CASH ONLY CARMINE Classic Coffee Shop REGINA & BELLA Astor Place Hairstylists
CAR MINE CLAS S IC CO F F EE SH O P 56 HE ST ER ST
I’ve been here 41 years. me and my dad opened in 1976, he passed in ‘88 and I’ve been here by myself ever since. Q: So what was the original inspiration for opening this place and opening it here? A: Actually the way it happened was a weird kind of coincidence. My father used to work – we lived on the next block here, on Hester street. Q: Do you still live there? A: No, I live close by but not there. My father worked in a store that was at the bottom of the building. It was very convenient, he worked downstairs. And he used to come here for lunch. The guy who owned this place,
his name was Benny Steinberg, and him and my dad became good friends. He used to help him serve customers and stuff like that, and he had once told his son, “if anything ever happens to me, I want Mike (my father) to have the business.” And it so happened that the building we lived in had just got bought by somebody else and the store downstairs had to leave, and my father was about to be unemployed. Q: What was the business? A: It was a clothing, underwear… like all the other stores you see on Orchard Street. And just when that happened,
this guy Benny he died. So he kind of fell into it. And then I was working somewhere else and I got laid off so I started working here with my dad. Q: You must have seen the neighborhood change so much A: Yeah I grew up here, went to school here. Been here since I was born. This used to be a neighborhood of poor immigrant folks and now a neighborhood that you’ve got to have a lot of money to live in. Even if you’re gone for five years they say “wow what a difference, what a change”. It’s happening all over. I get a bunch of tourists that come here and I was talking to some guy recently that was saying San Francisco is the same thing. He said he’d been living there his whole life and it’s gotten so expensive that it’s crazy and everything has changed. Q: So who put up the photos? And the other fun stuff? A: Oh me! Q: Would you just collect it over the years?
I go to garage sales, and flea markets, always looking for something old.
Interview 2: Bella
BInterview E L L A2: Bella & REGINA ASTOR PL ACE H AIR ST Y L I STS 2 ASTOR P LACE
I’ve been at Astor Place for 28 years Bella: The neighborhood of course has changed. We used to have three floors, now we only have a basement. Before we had many young people, creative types, punks. We always had diverse people. From Wall Street, from Madison Avenue, and of course from The Village. Always different people always different nationalities. That’s what it is – a reality show every day. But it’s always good. Never any fights, nice owner, very good barbers, no one can beat us! That’s why this place is still famous, for 60 years. It’s like American history.
When people come to New York they always come here to see us, to see this place. Because you never find a place like this anywhere else. People that work here talk to you, make you feel like you’re at home with family. Whatever you show us on a picture, when you try to explain your haircut, we will do it. Q: So how did you start? Bella: Before this I had my own place, a beauty salon. I had a meeting with the boss of this place and he asked me about my salon and he showed me his salon and I got scared at the beginning because I never saw this kind of huge salon but he told me I had to try because “I think it’s you”.
So I sold my salon and started working here. And I really love it. I have a lot of customers so I work by appointment, since I’ve developed a lot of customers in my 28 years. And all of them are part of my big family. I love them. I appreciate the boss and all his family, because this is a family business and whatever they do they do it right.
Q: What year was that? Bella: 30 years ago, lines out the door. We have a book, you can see pictures in there. We were in the newest issue of Allure, they wrote a really funny article. They asked Mike the manager “who’s the boss?” and Mike pointed at me.
Q: So what’s the history behind the salon? Bella: They started with 3 people and we were the first barbershop to start cutting hair with the machine, that’s where we right away got popular and lines started to form around the block, because the machine only worked at Astor Place. So little by little, we got different managers from different salons, and we would show them how to cut hair with the machine.
when music is playing people dance and sing. we do that! christmas is totally crazy.
Bella: We’ve gotten articles mailed to us from Greece, Italy… As soon as people get to New York they come here because there’s no other salon like this one. It’s like the news are on! You sit here and you listen to everything that’s happening around you. It’s never boring. So many stories. Q: So tell me about how long you’ve been here, your favorite part of working here, how the neighborhood has changed. Regina: I’ve been here about 33 years at the shop. The neighborhood has changed very much. Before it was three floors: Basement, ground floor and balcony. For 18 years I was on the balcony. My chair was facing out onto the street. Now that we’re in the basement I miss it big time. I used to be able to see all the people passing by. But you get used to everything. I’ve been here downstairs for 15 years already. It’s nice, I love the shop, I love the management. They’re good to me. I don’t have any problems. I love my clientele, they love me.
Q: Has anything crazy happened in all the years you’ve worked here? Regina: To me, actually no. I mind my own business. I come in I say good morning, I leave I say goodnight. I don’t get involved in anything. As a business it’s difficult to run because before it was 100 people, if you look at the documentary on youtube of the barbershop you can see everything – it was a mad house. ’84, ’85, ’86, These were the years when the shop was booming because it was the only place that would cut these kinds of styles. You know the styles come from this shop. The people who work at this shop were the creators of the style. I have every type of client pass through my hands. Celebrities, regular people, government officials. I’ve seen people come from nothing and become big shots, and I’ve seen big shots become nobodies.
To build this kind of place you need to have a lot of knowledge of everything. You need to know the people, the business, how to conduct the people. People who are very creative are uncontrollable you know, they have their own minds. You need to explain with them how to deal with clients. I have a college degree in a completely different field. I was studying textile materials. I can do patterns and designs. And my second degree was optician. The third was ikebana flowers. The dry flowers, Japanese style. But what I do now, this is the passion of my life. Bella: The most important thing in life is to do what you love. And coming to a job you enjoy. If I go on vacation I miss my work. If you work in a job you hate that brings you joy then you’re not doing it right. I work until 8 and the day flies by.
We used to do a lot of shows. TV shows, night clubs. We would go there, on the stage. Limelight, Copa Cabana, Studio 54. There were shows all over New York .
I feel like i did in my own salon - like i’m home.
S A R A H R AT N E R P H OTO G R A P H Y S A R A H R AT N E R .C O M