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Here’s the real reason why this is the “most wonderful time of the year”: you can drink at the barbershop!
In a tradition that ranks right up there with trimming the tree, baking cookies and giving interfaith couples a copy of my book, “Chrismukkah,” barbershops all over Brooklyn take advantage of the nip in the air to set up mini-bars and treat their customers to a seasonal toast.
Most shops put out a bottle of whiskey, but some go all out.
“This is our way of thanking our customers,” said Vito Fiumefreddo, an owner of the Park Slope Barber Shop on Seventh Avenue (pictured), which sets up a bar with gin, Sambuca, Cinzano, bourbon, whiskey (and whisky), wine and a beer cooler.
How did bartending and barbering get inexorably bound?
“It’s a barber shop,” he said. “It’s a guy’s place. And a barber is like a bartender anyway. But how else can we say ‘thanks’ — by giving out free samples of hair gel?!”
But, alas, this sacred holiday tradition is endangered. After getting my annual shot and a haircut in Park Slope, I make an exhaustive survey of old-school barber shops all over Brooklyn and discovered that fewer haircutting places are practicing what I always believed to be the most venerable tradition since watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” 16 before New Year’s.
Many of the usual places were dryer than a church rectory in West Texas during Prohibition. At the Brooklyn Marriott, the owner of Allegria hair salon told me that he hasn’t put out a bottle in years.
“Nobody drinks anymore!” he said, before offering me a cookie. A cookie? This is a haircut, not a bake sale!
In Bay Ridge, I passed 10 barber shops without finding a one with a bottle of anything stronger than Brylcreem.
There may be a reason that the holiday has gotten so unfestive: giving out booze, it turns out, is illegal.
“We sometimes send warning letters to salons,” said a spokesman for the State Liquor Authority. “Free or not, giving out shots is illegal trafficking.”
Fiumefreddo had a different take. “It’s the holiday,” he said. “What better time to have a drink?”
And there is some good news on the horizon: This week, I noticed a women’s salon on Henry Street put out a bottle. It was Chablis, but you gotta start somewhere.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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