Best of 2000: Best Furniture

Metropolis
1003 University Avenue, Hillcrest
(619) 220-0632

After you've fallen in love with Martha Stewart (good taste for the masses!), gone through a bitter breakup with Martha Stewart (controlling, antiseptic monster!), and learned to give Martha Stewart a grudging respect (brilliant businesswoman, makes domesticity profitable), you will still be enchanted by the comforting, grounding, reassuring quality of furniture. You will still browse the Pottery Barn catalog. You will still wander antique shops, just in case you find something you can't live without. And you will (or at least you should) pay regular visits to Metropolis. Though there are a few more modern pieces to be found (in particular, an updated metal office set that almost makes cold gray steel seem soft and inviting) within the store's three stories, much of the furniture in Metropolis finds the delicious mean between fussy, fragile antiquity and nondescript, dependable modernity. The pieces are overwhelmingly solid, yet display an attention to detail and elegance of line that distinguish them as excellent. The signature dining table -- long, narrow, rustic in its plank construction yet sophisticated in its finish -- is a fine representation of the spirit of the place, a happy, livable beauty.