HELL'S KITCHEN — Marrella Hair Stylists, a barbershop at Port Authority, has shut its doors after 42 years, according to its owner.
Michael Marrella, 76, said he was retiring after working as a barber in the bus terminal since 1968, four years before he bought the shop.
“I lived there every day,” he told DNAinfo from his home in New Jersey. “When it’s enough, it’s enough,” he said.
The closing was first reported by Jeremiah's Vanishing New York.
Port Authority neighbors say they missed Marrella and Joe Manniello, a fellow barber and Italian immigrant.
“People are sad to see them leave,” said Evelyn Negron, who works at the post office next door to the shop. “They were more or less a fixture.”
Carmen Rivera of the Bronx used to get her hair cut there once a month and said the shop had a loyal crew of regulars who paid $17 per cut before the store shuttered.
“They used to talk amongst themselves, what’s really going on today,” she said. “Especially at the bus terminal."
A Port Authority police officer who could not give his name said Marrella and Manniello gave him the best haircuts of his life.
Manniello, 80, worked at Marrella's since 1972 and described himself as Mike’s “helper.”
“I used to open the barbershop, I used to close the barbershop,” Manniello said from his home in Astoria. He worked six days a week from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., he said.
Manniello said business had declined since the financial crisis.
“When the big bosses lost their jobs, we lost our good customers,” Manniello said.
Marrella’s family threw a goodbye party on the shop’s last day, Dec. 31.
Marrella said he missed the store and was still getting used to retirement.
“I look at my wife and she looks at me,” he said of his new life. “Every day is full of eyes now.”
The Port Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
