It's week four of Best Shops and the nominations just keep coming. Nominations close this Saturday, August 9th.
While the temperature may have dipped, mercury of a different kind is rising in the book shop category with hundreds of readers getting behind their local store. The combination of "a warm coffee with warm staff and a good book" is what makes Blessington Book Store great, writes reader Laura Smith. Crannog, Cavan is a place to go to make great discoveries, writes Mary Frances Farrell. "The staff will go that extra mile to try to get you the book that you are looking for. Nothing is too much trouble." Liber, Sligo, has a fantastic selection of books and a sneaky music shop in the rear of the shop, writes Lara Byrne making it an "absolutely life saving shop for all bibliophiles". Derval Mc Cloat loves Hodges Figgis, Dawson Street, Dublin. "The helpful staff, the uncluttered shop, it's a cultural haven." With it s 40,000 second-hand titles Zozimus Bookshop, Gorey, "is a place you can get lost in for hours," writes Anne Kearney Farrelly who happily travels over fifty miles to shop there.
Having her hair styled by Zara Cox @29 salon, Wicklow Street, Dublin, makes reader Ciara Hughes Dunleavy "feel completely comfortable", an achievement in itself but it is the fact that "She always knows what my hair needs" is what galvanised her to nominate Zara in the Best Salon category. "It is the ultimate best hair experience," she writes.
Haven Interiors, Raheny offers "sexy, sassy, stylish interiors at prices that won't upset your husband", writes Stella Kelly. "Francophiles will adore this establishment, as there is more than a whiff of French influence throughout."
Murphy's Newsagents, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim deserves an award because "it is a place you look forward to shopping in rather than it being a chore," writes Aileen Gallagher. "And if you are lucky you might pick the winning ticket in the Lotto!"
To help us pick this year's winners we've enlisted experts in their fields to sit on our judging panel. Simon Pratt, MD of Avoca, Edmund Shanahan, a retail, fashion and homewares consultant, fashion designers and Frockadvisor columnists Sonya Lennon and Brendan Courtney and Irish Times journalist Alanna Gallagher.
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