Sunday, May 15, 2011

Italian Harlem Relic to Close



In the Papers

The New York Times profiled Claudio Caponigro's East 116th Street barber shop this week, and it seems that this 60-year-old Italian Harlem relic will be closing very soon.

The Times Writes:
It has become a beloved museum of the old-fashioned barber trade, attracting political leaders, entertainers and underworld bosses who mixed with the neighborhood’s declining corps of Italian men, as well as the generations of Puerto Rican and other Latino men who have displaced them... But now the rental pressures of a gentrifying neighborhood are threatening to close his shop, which along with Rao’s celebrity-packed restaurant, is one of the last relics of Italian East Harlem.

Read the full article here.

Do any of you go to Caludio's for a trim or a shave? Do you know of any other Italian Harlem relics in danger of closing?

Photo Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

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