Blind Barber, East Village: The Barber Shop Hiding a Bar Since 2010

Blind Barber sits at 339 E 10th St, facing the north edge of Tompkins Square Park, and its barbershop keeps one schedule all week: 10 am to 7 pm, Sunday through Saturday. A standard haircut books at $60, and the official location page says the price of a cut includes a free drink. That pairing defines this barber shop, which opened in 2010 with a bar hidden behind its last barber station and has since grown into a seven-shop brand.

Blind Barber's own story page puts it plainly: in 2010 the team set up a 2-chair barbershop in the East Village with a secret tucked behind the last chair. Slate's 2014 profile names the three partners. Jeff Laub grew up around salons, worked at an uptown salon, spent years at a law firm and took cosmetology classes at night. Adam Kirsch came from The Box, and Josh Boyd owned Gallery Bar among other restaurants.

The neighborhood blog EV Grieve logged the opening on June 25, 2010, placing the shop on 10th Street near Avenue B in the former Plan B space. Quoting Frank Bruni of The New York Times, the post noted that every $40 haircut or $30 shave came with a cocktail, beer or wine from the lounge in back.

BeautyMatter reported in February 2025 that Blind Barber, then entering its fifteenth year, had closed a $1.7 million seed round, with co-founder Jeff Laub calling it an exciting new chapter. The booking system now lists shops in Culver City, Highland Park, Chicago's West Loop, Philadelphia's Center City, Nashville and the Moxy Times Square hotel, while East 10th Street is still billed as where it all began.

Appointments run through the Blind Barber app or the booking widget embedded on the East Village page, which is powered by MyTime. The current roster for this shop lists five barbers: Jeremy Pelser, Emmanuel Garcia, John Diaz, Maria Mars and Anderson Anderson. You can pick a specific barber or take the first opening, and the system has a same-day waitlist switched on, which helps when the afternoon fills up.

Read the cancellation terms before you tap confirm. The booking account is set to a percentage-based fee of 50 percent for cancellations inside four hours of the appointment, so a $60 haircut abandoned at lunch for a 3 pm slot costs $30. Most single services are booked as 30-minute appointments, and combination services take 60 minutes, so leave a full hour free if you add a beard trim or shave.

The barbershop closes at 7 pm every day, and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday the backroom bar opens at that exact hour. The Infatuation notes there will probably be a doorman out front at night. Skip a 6:30 pm Friday slot if you want a quiet cut, because the room is already turning over toward cocktails by the time you are finished.

The Haircut is $60 for a 30-minute appointment, and the menu describes it as a consultation, precision haircut and personalized styling finished with Blind Barber's own grooming products and a beverage. The Beard Trim is also $60, covering shaping, fading and a line-up with hot and cold towels. The Shave is $60 as well, a traditional straight razor shave. Pairing a cut with a beard trim, shave or the Skincare Service raises the bill to $115 for an hour.

The Scissors & Clippers Cut costs $120 and is booked for 60 minutes with John Diaz, Maria Mars or Anderson Anderson. It adds sectioned cutting for a balanced shape, clipper detailing and a shampoo with a hot towel. Skip it if you only need to tidy a short fade you already like, because the $60 Haircut covers that in half the time. The longer cut earns its price on grown-out hair that needs a new shape.

The official page describes the daytime front shop as a place where local barbers maneuver around antique barber chairs, giving East Villagers cuts and trims. A neighborhood write-up on rentevgb.com adds white exposed brick walls, grooming products lining the shelves, and clippers and scissors hanging from hooks. Slate described the bar as hidden behind a sliding door, with haircut customers handed a glass of whiskey from out back.

The regulars split into two crowds that overlap around 7 pm. Slate's profile describes friends hanging out and drinking beers while one of them gets a cut, then staying for music and cocktails. The Infatuation describes booths along the side of the backroom and a scene that gets livelier late on crowded nights, while a review from Catherine Y. quoted on the official page praises the entrance through the barbershop into the bar.

The backroom menu on the Blind Barber app is current for fall, listing a Harvest Spritz at $14 and a Strawberry Fields cocktail at $16 alongside hot dogs such as The Bavarian at $7. Large checks of $150 or more and parties of six or more carry an automatic 20 percent gratuity. For groups of nine or more or private events, the shop asks you to email newyork@blindbarber.com.

The simplest walk starts at the door. Tompkins Square Park sits directly across East 10th Street, so a fresh cut can be followed by a lap of the park paths. On a Thursday, Friday or Saturday that loop also kills time neatly if you plan to come back to the backroom when it opens at 7 pm.

For food, head west along East 10th Street to Veselka on Second Avenue, the Ukrainian restaurant known for handmade pierogi. It is a short walk from the shop and takes reservations through its website. Pierogi after a $60 haircut beats lingering outside 339 E 10th St waiting for the bar, and the walk back passes the park again.

If every slot is gone, the closest alternative is Blind Barber's second Manhattan shop, inside the Moxy hotel on Seventh Avenue in Times Square. Its location page lists barbershop hours of 10:30 am to 7:30 pm, Sunday through Saturday. The brand's locations page says walk-ins are welcome there, though that shop has no backroom bar, so the trip is purely for the haircut.

The other option is staying put and shifting the time. Join the same-day waitlist in the app for East Village and pick an opening slot near 10 am, when the front shop has not yet felt the pull of the evening. Weekday mornings also keep you clear of the doorman and the Friday crowd, and you still leave with the drink that comes with every cut here.

The address is 339 E 10th St, New York, NY 10009, on the block between Avenue A and Avenue B. The nearest subway is the 1 Av station on the L train at 14th Street and First Avenue, and the 6 train at Astor Place is a longer walk west.

Barbershop hours are 10 am to 7 pm, Sunday through Saturday. The backroom runs 7 pm to 3 am on Thursday and 7 pm to 4 am on Friday and Saturday. Retail shelves stock the house line, including 40 Proof Sea Salt Spray at $24 and Lemongrass Tea Conditioner at $22, the same products the barbers use to finish a Haircut before you head out onto East 10th Street.