h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Man, there really aren't very many specialty shops in the USA.

I'm not sure where you live but here in boston there are still many small mom and pop specialty stores. They are usually on those side streets not one really remembers is there.

Exactly the kind of places we want to hear about! What kind of specialty stores have you come across in backstreet Boston? Where are they?
Anna

There are quite a few speciality shops in Minneapolis, ranging from mom and pop hardware stores that sharpen ice skates for free for repeat customers (Rex Hardware on Lyndale) to highly specialized loose leaf tea shops where tea blends are customized to each customer based on the answers to a brief questionairre (societhe du the, also on Lyndale).
Add to that coffee shops that cater to Ducatti/Motoguzzi (and sometimes Vespa) riders (Bob's Java Hut), holistic tattoo parlors (Tatus by Kore), and a little store that specializes in dollhouse furniture. And I'm just culling from my neighborhood... these great little places are absolutely everywhere!

One of my favorites is a tea shop in harvard square cambridge, Tealux, they sell only tea and tea accessories, you can get just about any kind of tea made and if they don't have it they will special order it for you. Beadworks is also in cambridge, on brattle street they have all kinds of beads stones string, rope everything to make your own necklaces, earings, or rings. Cafe Pamplona is an indian coffe shop in cambridge, its kind of hard to find it's down a side street in the basement of another building.