.Best Pharmacy

Though its original store on Shattuck opened as recently as 2002, Elephant feels as quintessentially Berkeley as People’s Park: one of those places that would make an out-of-towner feel like he’s in a foreign country or different decade. A pharmacy, DVD rental shop, florist, grocery store, yoga studio, and veritable community center, Elephant Pharmacy offers a higher-end, hippiefied version of normal drugstore staples (all-natural cosmetics, chemical-free cleaning supplies, organic dietary supplements), as well as an extensive selection of health and wellness books, a good-size grocery department, a bulk supply of every herb imaginable, and a few onsite experts: aestheticians, herbalists and registered nurses, to name a few. On any given day, shoppers can stop in for a Pilates class, tea tasting, or cholesterol screening — all for free. If the entire city was shut down, we could subsist for weeks on Elephant’s services alone.