(Photo: Kenneth Chen)

Hats (the non-baseball-cap kind) seem to be perpetually on the verge of a comeback. But despite the best efforts of Kid Rock, it’s still rare to see anyone wearing a stately homburg or a ska-style stingy-brimmed porkpie—except in and immediately around J.J. Hat Center (310 Fifth Avenue, near 32nd Street; 212-239-4368 or jjhatcenter.com). Open since 1911, New York’s oldest hat store caters to stars—Pierce Brosnan and Run-DMC are recent customers—and civilians alike with a wide range of styles and prices, from a $27.50 wool newsboy cap to a $350 Borsalino fur-felt fedora to a $2,500 top-of-the-line Montecristi straw fedora. J.J. will also block—that is, resize—vintage hats, so if Grandpa’s gangsterish Biltmore is constricting blood flow to your brain, you can have it steamed and stretched to an exact fit and indulge your Bogart fantasies in comfort.

Related:

• Archive: “Best of New York Weekly”
• Table of Contents: February 2, 2004 issue of New York | Subscribe!