Focus on Business: Sharp & Flask
You might have noticed Danny Di Giulio’s smart new barbershop, Sharp and Flask, that’s recently appeared on Golborne Road. It’s up at number just by the railway bridge in the more-or-less derelict site that was redeveloped last year.Danny isn’t just any old barber – he’s the fourth generation of a family of highly skilled Italian barbers. His father still runs a barber shop in Danny’s home town of Naples. So if you happen to be in that beautiful city – pop into Barbers Di Giulio for all your barbering needs. Danny started out in his father’s shop aged 8, sweeping up. By the time he was 14, he was already shaving the customers. As Danny says, “Barbering is in my blood.”
And Danny’s Golborne Road barbershop doesn’t disappoint when it comes to tradition – as well as a haircuts and beard trims, Sharp & Flask offers a full wet shave complete with hot towels. Plus there are free beers and freshly made popcorn on offer, and you’ll be offered a cigar as you leave. Danny says that he wants to create more than just a barber’s shop. “I want it to be a place where you can come to hang out, where you can relax and find out what’s happening in the neighbourhood.”
The interior of Danny’s new shop is immaculately styled with a collection of retro artefacts like a vintage record player and a beautifully tiled wall with inlaid mirrors. Fashionably exposed copper piping and old-style Belfast sinks complete the look and a soundtrack of jazz and blues plays soothingly in the background. Danny himself describes the shop as “step back in time to the old days of traditional Barbering.”
Danny has lived on Golborne Road for the last 13 years since he arrived here from Naples and “never quite made it back.” Previously, he’s worked at a variety of hairdressers and barbers and most recently he was manager at the recently closed Base Cuts on Portobello Road.
Danny says he’s very happy to have made the move from Portobello to Golborne. “It’s much more real – Portobello rends to be dominated by tourists,” he says. And on Golborne, I’ve actually had other business coming into the shop to welcome me.
Danny invites Golborne life to sample the luxury of an old-school wet shave. This involves lots of hot towels, perhaps the smoothest shave available anywhere in London and an experience so relaxing it’s almost hypnotic. Highly recommended.
And where did the name Sharp & Flak come from? Danny explains. “My father always had a comb in the left-hand breast pocket so that he would always look ‘sharp’. In the right-hand pocket he carried a ‘flask’ so he could have a quick drink. So the name is a kind of homage to my father.
Sharp & Flask
38 Golborne Road, W10 5PR
020 8960 6749
Walk-ins welcome, Online booking available at sharpandflask.com
Sharp & Flask on Facebook
Hours: Weekdays 10 to 7, Saturday 10 to 6, Sunday 11 to 5
Closed on Mondays