Shopping in Bridgeton

Dr. Melissa Lewis wards off blurry vision at 20/20 Optical St Louis, where she performs thorough eye exams and emergency care services. With proper prescriptions in hand, Dr. Lewis's patients can peruse the shop's stock of more than 400 frames from brands including Michael Kors and Tommy Bahama. 20/20's helpful staff is on-hand to ensure that frames fit faces properly and that contact lenses don't fuse to eyeballs.

Now that you've finished celebrating New Year's in Paris, you'll need a way to preserve all that art you "borrowed" from the Louvre. Today's Groupon gets you $100 worth of custom framing at Fastframe for $40. Fastframe will frame pretty much anything, having once framed a 13-foot anaconda skin—use up to three Groupons per order if you need to frame larger items such as Soviet-era propaganda murals, conceptual art installations, and annoying little brothers.

Imagination is given free reign at NewCastle Comics & Games, where real-time rounds of tabletop warfare are surrounded by thousands of back-issue comics from the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Faux stone walls help blur the line between reality and fantasy, calling to mind a medieval dungeon or Vincent Price's breakfast nook while also serving as a perfect backdrop for a huge assortment of new comics and graphic novels as well as Warhammer 40,000 events and Weekly Magic: The Gathering sessions. The shop also boasts a large selection of gaming cards and supplies that allows fans to step outside quotidian roles to become something other than a dutiful son, hardworking waitress, or the seventh clown into the car.

When Alive magazine publisher Elizabeth Tucker first thought about LASIK surgery as an alternative to the glasses she had worn since second grade, she didn't think it was an option. She feared the cost, worried about the time off work, and was unsure about how safe the procedure would be. Luckily, numerous friends told her about the transformative effects of their own procedures, and she finally decided to take the plunge at Crown Laser Center. There, a team of seven board-certified ophthalmologists, optometrists, and surgeons put Elizabeth and other clients at ease as they correct corneas with trained hands and cutting-edge equipment, boasting a 99% surgery-success rate. Elizabeth is now glasses-free and doesn't regret a thing. "It's been life-changing for me," she says in a video on the laser center's website, "I would recommend it to anyone."

Reams of colorful modern and retro-print fabrics span the walls of Fabric Nosherie, framing examples of quilts, dolls, and clothing items crafted by shop owner Shannon and her dedicated sewing students. "The fabrics do all the work," Shannon points out, noting that each sewing-machine steward draws individual inspiration from the colorful patterns. Shannon's love of sewing and her expertise extend from the instruction she's received from her needle-wielding husband and the fine quilting techniques she gleaned from her mother-in-law. Within nine years, the seam charmer perfected her craft and currently teaches students how to sew pet beds, assemble quilts from treasured T-shirts, and perform emergency brain surgery on teddy bears.

The family-owned Wolf's Flower Shop has tugged at visual and olfactory heartstrings since its blossoms and bouquets first graced St. Louis homes in 1947. The shop’s skilled florists craft fresh blooms into gifts for any occasion, from wedding-day roses to carnivorous flytraps for visits to the DMV. Drawing upon a large inventory of vivid blossoms, tropical flowers, and potted plants, the friendly staff often pairs its floral arrangements with stuffed animals, mylar balloons, and other charming touches.