer-run nonprofit offers more than 350 audio interviews with people sharing their personal experiences. Want to learn about the first LGBTQIA space in D.C.? Check out their Places and Spaces Database. Looking for photos of old bars and community members? You can find those at the online archives, but also IRL. Since 2008, RHP has housed its physical archives in the DC History Center. In a world where queer and trans histories have so often been discarded—sometimes literally—this project is the definition of awesome. It’s invaluable to have our local histories contained and searchable in one space. —Sarah Marloff
BEST TATTOO SHOP
Crybaby Studios
For far too long, almost every time you asked someone in D.C.: “What a beautiful tattoo, where did you get it?” The answer would inevitably be New York or Austin or Philadelphia or San Francisco or Not Here. The artwork and artists coming out of the District have admittedly improved greatly in the past few years, and that’s a blessing for all of us looking for tattoos that don’t also require a travel stipend. But I can finally answer that question from personal experience with a prime D.C. spot: Crybaby Studios. I’ve only been tattooed by the shop’s co-owner Simba Nguyen, but I was hooked from the moment I walked in to my first of several appointments with her. Nguyen’s designs are gorgeous, her line work impeccable, and she’s great at taking your ideas and drawing something unique. She’s also seriously invested in your satisfaction with the drawing and its exact placement on your body—this should be the case with every artist, but it’s not. On her table, she’s light-handed, fast, and fun to talk to. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that the shop itself is gorgeously ’grammable and BIPOC-owned. —Sarah Marloff
