Christine Allison On Our “Best of Everything” Feature

Dear Reader
Simply the Best

With this issue comes our fourth annual “Best of Everything,€VbCrLf a compilation of the most amazing Dallas people, places, and things we have uncovered in the past year. As always, the entries are all over the map: from the best place to buy a grill to the best herb store (it’s up in Carrollton and adorable) to the best place to buy a bust of Chairman Mao. You never know when you’ll need a bust of Chairman Mao.

Our “Best of Everything€VbCrLf issue is a perennial best-seller and shorthand for our editorial mission, which is to put you in touch with the very best home, garden, and design resources in the city. We are unabashedly partial to the city’s smaller, locally owned businesses, and our “Best of Everything€VbCrLf reflects that bias. In the past decade, Dallas, like every other major American city, has been overwhelmed by franchises and strip malls. Anyone who has taken a road trip recently knows the sensation of driving from one American suburb to the next and never really knowing where you are.

The fact is that small businesses and boutiques give as much texture and character to a city as any museum or skyline. And in Dallas, quite frankly, the home, design, and garden industries are the last men standing. From the Bishop Arts District to the Design District to Knox-Henderson to Lovers Lane to Snider Plaza and Legacy in Plano, the creative forces in our industry have held fast against the onslaught of national chains and cookie-cutter corporations. It’s not faceless chains in Dallas but family businesses that sell fine furniture, lamps, fabrics, and accessories. The vast majority of our real estate, design, landscape, and architectural firms are locally owned. We have one of the most vibrant communities of artisans in the nation, gifted individuals who work with leather, wood, textiles, stone, iron, and lighting. Even our to-the-trade showrooms and appliance dealers have local owners or staff members who themselves are Dallas institutions.

This is D Home’s fourth anniversary and D Magazine’s 30th year. We’re a family business, too, so it’s no surprise that we root for local business owners and that we are immensely proud to serve them with our publications. Dallas may be the ninth largest city in the country, but, after all is said and done, it’s our home-town values, commitment to excellence, and originality that will make us the “best€VbCrLf for our children and for generations to come.

Enjoy this issue, and let me hear from you.

Cordially,

Christine Allison
Editor and Publisher
[email protected]