Armando Tailor to become tanning salon
Photo, Lost City.
Lost City reports that Smith Street’s recently shuttered Armanda Tailor will become a tanning salon. Does anyone know how long, exactly, the shop was there for?
Armando Tailor and Dry Cleaner, a fixture on Smith Street near President, has closed. The neighboring shoe repair shop told me the old Italian tailor who ran it has retired. The man, silver-haired and with glasses and very little English, was an old-school craftsman. He could do all the things that nobody bothers with anymore: fix buttonholes, replace zippers, etc. I’ve had most of my suits tailored and cuffed there over the years. He knew his work and did it expertly, and, consequently, charged a little more. But he was honest. Last year, when I took a worn, but beloved old winter coat in to get a new lining, he looked it over with a skeptical eye, then asked me, “Do you really like this coat?” He was telling me it wasn’t worth what it would cost me to get a new lining. I did it anyway. I’m glad I did. It’s the last piece of work he did for me.
Posted
: November 18th, 2009 at 6:43 am by Diana Rosenthal under Carroll Gardens, History.
Tags:armando tailor, armando tailor carroll gardens, Lost City
Comments: 1
Comment from Joe Nardiello
Time: November 24, 2009, 2:17 am
The business was there for many decades, and it was begun by a tailor named Dominic Ferrandino — who was truly a great, kind and hard-working man. He sold it to the gentleman that since has retired himself, after running it as a strong family business that was very well regarded. He has leased it, now to the present shopkeepers.
While this is a private & personal matter due to the passing of his beloved wife — it is a decision of the shopkeeper (who I won’t name, but who does own the building) to lease the space to the new business. This is NOT an issue like we’ve seen play out plenty in our area — regarding unscrupulous landlords forcing out longtime established shops, and hiking rents 2-3-4x with some leaving storefronts empty for years (in their strategy) etc.
I’m sure he’d appreciate everyone’s concern — he travels back and forth from his homes in Italy and Carroll Gardens, and has many friends and neighbors that understand what he’s gone through in a very difficult 2009 and going through, now by way of adjustment.