Frank's Chop Shop

Profile

To call Frank’s Chop Shop a cutting-edge barber is not just a pun. This tonsorial storefront is the public face of Frank151, a lifestyle brand with a raffish aesthetic stylistically rooted in both Rat Pack nightlife and urban grunge. Once a yarmulke workshop, the joint’s Lower East Side digs maintain a heady twentieth-century air via a trio of thirties barber chairs, a black-and-white linoleum floor, Thelonious Monk jazz overhead, and Diane Arbus–like photos for sale on the walls. The aim is to gather locals—by appointment only—from Chinese immigrants to hipsters with sculpted sideburns to hedge-fund lords with cast-iron lofts. Yet no one will accuse Frank’s Chop Shop of yuppifying the neighborhood: Its painstakingly crafted, attitudinal-yet-classic haircuts, overseen by a colorfully tattooed head barber named Mr. Bee, cost from $25 to $40 (less for buzz cuts, more for rock-star shags). Straight-edge shaves are offered, as are Chop Shop hats. — Karen Tina Harrison

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Best of New York Awards

• Best Cheap Men’s Haircut (2007)

Featured In

• Top Five Men’s Shaves (5/18/09)
• Frank’s Chop Shop Opens on Essex Street (11/6/06)