.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} “This film is so violent and disturbing, only a handful of customers, all guys, claim they could watch to the end,” TJ Wood said, handing a visitor a DVD of “Begotten.” “It’s a version of Christ’s life, mixed with Greek myths. In one scene, some cannibals throw the Jesus-like guy in a sack and drag him as he gasps for air.”

Wood glanced over at a wall lined with “The Princess Diaries,” Disney movies and cartoons. “We added some family films because people kept yelling at us to add a children’s section,” Wood said.

Welcome to Best Place Ever, a DVD rental store run by 20-somethings: Adam Senecaut, Grant Wilson and Wood. Since December 2003, the store has survived behemoth rivals Blockbuster and Netflix (even after the latter dropped one introductory membership fee to $1) by targeting an underserved niche market – local film connoisseurs. Best Place stocks mainstream movies and new releases. But its staples are cult hits, out-of-print and underground masterpieces.

The store now has about 4,000 names in its customer database. Wood said he and his partners expect to pay off their $50,000 startup loan next summer. (Wood’s parents cosigned the loan with their house as collateral). In July 2005, they joined forces with guitar restorers Tim Thelen and Scott Rohden to buy the 6,000-square-foot building Best Place had been leasing.

Now, Best Place occupies 2,000 feet at 1159 24th St. Thelen and Rohden operate the 2,000 square foot Lutherie Shop in the back of the building. Guitars in stages of repair and construction hang from their workroom walls and cover tables.

“The most expensive guitar we ever worked on cost $50,000 and belonged to a collector,” Thelen said.

The five building owners lease the remaining 2,000 square feet to a recording studio. Tony Bohnenkamp, drummer for the Nadas band and Grand Piano Bistro co-owner, runs the studio. He gets many clients from Ames-based Authentic Records. He has storage where local musicians can stash equipment and a microwave covered with bottles of hard liquor to make them feel at home.

Like their Best Place colleagues, Thelen and Rohden transformed their passion into a business model. Rohden is a musician and woodcrafter. He can judge a guitar’s acoustics by eyeballing the way the wood is joined. When the guitar gets a finish, it is put in a spray booth. The chemicals are then sealed by beaming them with ultraviolet light.

“A finish that would normally take three weeks to dry dries in 30 seconds after being swept with UV light,” Thelen said.

Des Moines has a community of musicians, but not on the scale of Austin, Texas. Luckily, Lutherie staff can restore guitars that are historic artifacts, a skill rare enough to draw clients across the United States.

Thelen says 75 percent of Lutherie’s business is local. The rest comes from all over the country.

Best Place owners have their own way of cultivating customer loyalty.

“Our customers could go somewhere else, like the Internet, so our draw is conversation,” Woods said. “Film nuts know if they come here, they can talk with us about John Cassavetes or John Woo. We can discuss almost any movie in any language.”

Wood said the first DVD ever stolen from Best Place was the life of the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida. That gives you an idea of the clientele’s sophisticated palate.

Best Place heeds customer suggestions for dividing the collection into categories. A customer who hates his job asked the guys to create a shelf of revenge movies, including the Michael Douglas cubicle-nerd-gone-nuts vehicle, “Falling Down.”

A screening lounge, packed with a comfy couch and armchairs, can even be rented for $2 for two people ($5 for more than two people)

“Begotten,” can only be watched on the premises, Before you recoil, consider this; “CSI Miami” producer Jerry Bruckheimer calls “Begotten” one of his “major influences.”