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There’s something about the sheer density of skyscrapers in midtown New York that draws tourist traffic all by itself. Anyone who has been to New York knows what I am talking about. First-timers walk down the avenues looking up rather than ahead. To those of us that call New York City home, it can be, well, annoying at times, but after a breath or two even the most jaded Manhattanite can take pause in the ingenuity that stands behind every bit of brick and mortar and the miles and miles of glass and steel. Somewhere in all of that glass and steel is a good bit of nostalgia. The stuff that shows like “Mad Men” draw from when people dressed for dinner and the theater [even the movie theater] and went to the barber for a shave. Somewhere in all of that glass and steel, that still exists.
One of my favorite throw-backs to that era of deco-luxe is the real, honest-to-goodness barber. Probably the truest to the time when men went for a regular hot towel shave is Paul Mole [ http://www.paulmole.com/ 212-535-8461]. Just a up a few blocks from the midtown frenzy on the Upper East Side [Lexington and 73rd] is the barber that has been doing it since 1913 [okay, so it’s not the same man cutting your hair as your great granddaddy, but the current generation of barbers still have their stories to tell and know how to use a straight razor with all of the no nonsense care that their predecessors did].
If you’re in more of a hurry than a trip to Paul’s might entail, there’s an alternative that may not carry quite the same charm of the good Mr. Mole, but is a no lesser of a New York institution. A visit
to Roma’s Barber Shop takes you to a location halfway down the stairs to the 1 train at 50th and Broadway. Roma’s is as no nonsense as it gets in the most Russian proletariat of ways, but a precise clipper cut and eyebrow trim in transit for less than twenty bucks is still a bargain and if you have to wait [which is never very long], you can get your bluchers shined for a mere three dollars. This old standby is a regular stop of mine when a bit of clean up is required before a meeting and I don’t have to digress off of my commute one step… and although the underground barber is a dying breed, there are still a good number of these hidden friends of the hirsute to keep you well groomed on most of the major subway lines.
Roma’s is just steps from all of the Midtown Vikram Chatwal Hotels and is open Monday through Friday from the morning to the evening rush.
One of my favorite throw-backs to that era of deco-luxe is the real, honest-to-goodness barber. Probably the truest to the time when men went for a regular hot towel shave is Paul Mole [ http://www.paulmole.com/ 212-535-8461]. Just a up a few blocks from the midtown frenzy on the Upper East Side [Lexington and 73rd] is the barber that has been doing it since 1913 [okay, so it’s not the same man cutting your hair as your great granddaddy, but the current generation of barbers still have their stories to tell and know how to use a straight razor with all of the no nonsense care that their predecessors did].
If you’re in more of a hurry than a trip to Paul’s might entail, there’s an alternative that may not carry quite the same charm of the good Mr. Mole, but is a no lesser of a New York institution. A visit
to Roma’s Barber Shop takes you to a location halfway down the stairs to the 1 train at 50th and Broadway. Roma’s is as no nonsense as it gets in the most Russian proletariat of ways, but a precise clipper cut and eyebrow trim in transit for less than twenty bucks is still a bargain and if you have to wait [which is never very long], you can get your bluchers shined for a mere three dollars. This old standby is a regular stop of mine when a bit of clean up is required before a meeting and I don’t have to digress off of my commute one step… and although the underground barber is a dying breed, there are still a good number of these hidden friends of the hirsute to keep you well groomed on most of the major subway lines.Roma’s is just steps from all of the Midtown Vikram Chatwal Hotels and is open Monday through Friday from the morning to the evening rush.
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