At Your Service

At heart I share the attitude of my grandparents when it comes to consumption patterns.  I feel comfortable spending a fair amount of money on certain things (in my case shoes, coats, kitchenware, in their case American-made cars, furniture and appliances) but in exchange for the higher price, I expect them to last forever.  Nothing irritates me more than buying something that I think (or have been led to believe) is of high quality and then having it fall apart two months later.  Come to think of it, this attitude extends to restaurants as well.  Few things in the world make me more angry than a mediocre restaurant masquerading as a good one, and getting charged as if my meal had been delicious, when in fact I could easily have made something better at home on a hot plate.  But as usual, I digress.

Like my grandparents (and actually, come to think of it, my parents also), I will repair something I love until it is well past the point of resurrection.  My grandparents kept their 1978 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser running long enough, and well enough, that both my sister and I could drive it through high school (the government eventually paid my parents $500 to get it off the road), my parents are the only people I know who still repair their giant pink vacuum cleaner, and I have been propping up a pair of perfect black pumps since about 2002.

As a result, over the years I have sought out and discovered great service providers in New York, both to repair things I refuse to let die, and places like salons that I just think do a good job at a fair price.  I'm dedicating this week to these rare establishments, and will write about one place per day.  I generally try to keep things fairly gender neutral on this site, but things may get a bit feminine this week what with my waxing recommendations and the like, so I ask for the gentlemen readers' indulgence, just this once.