Fernando Abreu Has Been Giving the North Ward the Same Perfect Shave Since 1998

The shop smells like Bay Rum and barbicide and the kind of order that comes from doing one thing exactly right for twenty-five years. Fernando learned straight razor technique in Alfama and brought it to Bloomfield Avenue because there was nowhere in Newark doing it properly. That was 1998. The radio plays fado on a small speaker near the window. The chairs are the original ones. The regulars are the sons of the original regulars now, in some cases. Fernando will tell you this if you ask. He'll also tell you that the blade requires absolute confidence, and that doubt is what causes nicks. He has never, in twenty-five years, had doubt.