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Vintage USA Barber Shop

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Hairrari Barber Salon

I was met by an eclectic, interesting selection of decorations as I entered Hairrari. There was everything from taxidermy to modern art, making it homey and welcoming in a very quirky way. Andy and Marcel, two of the employees, told me that the owner, Magdalena, does all the decorating herself. She picks up art and objects from anywhere and everywhere, including city antique stores and flea markets. “She doesn’t really plan anything, ” Andy said with appreciation, "She just picks up random stuff. " The two hairdressers clearly have a lot of respect for their employer, who is the sole owner both of the three Hairrari salons scattered throughout the city and the company “Manetamed. ” “It’s mom and pop-ish, ” they said. Madga is Polish-American, having moved to the United States when she was very young. She opened the first Hairrari in Brooklyn in 2012, and has since come out with her own brand of beard oil. I asked Andy and Marcel what it was like working in a neighborhood with so many hair salons and barbershops. Andy said that even though sometimes you get “salons next to salons” in the East Village, they still all manage to fill a niche and become busy around 5pm. Marcel added that their clientele travels not only from every part of the city, but also as far away as France and Germany. “It’s just everyone, ” Andy stated, including local professionals and students. Though they get a pretty even split between men and women, Andy pointed out that most of the people who stop in could be defined as “artistic. ” Marcel nodded and mentioned that they had seen a lot of beards. He told a story of how one gentleman stopped by with a beard down to his waist, asking to have it chopped off. Magda stiffened the entire beard using hairspray and then cut it off so it kept its shape, like a hair sculpture.

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The Book Club

Book Club isn’t just for the suburbs anymore — as a new bookshop, bar and coffeehouse gives East Village denizens and beyond a new place to pore over and pour over their favorite reads. Married proprietors Erin Neary and Nat Esten, East Village residents themselves, had longed for an independent bookstore to serve the Alphabet City area, they told the Manhattan Sideways team when we popped in to see dozens of happy customers enjoying a read and a latte one sunny Friday morning. “We always thought that the neighborhood needed another bookstore, ” said Erin, “and we also kept wondering, ‘Wouldn't it be so cool if you could drink wine while you were shopping for books? ’” They decided not only to open a bookstore and bar, but to additionally add in the day-to-night-element of coffee into the mix. While both Erin and Nat had worked in hospitality before, bookselling was new to them. “I started doing research in 2017 and worked with the American Booksellers Association’s consulting program to help new bookstores get off the ground, ” said Erin. “I met with them as well as other bar owners and bookstore owners in the neighborhood and did as much research as I could without actually doing it. ” The duo launched Book Club in November 2019, enjoying an enthusiastic community reception until COVID-19 forced them to pivot. “Nate started doing bike deliveries — as many as 20 miles a day! ” Erin told us. “He’d go out to Harlem to drop off books and then all the way out to Bushwick — so a lot of people learned about the store that way. ”Once they were able to reopen to the public, Book Club forged full steam ahead in engaging the community in “book club”-esque events — from author talks to poetry readings to creative writing workshops, with additional unique offerings like an adult spelling bee and a “drink and draw” sketching class. They’ve also recently received their full liquor license, and plan to roll out literary-themed cocktails like an In Cold Bloody Mary or the Murder on the Orient Espresso Martini, Erin told us. More than anything, she added, she enjoyed having customers back in the store to guide them toward their next favorite book. “Our staff are not just really good baristas, but they’re avid readers as well. So between myself and the rest of the team, we have a really good handle on the books here — it’s fun to be able to curate not just what we stock, but to get the right book into someone’s hands. ”