Taking a seat in one of The Nite Owl’s three barber chairs, you can easily forget what year it is, let alone what century. Not much has changed inside the barbershop in decades — and that’s just the way owner Brian Hurson likes it.
“I used to come by and peek in the window and I would say, ‘That’s a beautiful kind of a time-warp barbershop and just really, really fell in love with the place,” he says. The Lake Shore Boulevard West storefront originally opened in 1953 under the name Joe's Barbershop, though it had been closed for about a decade before catching Brian’s eye. Then, in January of 2015, he brought the vintage storefront back to life, opening The Nite Owl, his own take on the classic barbershop, in the long-neglected space.
“It’s like a new business within the confines an older established barbershop, which is nice, cuz I’m able to kind of tie into the legacy,” explains Brian. “All the barber’s chairs were always there, they’ve never not been there. The waiting chairs are original to the shop,” he says. Brian sought out additional items on the Internet, complementing existing relics with treasures like a retro 1954 Pepsi fridge that he schlepped to the shop from Lindsay, Ontario.
