Dobrindts dot com...again

For the most part, when I travel for work, which is a lot, I go to NY City. I love it, and while I don’t think I could raise a family there, I am fascinated by the city. I’ve been heading to NY pretty much nonstop since 1998 when I moved from NY to Boston, kind of ironic.

There is this great, really great, Indian roti place I go to on Lex and 27th, near one of the offices I work out of. I’ve been going there for years. I am not sure what the official definition of “roti” is, I think it’s a kind of Indian bread, but it’s a popular wrap where you can get traditional Indian food in a flat bread wrap for lunch. The place I love is tiny with a couple of Formica tables and plastic chairs and about enough room for 8 people and is one of the things I look forward to most when in NY.

Anyway, it kind of takes a while for them to make the wraps, so I always stand outside and watch people or talk on the phone or look through my BlackBerry. For years there has been this tiny mom-and-pop barber shop across the street from the Indian place, with a homemade sign and a heavy set older barber with a big white mustache inside. I never saw him cut anyone’s hair but was always in a barber jacket and sweeping, or talking to someone else in there, or standing outside enjoying the weather. It reminded me of this barbershop I used to go to in Davis Square, and brought me back to images of NY City a hundred years ago when ALL shops looked like his store front.

Well, one day I went to get lunch in January and there was a note in the window that said “closed”, with a “Store for Rent” sign. The barbershop stuff – chairs and combs and mirrors – were all taken out of the store. It was empty. No more heavy barber to watch while I wait for my lunch.

I kind of regret never getting my hair cut. And I wonder when it first opened, and what the barber is going to do now. I wonder if there was a time when it was filled with people who traded stories and passed gossip, and if he employed other barbers. I wonder when the barber started, and if this was his first shop. Does he have a family.

I wonder if anyone else noticed it closed, and cared.