The Downtown Alliance, a type of chamber of commerce for lower Manhattan, offers a nice story about the venerable Barclay Rex shop.
Read all about it here.
Read all about it here.
Barclay Rex in New York, NY
- Thread starter briarfriar
- Start date
Thank-you for the link to this interesting article! I am well pleased to see that they are still in business.
In my collection I have an estate Barclay-Rex briar bulldog pipe that is a delightful smoker. Here is a link to the Barclay-Rex citation on the pipedia.org Website. Based upon the information there, I do not know if my pipe was made by a member of the Nastri family or, possibly, by Sasieni. My guess is the former since it has no nomenclature except for the Barclay-Rex name and New York.
Regarding their pipe-tobaccos, none are listed on their Website; however, a number are reviewed on the tobaccoreviews.com Website. Their Vincent's blend sounds enticing.
In my collection I have an estate Barclay-Rex briar bulldog pipe that is a delightful smoker. Here is a link to the Barclay-Rex citation on the pipedia.org Website. Based upon the information there, I do not know if my pipe was made by a member of the Nastri family or, possibly, by Sasieni. My guess is the former since it has no nomenclature except for the Barclay-Rex name and New York.
Regarding their pipe-tobaccos, none are listed on their Website; however, a number are reviewed on the tobaccoreviews.com Website. Their Vincent's blend sounds enticing.
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Nice report. Good to see family run businesses with a Tradition are still around in this age if Internet commerce.
In my view, Barclay Rex today is basically a nicely appointed cigar store. It's reflective of the huge decline in pipe smoking in a city which once had many shops that primarily catered to pipe smokers. Barclay Rex was one of them back in the day. In that space, it was considered one of the best.
When I visited them downtown, (now their only location, sadly) they were trending in that direction. Sad. Loved their Midtown shop.
Are you a Manhattanite?
In any event, please put your location in your Profile!
How: Under your avatar, (top right, left most of three symbols) you choose "Account Details", which brings up "My Account". "My Location" is halfway down.
I stopped by Barclay-Rex during my lunch hour on Thursday, hoping to pick up some Germain’s from the recent drop, but they were sold out (probably would’ve been prohibitively expensive, anyway—I like the idea of supporting a local business, but their tins seem to be two to three times the price that are commonly available online). I was going to snap a shot of the front to share, but I didn’t want to rile up two cigar smoking guys sitting out front that looked connected.
Unfortunately buying cigars in NY from B&Ms is very expensive due to taxes. New York ain't exactly tobacco friendly.
Another comment or two about Barclay Rex. Back in the late sixties/early seventies when I was a newbie pipe and cigar smoker Barclay Rex was located in an old and cool looking shop on Maiden Lane, in the financial district. They sold some commercial pipe brands as I recall, but their real claim to fame was the freehand pipe, some of which were allegedly made by Nastri family members who were owners of the store. The freehands were mostly if not totally "natural " briars, i.e. with a wax finish only. The selling point was that natural briar smoked better than pipes that were stained. It was a pitch shared by Connoisseur, Wilke and some other lesser known shops throughout the city. Many of these freehands were large and styled as variations of classic French/English shapes. The best, in my view, were made by Joe Cortegiano an enormously talented local pipemaker who made many pipes for Barclay Rex, Wilke and in his later years, while essentially retired, for Connoisseur.
For the budget minded, factory made natural briar pipes came from metro area factories like Weber, Arlington and Andre Mermet. Several shops in the city had relationships with these factories. Kaywoodie may have been involved too as they were a big operation in those days, I just don't know. As was the case with many shops in New York, at least some their popular house tobacco blends were made by large manufacturers. Some of Barclay Rex's best selling English style blends were made by the House of Windsor in Pennsylvania. Remember those guys?
Another comment or two about Barclay Rex. Back in the late sixties/early seventies when I was a newbie pipe and cigar smoker Barclay Rex was located in an old and cool looking shop on Maiden Lane, in the financial district. They sold some commercial pipe brands as I recall, but their real claim to fame was the freehand pipe, some of which were allegedly made by Nastri family members who were owners of the store. The freehands were mostly if not totally "natural " briars, i.e. with a wax finish only. The selling point was that natural briar smoked better than pipes that were stained. It was a pitch shared by Connoisseur, Wilke and some other lesser known shops throughout the city. Many of these freehands were large and styled as variations of classic French/English shapes. The best, in my view, were made by Joe Cortegiano an enormously talented local pipemaker who made many pipes for Barclay Rex, Wilke and in his later years, while essentially retired, for Connoisseur.
For the budget minded, factory made natural briar pipes came from metro area factories like Weber, Arlington and Andre Mermet. Several shops in the city had relationships with these factories. Kaywoodie may have been involved too as they were a big operation in those days, I just don't know. As was the case with many shops in New York, at least some their popular house tobacco blends were made by large manufacturers. Some of Barclay Rex's best selling English style blends were made by the House of Windsor in Pennsylvania. Remember those guys?