Photo by Jeff Newton Jake Shelton, owner of Jake’s Chop Shop in Tempe, turns trash into treasure.

Jake’s Chop Shop

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and this booty is custom made for booties everywhere by Jake Shelton of Tempe.

Shelton discovered his artistic tendencies during a childhood spent growing up around old junker cars. Today, he cuts them up and uses the parts to make custom furniture out of an industrial warehouse in west Tempe.

Ever pine for a 1960 Chevy Impala but scoff at the price? Try the pretty-in-pink, $4,900 bed for that special baby doll. Shelton made it from parts of the same vehicle that fell 15 feet from a car hauler. It comes complete with working headlights, an open engine compartment for bedding storage and a stitched-up headboard.

Shelton’s work has traveled as far as Barcelona, Spain. And for anyone who doubts his passion, consider this: Shelton bops around town in a 1950 Ford truck, a 1950 Ford coupe or astride a 1956 customized Schwinn bicycle.

Info: 805 S. Farmer Ave., Tempe, 480-227-8883, jakeschop-shop.com

GrandLuxe Rail Journeys

After arriving at the airport two hours early, kicking off your shoes at the security checkpoint and wrestling for the armrest on the plane, it kind of makes you long for the days of rail travel, when, we imagine, you could unwind in a well decorated box car, cold brandy Alexander in hand, red velvet drapes against your cheek, a polite butler at the ready. Well, Colorado-based GrandLuxe Rail Journeys is here to bring back the good old days, or at least fulfill our fantasies about what the good old days might have been like.

The company manufactures vintage rail cars – complete with sleeping cars, lounge cars and dining cars – and sells tours of the country, including one that starts in Santa Fe, passes through the Grand Canyon and ends up in San Francisco. Another, National Parks of the West,  starts at $5,250 per person for 10 days and passes through the Grand Canyon and Sedona, with stops in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Santa Fe, Bryce Canyon and others.

Info: 1-800-320-4206. americanorientexpress.com

Magnum’s Cigars, Wine & Spirits

First, he took over the adjacent Chubby’s Diner, then an exotic bird store. Now, 29-year-old Amar Patel is looking at a scuba shop next door to see just how far he can take Magnum’s, a stunning cigar lounge that doesn’t quite match its sterile strip-mall location.

The cigar, wine and spirit shop opened in 2005 but underwent a $1 million renovation last fall to add a bar and lounge – a dim, opulent, masculine place that both suits and swingers feel comfortable in. The bar is big and bold, anchored by a sweeping backdrop of every type of liquor imaginable. You can also grab something from the attached store – Magnums boasts 900 brands of beer and the largest selection of single-malt scotch in the Valley, among wine and other spirits.

And of course there are cigars, housed in a 550-square-foot, climate-controlled humidor, which is stocked with pre-embargo Cubans and a slew of other top-notch stogies. The only thing missing from Magnum’s is food, but until Patel acquires that scuba shop, customers can order from any place that delivers and Magnum’s will serve it up on fine dinnerware.

As Patel says, “Everything I do is over the top.”

Info: 731 E. Union Hills Dr., Ste. B-10, Phoenix, 602-493-8977, magnumcigarwineliquor.com

Bluesman Big Pete Pearson

Some studies say the average person changes careers at least five times in their lifetime. This figure obviously didn’t include Big Pete Pearson.

That’s because at 71, Pearson is still burning up the blues circuit. Born in Jamaica and raised in Austin, Texas, Pearson grew up with the blues during a time of racism and cultural clashes. He moved to Phoenix 50 years ago. He never forgot where he came from, but he never looked back.

Over the course of his career, Pearson has sat in with other musical greats such as B.B. King, Ray Charles and Muddy Waters, just to name a few.  These days, he’s the Valley’s uncrowned King of Blues. The Litchfield Park resident can be seen with his own band or the Rhythm Room All-Stars at the Rhythm Room, near 10th Street and Indian School Road in Phoenix.

And Pearson is still branching out. He occasionally plays with a 14-member children’s choir hand-picked by his 38-year-old fiancé, who teaches music at a Litchfield Park middle school. The couple wants to raise money to support kids in the West Valley music scene. It doesn’t get any cooler than that.

Info: rhthymroom.com, bluewitchrecords.com

Hot City Destroyers

Checking off another must-have on the “cool city” to-do list, the free-wheeling bike-racing club Hot City Destroyers brings an edginess to Phoenix most of us have never seen.

Started by Ben Ko, 30, who moved to Phoenix from Washington, D.C., nearly five years ago, HCD unites riders who mount fixed-gear bikes (read: no brakes) for periodic races through unmarked courses in the city. Racers receive starting and ending points and then have to map out checkpoints along the way or collect clues to find them. The goal? Get to the end as fast as possible – and by any means necessary.

This isn’t your typical Sunday school scavenger hunt, however. Races are fast, furious and dangerous, featuring the cityscape as the course and things like parking garages, busy intersections and schools as obstacles. The group is growing like a weed, says Ko, a long-haired, tattooed stylist for Vidal Sassoon who moonlights as a DJ at Glam in Phoenix on Saturday nights. A race last November pulled in at least 70 riders, for instance, and even lured a few corporate sponsors.

Ko, who participated in races in D.C., started the group here after noticing Phoenix didn’t have anything similar. “It’s a competition thing just like any other sporting event,” Ko says, “but there’s definitely a community that’s being built here now.”

Info: myspace.com/hotcitydestroyers