Matter of Instinct Barbershop Moves Up to East Village
Was based in LES since its founding in 2007.
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Matter of Instinct closed its LES doors for the last time about a month ago. Mainly due to a rent hike, the longtime neighborhood barbershop has crossed into East Village territory on the north side of Houston St. It's no longer on Orchard right above Delancey. The shop had been in the LES in one place or another since 2007.
Through Google Street View, I found that the newly vacant Orchard St location used to be occupied by a salon (4th pic, dated 2014) and then an old leather shop before that (5th pic, ss from 2009). There was a business between the salon and the barbershop (called OAK in 2016, 3rd pic) but couldn't make out what type of business it was.
This also led me to discover what Orchard St actually was about 15 years ago: a leather goods market. Second to last pic is further north along Orchard and the last pic is across the street from the barbershop; both screenshots are from 2009. Crazy how things have changed here.
New address of MOI Barbershop is 250 E Houston St.