Best Specialty Foods

AJ's Fine Foods

At AJ's, you can get fresh sushi. You can buy outstanding floral arrangements and classy, exotic produce. The store offers a wonderful selection of great wines—and there's always an expert present to ask about your selection. There's a deli where you can spend your entire lunch hour just thinking about what to order. Save yourself the trouble of stuffing a quail inside a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey or whatever—because they sell pre-stuffed turduckens that are ready for the oven. In every way, AJ's is the store with more.

Runners up:

2. Trader Joe's

Various locations

www.traderjoes.com

3. 17th Street Market

840 E. 17th St.

792-2588; www.seventeenthstreetmarket.com