Raja Ratan has always had an old barber’s chair by the door of Rye 51 and Q Clothier, his luxury men’s clothing stores in the West Village. It was just there for show, but Ratan would sometimes have barbers come in and cut hair as a treat for customers. All that went away during the pandemic, but once shops started opening back up, Ratan had a barber take up residence in his shop. “I was excited to get the chair filled again,” he says. Once it did, Ratan said the chair was always in demand.
Then, one day earlier this year, Ratan was pacing the floor. He passed the barber’s chair and customers shopping his casual Rye 51 wear (“jeans and a sport coat is the new suit”). He paused in the narrow alterations department at the far end of his store. Hardly anyone was using the waiting room. “This rent isn’t inexpensive,” he thought. “That space could be better used.” He wondered if he could turn it into a barbershop.
He asked the barber if he could fill even more chairs. The barber said “yes,” and Ratan got to work setting up Mr. Winston’s, his luxurious, new four-chair barbershop, which opened late last month.
Ratan worked with Foxcroft Studio to design the space. He wanted Mr. Winston’s to have an “old-school hot-shave kind of feel, but with a modern spin on it.” He also wanted it to be navy (“it’s my favorite color”) and Foxcroft suggested navy subway tile and a barrel-vaulted ceiling for the four-chair shop. There’s brassy hardware and finishes, leather seating, and oak cabinetry. Opposite the chairs are a bar, a record player, and a big screen TV.
The goal of the barbershop was to create a relaxing and inviting space for men to come get their haircut.
“Give a guy a chance to sit down and realize all of a sudden he’s having a bourbon and watching Caddyshack for 30 minutes,” Ratan says. Every cut includes a hot face towel and a shoulder massage, and extra time is built into each appointment, so you’re never kept waiting. One pain point Ratan says he has whenever he goes to the barber is feeling obliged to chit-chat to the whole time, so he mitigated that in Mr. Winston’s. When booking online, you can specify if you’re up for “friendly banter” or if you’d rather doze off and not talk.
Because many men get their haircut every couple of weeks, Ratan didn’t want to set his prices too high. A haircut is $40, a beard trim is $25, grey blending is $65. A father/son hair cut is $60. There are hot shaves and brow waxes. You won’t find any crazy services at Mr. Winston’s—Ratan says he isn’t looking to break the barbershop wheel—but he’s focusing on “all the things a guy would need.”
He’s also focusing on expanding the concept. Ratan is working on expanding standalone Mr. Winston’s barbershops across North Texas. When possible, he wants to open his barbershops near Rye 51/Q Clothier locations. And as Ratan opens new stores for his clothing brands, he’ll pick locations that would include space for Mr. Winston’s, too.
Ratan’s hope is to create a one-stop shop for his customers—Men can come in, sip a bourbon, shop Rye 51’s casual styles, and get a Q Clothier suit tailored, and sit down for a haircut. “The barbershop,” says Ratan, “just plays well into the whole gentleman’s experience.”
10 a.m.–6 p.m., Tues.–Sat. 3699 McKinney Ave., Suite 311. www.mrwinstons.com
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