I'd sort of like to pick up a bike pretty much for casual bike path rides, little trips to a coffee shop type thing, maybe I could ride it off a curb if I just felt like it. Anybody ran across bikes you like for that? Some stuff I was knocking around was a cheap 29er hardtail I could put slicks on, a hybrid, or even a folding bike like REI has. Ideally not expensive, maybe $300-500ish. No merlin newsboys unfortunately.

Thanks for all the tips guys, forgot about bikedirect.