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Best of 2000: Best Hat Shop
The Village Hat Shop
853 West Harbor Drive,
Seaport Village
(619) 233-7236
3821 Fourth Avenue, Hillcrest
(619) 683-5533
Fred Belinsky, owner of the Village Hat Shop, travels the world for hats, from Ecuador to Korea. He buys from huge manufacturers like Stetson, and from a guy who sells Viking helmets. He will stretch a hat to fit your head, size it down, shrink it, change the trim. Other stores may have more men's hats, or more women's, or more ball caps, but nobody has his breadth of selection, which includes several grades of the finest lids for Southern California -- Panama hats. The Panamas start at $42 and go up fast, but they are beautiful to behold, and make most men look a little better, a little more like men looked before they started wearing ball caps with blazers.