In addition to broad beaches and numerous fine restaurants and art galleries, Santa Monica and the adjacent neighborhood of Venice have many appealing shopping opportunities. My traveling companion and I meandered around several commercial districts in the area. Santa Monica’s pedestrianized Third Street Promenade was one of the least interesting, full of midmarket chain stores. But elsewhere, we made several notable discoveries among the crystal shops and vegetarian cafés.

Jadis

Walking into this brick storefront on Main Street feels like entering a mad scientist’s laboratory. In fact, Susan Lieberman, the charming owner, greeted us wearing a lab coat. In addition to items for sale like cameras, botanical-print puzzles, robot toys and zoological charts of butterflies, the shop displays various movie props loaned to filmmakers. We saw a rack of scientific glassware that appeared in “Oppenheimer,” a wired sci-fi helmet that appeared in “The X-Files” and “The Prestige” and a large control console that appeared in no fewer than 18 movies and television shows. If you visit only one shop in Santa Monica, make it this one.

Jadis
2701 Main Street, Santa Monica. Tel. (310) 396-3477