Despite it being fifty yards away on Amsterdam, we'd been to Cozy's Cuts exactly twice: for Samuel's first haircut in 1998, and for Ethan's first haircut in 2001. So we weren't exactly helping them pay the rent.
But I liked seeing toddlers through the window getting haircuts. Every block should have something that makes you smile. I'll miss that.
Essentials, at Broadway and 81st, closed over a year ago, but the construction fence is now up and the windows are boarded up, so I suspect the last traces of the store will be erased any day.
Before it was Essentials it was Shakespeare & Company, an indie bookstore that closed in 1996, two years before we moved to the neighborhood...victim of the then-new Barnes & Noble down the block.
Essentials was never a great store. But we remember it as the place where Samuel spent rainy afternoons playing with the Thomas the Tank Engine table set on the second floor--and riding the coin-operated Ernie & Bert fire engine and Dino rides out front. Here's a shot of a dilapidated Dino (and dilapidated awning) from a 2009 Google Street View. Like I said, it was never a great store.
But I miss anything that reminds me of my little Samuel.
Let's end on a high note: Orwashers Bakery is the newest member of the neighborhood, a few doors south of Cozy's.
Weird how the world keeps changing and I'm not in control of it.
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