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.