Fashion
A Very New York Party for New York Nico
At Astor Place Hairstylists, an old-school barbershop, small-business owners feted a social media star who spotlights the city’s gritty character.
On Tuesday night, Nicolas Heller, a filmmaker and social media creator known as New York Nico, was surrounded by friends and fans at Astor Place Hairstylists, a cash-only, subterranean barbershop in the East Village.
“I’m drawn to the old-school spots,” he said.
Mr. Heller, 35, has built a following of over one million on Instagram with dispatches that spotlight the New York institutions you might not find in a Lonely Planet guidebook. He also creates affectionate profiles of local characters like Tiger Hood, who golfs on city streets, and the Green Lady of Brooklyn, who wears only green.
Astor Place Hairstylists, which has been around more than 75 years, was the perfect setting for a party held to celebrate the publication of “New York Nico’s Guide to NYC,” a book filled with odes to 100 small businesses across the city, including Liebman’s Deli in the Bronx, Luigi’s Pizza in Brooklyn and Lee’s Tavern on Staten Island. Written with the journalist Jason Diamond, the book is intended as a record of sorts, a way of committing these local businesses to the printed page, Mr. Heller said.
“I’m proud to have gotten small businesses into the book like Neir’s Tavern, a 195-year-old bar in Queens, the Chess Forum in Greenwich Village and Casa Amadeo, one of the oldest Latin music stores in the city,” Mr. Heller said.
Wearing a New York Yankees cap, he mingled with fans who threw him daps and asked him to sign their books.
