Hello everyone!
This past Saturday, my wife and I took an 80 mile Journey to go visit the Old Towne Shaving Shoppe at the Shoppes at Stats in Pasadena, Ca.
When we arrived we walked into the store situated on the corner of S Raymond and E Green streets in Old Towne Pasadena. We were immediately greeted by a young man named Austin who was quick to answer our questions and happy to show us the fine shaving and grooming products at this store. After just a moment the proprietor, Damon, came in and introduced himself. The very first thing I noticed was the LARGE 8ft tall display of brushes (complete with the LARGE Rooney that Ben used to have) along with an 8ft tall display of Razors and other fine goods. In the Brush display there were at least 100 brushes in all their glory from the likes of Rooney, M&F, Simpson, & T&H as well as some custom brushes made from extraordinary cocobolo wood handles. The only brush of concern to me that he was missing are the V2 Silvertip Fibre brushes from Muehle...He does not have any Muhle Brushes at this time...Vegans miss out!
In his razor display case there were current productions, such as Merkur, Meuhle, EJ, as well as vintage razors from Gillette, Rotbart, and others...in fact I just scored a Gillette LC NEW from my local antiques shop and for what I paid I also could have gotten the case and a razor bank at Damon's shop.
On the surround are fine dark oak open cabinets with doors on the bottom reminiscient of what one would expect to find in the shoppes that line Jermyn St in London. These fixtures are filled with fine shaving and grooming products the likes of DR Harris, GFT, XPEC, MdC, Panna Crema, QCS, Sir Irisch Moos, Tabac, Speik, RazorRock, Col Conk, Pinaud, Penhaligon's, Floris, etc etc. The list is more than comes to mind now! That is a good thing.
The staff is very helpful and friendly, especially Damon, who strikes me as a man passionate about his hobby. Luckily for us he had the funds and location to open be able to open such a fine establishment. I watched him interact with a patron and he answered all the questions honestly and without preference to one product over another...he seemed like he honestly loved them all. He didn't try to move people off the lesser priced products onto the more expensive products and told them his thoughts indivdually on the products he had in his shop. I felt at ease in his shop and would go back again just for the company. He doesn't pressure anyone into anything, instead guiding them by his personal experiences along with interjections from his customers. He had the largest display of Penhaligon's scents outside the Penhaligon's in Las Vegas that I have ever seen and was very liberal with sampling and scenting...He has testers for every one of his products and encourages patrons to sample...He even gave a patron 2-Med Prep blades to try before they buy...who else does that???
It was pleasure talking to him about his different products. I ultimately decided to go with a tube of my favorite cream, DR Harris Windsor, a tub of Salter's Sublime Citrus, and the Sartorial Christmas Tin, which was very nicely priced (Better price than from ShopLondon.com when you include shipping) ...he discounted the tax, gave me a free tub of his LE RR (Caprician Lemon) called "Inauguration" and inviting us to visit again...and also gave us some excellent recommendations for local cuisine.
Was it worth the 80 mile trip? YES. Would I do it again? YES. Overall I give the experience a 9 out of 10 stars...the only detractor being that he doesn't have any plans at this time to set up a website for ordering, and he doesn't accept Paypal, yet...but he gladly took my American Express card....haha![Biggrin]( "Biggrin")
Cheers!
Matt
This past Saturday, my wife and I took an 80 mile Journey to go visit the Old Towne Shaving Shoppe at the Shoppes at Stats in Pasadena, Ca.
When we arrived we walked into the store situated on the corner of S Raymond and E Green streets in Old Towne Pasadena. We were immediately greeted by a young man named Austin who was quick to answer our questions and happy to show us the fine shaving and grooming products at this store. After just a moment the proprietor, Damon, came in and introduced himself. The very first thing I noticed was the LARGE 8ft tall display of brushes (complete with the LARGE Rooney that Ben used to have) along with an 8ft tall display of Razors and other fine goods. In the Brush display there were at least 100 brushes in all their glory from the likes of Rooney, M&F, Simpson, & T&H as well as some custom brushes made from extraordinary cocobolo wood handles. The only brush of concern to me that he was missing are the V2 Silvertip Fibre brushes from Muehle...He does not have any Muhle Brushes at this time...Vegans miss out!
In his razor display case there were current productions, such as Merkur, Meuhle, EJ, as well as vintage razors from Gillette, Rotbart, and others...in fact I just scored a Gillette LC NEW from my local antiques shop and for what I paid I also could have gotten the case and a razor bank at Damon's shop.
On the surround are fine dark oak open cabinets with doors on the bottom reminiscient of what one would expect to find in the shoppes that line Jermyn St in London. These fixtures are filled with fine shaving and grooming products the likes of DR Harris, GFT, XPEC, MdC, Panna Crema, QCS, Sir Irisch Moos, Tabac, Speik, RazorRock, Col Conk, Pinaud, Penhaligon's, Floris, etc etc. The list is more than comes to mind now! That is a good thing.
The staff is very helpful and friendly, especially Damon, who strikes me as a man passionate about his hobby. Luckily for us he had the funds and location to open be able to open such a fine establishment. I watched him interact with a patron and he answered all the questions honestly and without preference to one product over another...he seemed like he honestly loved them all. He didn't try to move people off the lesser priced products onto the more expensive products and told them his thoughts indivdually on the products he had in his shop. I felt at ease in his shop and would go back again just for the company. He doesn't pressure anyone into anything, instead guiding them by his personal experiences along with interjections from his customers. He had the largest display of Penhaligon's scents outside the Penhaligon's in Las Vegas that I have ever seen and was very liberal with sampling and scenting...He has testers for every one of his products and encourages patrons to sample...He even gave a patron 2-Med Prep blades to try before they buy...who else does that???
It was pleasure talking to him about his different products. I ultimately decided to go with a tube of my favorite cream, DR Harris Windsor, a tub of Salter's Sublime Citrus, and the Sartorial Christmas Tin, which was very nicely priced (Better price than from ShopLondon.com when you include shipping) ...he discounted the tax, gave me a free tub of his LE RR (Caprician Lemon) called "Inauguration" and inviting us to visit again...and also gave us some excellent recommendations for local cuisine.
Was it worth the 80 mile trip? YES. Would I do it again? YES. Overall I give the experience a 9 out of 10 stars...the only detractor being that he doesn't have any plans at this time to set up a website for ordering, and he doesn't accept Paypal, yet...but he gladly took my American Express card....haha
Cheers!
Matt