![]() Last month, she received a note from the property manager asking if they would move the shop to the upper level of the building. He's referencing the news Banik has reluctantly started to share with customers. And so it would be a shame to see any of that nostalgia walk away." "You look around the space and I could probably tell you half of the drawings or photos or little tchotchkes that are on the wall just because I've been looking at it for so long, for 20 years. "It’s more than just getting your haircut - it’s like a piece of Charlotte," Carney said. He brought his son here when he was little. Kevin Carney has been coming to the shop for more than 20 years. "Every four weeks on Saturday at 2 o'clock, I've got Larry." "He moved to Atlanta to be close to his grandchildren," Persinger said. There's a longtime client of Taylor's who moved from Charlotte to Atlanta but drives back monthly from Georgia to have Persinger cut his hair. And it’s what keeps customers coming back. She's fighting to keep the shop in Latta Arcade.īanik and the staff take pride in the tradition of barbering. Reagan Taylor Banik took over her father's business in 2020. Customers can ask for a facial or straight razor shave. Then there are the old-school chairs that go up and down by a hand pump. There’s the original cash register - which still works. She says it hung in the shop’s back alley during Prohibition to signal that bootlegged alcohol was available. She points to an old sign hanging on the wall that reads Barbershop. Persinger is the unofficial historian of the business. We kept fighting and we're still fighting today to keep it going." “If it wasn't for her, he (would've closed) the doors at COVID because we struggled. "We appreciate her for carrying on her daddy's legacy," Persinger said of Banik. Sherry Persinger is a barber who has worked at the shop for more than two decades. I went to barber school for nine months and dad said, 'I need you. “There wasn't very much shopping anywhere and mom would bring us up here. "I ran around here as a little girl," Banik said with a smile. Officially she’s been working since she was about 19 years old, but her history here goes much deeper. In the history of this space being a barbershop, she is the ninth owner and the first female owner. Fortunately, Banik was there to take the reins in 2020. ![]() Her father Cecil Taylor took over the barbershop in 1974, but this storefront has been a barbershop for 107 years.Ī broken hip forced her father into early retirement. It's so busy, in fact, the only way to escape the noise of hair dryers and chirps of snipping scissors is to retreat to the back of the shop - the shampoo room.īanik stands in what she calls "476 square feet of history." On this busy Friday afternoon, business is booming inside Arcade Men’s Room. Reagan Taylor Banik says she fears the business is being pushed out due to impending changes by the building’s owner. But now, its owner says the shop faces an uncertain future. It includes restaurants, a shoeshine stand, and the Arcade Men’s Room - a family-owned barbershop that has called Latta Arcade home for nearly 50 years. While many historic buildings have come and gone in Charlotte’s center city, Latta Arcade, an indoor shopping mall known for its grand glass ceiling and charming storefronts, has stood the test of time.īuilt in 1914, the Arcade is nestled in uptown’s French Quarter.
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