HI, SOCIETY

A NIGHT ON THE TOWN

TO EXPERIENCE the excitement of a nightclub, Lake County residents have been forced to make the drive to Orlando.

Fortunately, that’s no longer the case thanks to a super-hip venue that recently opened in Eustis.

The excitement of nightlife is alive and well at Rhythms, which is located at 12 South Bay St. Owners Tony Campagnari, a longtime musician, Colleen Campagnari and David Sherman said their new establishment is a triple threat — a mix of music and energy, food that will tantalize your taste buds, and an amazing selection of drinks.

Between Thursday and Saturday, the energy stays high and the fun never stops because Rhythms brings in top-quality party bands and tribute bands that perform throughout Florida.

“I have bands come here that you won’t see perform anywhere else locally,” said Tony, who also owns Pro Auto Care and Transmission in Eustis. “The entertainment is top-shelf, and my reasoning for starting this venue is to be different. There’s no longer any need to drive to Orlando when you have as nice a venue as anywhere and can listen to the same kind of high-caliber music.”

Rhythms, which offi cially opened April 10, is an open-air nightclub featuring a unique stage lighting system, a horseshoe-shaped, full-service bar with black granite top and a large dance fl oor. Live music is performed inside, as well as outside in an outdoor courtyard.

“Bands love performing outside,” Tony said. “We live in Florida so it’s all about the fresh air. One of the main reasons I opened Rhythms is to introduce the county to a spectacular venue that is unique to this area. So far, our guests have commented on how spectacular the facility looks and they’ve all been extremely positive about the uptempo, high-energy atmosphere.”

Bringing high-quality bands to the area is a point of pride for Tony. After all, he is a musician who landed his fi rst gig at age 11 while performing at the SP Club in western Massachusetts.

“The SP Club was located on a lake, and different bands would perform there on Friday and Saturday nights. I played the guitar.”

Guests at Rhythms will quickly realize that Tony is still very musically inclined. His fi ve-member band, TC and Sass, performs on Thursdays during Ladies Night. They play a mix of old school funk and R&B, current dance hits, disco, 80s rock.

Other bands that perform there play everything from disco music and 1980s rock to current hits such as Pharrell Williams’ “Happy.” Visitors are treated to an eclectic mix of blues, jazz, acoustic acts on Sundays.

Our Grand Opening is June 6th with the Spazmatics — a fantastic and fun 80s tribute band.

In addition to music, visitors are also treated to a fabulous dining experience. Ireland-born and award-winning chef Joseph McFadden specializes in half-pound gourmet burgers, and you’re sure to love his beef empanadas, crab cakes, loaded baked potato and grilled chicken Caesar salad, as well as homemade pizza with 7 toppings.

So if you’re in the mood to dance the night away while enjoying wonderful food and outstanding live music, then visiting Rhythms is an absolute must. Plus, you won’t waste gas driving to and from Orlando and won’t have to dread the long drive home.

For more information, please call 352-308-8367or visit www.rhythmsbareustis.com.

The Institute of Medical Excellence is your fi rst line of defense for your husband’s offi ce full of sniffl ing, sneezing co-workers. Our primary care physicians are there for everything from regular check- ups and treating common ailments, to promoting wellness programs like weight loss or smoking cessation. We’re also excellent at heading off illnesses before they have a chance to take hold… Becky brought Ted in on Friday and they both got a fl u shot.

Ted made it through the week without a single sniffl e.

we’re on it.

While the times continue to change, some longtime area barbers are making sure their shops don’t — and their loyal clients think that keeps them a cut above.

STORY: GARY CORSAIR PHOTOS: FRED LOPEZ

In 1923, a man named Kaiser (fi rst name lost to history) opened a barbershop in downtown Leesburg.

Pressed tin ceiling, wood fl oor, gas lamps, brass spittoons. Aroma of tobacco and bay rum. Haircuts 25 cents. Straight razor shaves for 15 cents. No charge for shooting the bull while waiting to sit in the fl uted, double-round Koken barber chair…

“Paper says that the new kid, Gehrig, hit his fi rst homerun… And the attorney general says women can wear trousers in public. What’s the world coming to?!”

And, most certainly, local happenings… “Did you hear Annie Oakley’s old dog Dave got himself run down by one of them horseless carriages? Maybe Hornsby will come in for a haircut when the Redbirds play the Phillies.”

Today, Mark Teixeira plays fi rst for the Yanks, women wear whatever they want, motorized carriages are everywhere and the green patch where Philadelphia hosted St. Louis for an exhibition in 1923 is occupied by the Cutrale Citrus Plant.

“All things change except barbers, the ways of barbers, and the surroundings of barbers. These never change,” wrote Mark Twain in 1871 in “About Barbers”.

In Lake County, Twain’s words still ring true in a handful of old-time barbershops that survived the Great Depression, The Beatles, home haircut kits, electric clippers and sterile hair salons.

CITY BARBER SHOPCITY BARBER SHOP CITY BARBER SHOP

Norman “Ed” Woodring, owner and operator of City Barber Shop at 603 W. Main Street in Leesburg, believes his shop is the oldest and that City’s roots can be traced back to Kaiser.

Woodring bought the shop from Jack Wilson, who opened in 1958, or ’61 depending on which newspaper account you believe. According to records at the Leesburg Historical Museum, Woodring is the fi fth owner. Kaiser sold to Bud Morgan, who sold to Homer Bennett, who sold to Wilson.

Ed clearly remembers his fi rst impression of Jack’s Barbershop.

“Every day, I would walk past this place on the way to school and say to myself, ‘I’ll never work in a rinky-dink place like that,’” Ed said.

As 16-year-old Ed strolled along Leesburg’s Main Street in 1986, he was on his way to Career Training Institute. Prospective barbers and beauticians downstairs, nurses upstairs. Today, Beacon College occupies the building.

CTI didn’t last; the barbershop at 603 W. Main Street did.

“Ten to 12 years later, I ended up owning it,” Ed laughed. “Now, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

City Barber Shop must be pretty nice, huh? Actually, no.

Ed is about great haircuts, not interior decorating. In 18

years as owner, he hasn’t done much sprucing up other than replacing moldy, acoustic ceiling tiles with drywall, hanging a few old circus posters and plugging in a Keurig coffee maker and a 65-cent Coke machine.

“It’s an old barbershop, why would you want to renovate it?” he asked. “Ma Barker’s boys used to get their hair cut here while Ma shopped at the grocery store that was on the corner.”

Dozens of loyal customers certainly don’t mind the dated look. Ed usually performs 20 to 25 haircuts a day, Monday through Friday, by appointment, he said. He’s so good that he rarely takes walk-ins. And he doesn’t need to work weekends. It’s been 10 years since Ed worked a Saturday in the 12-by-30-foot box that time forgot.

And, he makes a nice living at $9 a head before tips.

Ed has three chairs — the newest is circa 1950s — but he’s strictly a one-man shop. And, he’ll probably stay that way.

“One person every fi ve years calls for a job,” he said. “That tells you a lot about how many people are pursuing a career in barbering.”

BOB’S BARBER SHOPBOB’S BARBER SHOPBOB’S BARBER SHOP

Old-time barbershops are few and far between, but straight razors and hot lather dispensers still are tools of the haircutting trade at Bob’s Barber Shop.

The business Bob Crossman opened in 1948 in downtown Eustis still is doing brisk (or should we say, whisk?) business in its third location, an old-fashioned (and darn proud of it) clip-n-snip that’s survived the emo, shag, mullet, frosted tips and perms.

Go somewhere else if you want cappuccino or Perrier while you wait. At Bob’s there’s a snack machine, TV and your choice of reading material—the Holy Bible sits alongside “Car and Parts” magazine on the corner table. Walls are decorated with pictures of veterans, athletes and lawmen, buck heads and models of World War II planes. There’s also a hand grenade beneath a sign reading, “Complaint Department. Take a number.”

No one does. What’s there to complain about?

“I knew Bob and it’s still as friendly as when he ran it,” said Dan Wimberly, a retired Lake County law

enforcement offi cer who likes his cuts “high and tight.”

Like Wimberly, the current owner, Todd Scott, also got fl attops and lollypops in one of Bob’s four chairs. As an adult, Todd cut, buzzed and shaved for Lee Mears, who bought the shop in 1987, two years before Bob died.

You might say Todd is keeper of the mane.

“Barbering is a science,” he said. “Cutting men’s hair is detail work, shaving the neck and ears and trimming eyebrows. You have to be precise.”

The voice is Todd’s, but the words are Bob’s.

When something works, you stick with it, whether it’s a business philosophy, a UV Towel Warmer 2-in-1 or Emil J. Paidar barber chairs, circa 1960, that promised to revolutionize the industry because they contained ashtrays in the armrest.

The location is about the only thing that’s changed. Bob moved the shop twice— both times to be next to Winn Dixie. Well, Winn Dixie left Grove’s Square a long time ago, but Bob’s remains at 401 N. Grove St.

The calendar says 2015 but the atmosphere at Bob’s Barber Shop shouts, “Ike, Edsels and Lewis and Martin.” You know, the good old days.

“Another thing I like about coming here is that the chairs are usually full and there’s usually someone I know. We get to reminiscing,” said Wimberly.

Todd said 95 percent of Bob’s customers are regulars.

“People come from as far away as Daytona Beach and Apopka,” he said.

Most come for the same thing, the thing promised on the sign that separates the waiting area from the cutting area: “Real haircut from a real barber.”

“I was getting my hair cut at a place on 441, but they changed hands so I started coming here. They got real barbers here. It’s a real barbershop,” said Eustis resident Dennis Raye. “Seems like barbershops are getting to be few and far between. People just go to

beauty shops. I don’t need a beauty shop, I just need a haircut!”

That’s the song most customers sing. Cut it, shave it, trim it—and don’t forget the Osage rub and bay rum.

Tomorrow, however, might be a different story.

“Barbers are a dying breed. The state cosmetology board wants to phase out barber licenses and issue a general license,” said Todd, who attended barber school at the Career Training Institute of Leesburg in the early 1980s.

“Seems like barbershops are getting to be few and far between. People just go to beauty shops. I don’t need a beauty shop, I just need a haircut!”

GETTING A HEAD IN A MAN'S WORLD

STORY: AARON KLINGERMAN

Gentlemen get more than great, affordable haircuts at The Country Barber Shop at 1004 W. Dixie Ave. in Leesburg; they get an Old West experience courtesy of Heather Coven, a lifelong Lake County resident who professionally has been cutting hair for 12 years.

Heather can’t imagine working anywhere else. That’s why she took a big leap in 2013 and bought Marty’s Barber Shop from her boss of three years. When she did, she knew exactly how to remodel the shop to make it her own.

Cowboy boots sit in the corner. Cedar and cypress and remnants of an old tin roof serve as wall paneling. The décor includes a cowboy hat and lasso, horseshoes, fi shing rods, “wanted” posters, replica six-guns in holsters, antlers and the head of an 8-foot gator from Lake Griffi n. Country music playing in the background, old church pews in the waiting area and large wooden whiskey barrels converted into sinks complete the picture.

Numerous items–including several antique barber tools and shaving mugs—come from loyal customers who feel at home in Heather’s chair.

“I’ve always liked that rustic country look, because I’ve always been a country girl,” Heather remarked.

Not just a kitschy collection of Western memorabilia, The Country Barber shop is a thriving business. Heather has expanded capacity to fi ve chairs. She regularly sends her barbers for additional training because she wants quality and consistency. “It’s important to remember the client,” she said. “But we’ve also got to remember—within an eighth of an inch—their haircut.”

Heather demonstrated potential for success in a trade dominated by men at a very young age by cutting the hair off her dolls. “They were all bald,” she said with a laugh.

She also recalls going with her brothers to a barbershop in Mount Dora and being fascinated by the old man with scissors who let her stand beside him and watch. Years later, she put money she earned selling livestock she raised during her years with the Okahumpka 4-H Club toward her training.

She was ready when her boss retired and gave her the opportunity to buy the shop.

“I’ve observed other good barbers over the years. The good ones know your name; they know your family; they know your life. That’s what I want. I want my clients to feel at home.”

Her clients surely would agree that they do.

“The Country Barber Shop combines friendly fun with outstanding professionalism,” said retired Air Force Colonel Al Meyer, one of Heather’s most loyal customers. “A great bunch of wonderful folks who make you feel at home from the moment you walk in to when you depart with a really, really good haircut.”