You going to introduce yourself?
My name is Brian Burt, Lyle's Barber Shop.
That sounds so official.
Why don't you show us around - tell us where we are.
We are in Portland, Oregon. We're in the North Tabor neighborhood - Glisan and 60th.
This is Lyle's Barber Shop. We've been in business since 2017. We're your neighborhood barber.
We're a two-chair barber shop. Just Kris and I.
And... what is that chair doing? These chairs are waiting for two new barbers.
We need barbers so if you're a barber thinking about moving to Portland, Oregon come at us!
But anyway this uh these chairs are ready for people. We did at one point last summer have four barbers for a month.
Is that the actual year? Yeah, this is the year 1962.
You could have a cigarette during your service back then.
And yeah and the brown color is typical 60s. Yup, absolutely.
Yeah, it's a really comfortable chair too. Yeah, this is a good one.
So how long did you say-
We've been here since 2017. What makes Lyle's Barber Shop so special?
I definitely consider us a traditional barbershop and Portland, Oregon doesn't have many traditional barbershops.
A lot of the barbershops are more salon, more modern style of "barbershop" but here people walk in and they feel
they get the biggest smile. They say I've been looking for this type of shop for years.
So what makes a traditional... A traditional barber shop to me, the smocks you know dressing sharp.
The shake of the hands before Covid-19. The greeting people, you know everybody feels
feels welcome at this barbershop. It's very bright, welcoming, clean, sanitary, and we just
we take pride in our work. That's why i put it on the wall.
Pride produces quality work. When you take pride in your work, it shows in your quality you know.
And the reason why people come in here, it's our service is a big deal to me and all my barbers I try to push that on them as well.
Like they have so many options in this town. There's a lot of great barbershops or great places to get a haircut.
So when they walk into Lyle's, we greet them right away. We shake their hands. We you know
we're very personable so I think that shows in pride with quality. So I mean the soul of the shop is?
The soul of the shop is this neighborhood. Without them we're nobody.
So you know without the customer you're nobody. Without you there's no us so that's the soul.
We understand that so we take pride in getting to know people's names, getting to remember their haircuts,
getting to remember pivotal things in their lives that they want to talk about when they're
in the shop that they feel comfortable talking to their barber about.
A lot of guys won't talk to many people about things, but for some reason they sit in the barber chair they open up.
So we like that
You know this is a third place. Not just work, not home, this is like their third place.
Their clubhouse - the barber shop. So this is where they feel comfortable?
Absolutely yeah. We don't want anybody not feeling comfortable in here.
What are your three favorite things? Right now it would be my plants! I've really taken pride in my plants!
Kris laughs at me. These are I've been really excited about these because when I got
all these they were babies you know so it's just really neat to see these been growing really well!
And that's one... I'm glad - I thought they were plastic. Yeah, no. Every week I take them outside
and let them breathe. It's fun yeah. Second favorite thing in the barbershop
would probably be the picture of Lyle because i just grew up... I've seen this photo since I was a little kid.
So this photo is always on the wall. That's a classic isn't it? That's like Hollywood. Very very and
the great thing about the picture as well is the cigarette's not even lit. It was a prop for the photo.
And he's your? My mother's father. Oh, okay. Yeah Lyle, and this is his wife Linda.
She passed last year. That's her in the Jersey Shore when she was like 19 years old or 18 years old.
Is that where they met? They actually met in Trenton, New Jersey.
Is this Lyle's illegitimate child? Yes, Mr. David Bowie. Elvis yeah and then Lyle.
So people always get them confused. What's so special about Lyle? Why did you name the shop after Lyle?
Well, a few reasons. I wanted an old-timey name and you don't hear the name Lyle much anymore.
I'm a sucker for the cursive L so that's why my first shop I named Lefty's. Lyle's. I think it was a Laverne & Shirley
type thing I liked as a kid. So I love that old-timey name and then I wanted to...
He was always dressed impeccable, gave me a lot of life lessons, just a great human being. So I wanted to
pay homage and that's why I named it Lyle's. Third favorite thing in the shop would probably be...
Third thing in the barbershop that I really like would probably be this straight razor up here.
um was given to me when i was in barber college by one of my friends who is a tattoo artist.
And one of the other reasons I got into barbering, I loved straight razors before I became a barber.
It was just like in the tattoo world, straight razors are just something you always saw.
So when I got that as a present, I guess that's probably the third thing. It's kind of cool
because it's the smallest things people don't really notice that. But that's been with me
like since I was in barber college. So what do you like the most about barbering?
The most I like about barbering is the connection I make with each client and barber actually that I work with.
You leave here as a friend not just another customer you know. As not just this shop but
most barbershops. So that one thing I like is the bond between the barber
and the patron is probably my favorite part about being a barber.
Thanks Harry! We'll see you next time. Have fun! Have a good day!