NYC's 5 Best 'Double Duty' Spots
In a hurry? The places that follow let you do two things at once, like get a haircut and stock up on handmade luggage, or practice your downward-facing dog and nurse a latte, saving you time and doubling your fun. By Jessica Allen.
More: NYC's 5 Best Spots For Beauty & Spa Cocktails
In 1995 Paul Devitt took over the Thomas Beauty Salon on Fourteenth Street, and turned it into what he called a "beauty saloon." Today the Beauty Bar has outposts across the United States. At the original location in the East Village, you can get a manicure and a martini for $10, or just sip a cocktail and listen to the DJ while hanging out beneath an old-school blow dryer. You can also marvel at the salon's original price list, when a comb out cost $4 and a hair tint was $24. Past midnight, the atmosphere goes from kitschy to krazy.
Freemans Sporting Club sells more than bespoke clothes, it sells a lifestyle. And buying into that lifestyle means looking one's best, always. Freemans Sporting Club Barbershop next door to the clothing shop offers a shave and a haircut for $78 and a straight razor shave for $42, among other services. You can purchase products too.
Update: F.S.C. Barber Services, which was previously included in this post, has moved locations under the name Fellow Barber to 33 Crosby St.
When you think about it, Greenpoint's Corner Frenzy has the perfect double-duty set up: you go to M&W Laundromat to wash your clothes. So far, so good. As you wait to add the fabric softener, you smell freshly made empanadas, or perhaps the heat from the industrial dryers makes you start to more closely examine the many flavors of soft serve for sale. Do you dare? If you spill something, you'll have to start your wash over, and so the cycle will begin again. Your only option is to eat neatly—or you'll never leave.
The Dressing Room Boutique & Bar is actually a three-fer. At this Lower East Side shop, you can sample adult beverages while browsing clothes made by emerging designers. Then you can take your drink and your finds to the Clothing Exchange downstairs, where you can hunt through the selection of vintage and gently used clothes and jewelry, and even offer up your own no-longer-beloved goods. (What the Dressing Room doesn't buy gets donated to charity.) Sometimes there's a DJ, and sometimes there's a movie being projected onto a big screen, but there's always a well-stocked bar and lots of lovely threads.
More: NYC's 7 Best Yoga Studios
Some people bliss out by pouring a cocktail, others by getting into tree pose. At The Cobra Club in Bushwick, you can do both. Espousing an all-inclusive mantra, there are no beginner or advanced classes—just yoga, including "prenatal yoga" and "baby + me," as well as Pilates and kick boxing. In addition to coffee drinks and light eats, including donuts and pastries from Dough. This unique studio serves beer, shots, and housemade concoctions named for songs by The Misfits, such as "Teenagers from Mars" and "We Are 138." Om and yum.
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Jessica Allen blogs at We Heart New York.
