Famous Barbers Find Refuge From Paul Molé Legal Drama

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — For Moses Rubinov, working at Paul Molé during the last several years was almost like a dream. But an ongoing and protracted lawsuit at the city’s oldest, and arguably most famous, barbershop has spurred him to achieve another dream: owning his own men’s salon.

Since reviving the old Delta Men's Hairstylists shop down the street, at 992 Lexington Ave. near East 72nd Street, it’s also become a refuge for his fellow former Paul Molé barbers.

When Rubinov first opened just before the end of the year, he was by himself.

By the end of January, three other former Paul Molé cutters, one of whom spent three decades cutting hair at the shop, joined him.

“It was very difficult to do it alone,” said Rubinov, 32, “but when they came, it felt a lot better.”

They fled the historic shop, just a few blocks up the street, after an eviction in January shuttered its gates, a result of a protracted lawsuit — described by its judge as a “personal vendetta” and a “lover’s — or ex-lover’s — spat” between longtime proprietor Adrian Wood and his former romantic and business partner Susan Rooney. The shop remains closed months later.

“The timing was perfect,” Rubinov said, “I left the shop a month before they were evicted.”

He's not the first barber to strike out on his own due to drama at the city's oldest barbershop.

In 2017, three barbers left Paul Molé to set up their own shop just a block away from Delta on Lexington Avenue, claiming that Wood’s antisemitic comments were a factor.

Taking over the space at the old Delta shop — Rubinov will soon officially be reviving the Delta name, too — is the culmination of over 15 years as a barber.

As a kid in Forest Hills, he would cut hair at his dad’s barber shop on the weekends in high school. He kept clipping even as he earned a master's degree in accounting.

Despite the graduate degree, the lure of the scissors and working with clients pulled him back in.

“I worked at Pepsi for a year,” he told Patch, “and I realized that I couldn’t take sitting in a box all day.”

His brother-in-law referred him to Paul Molé, where he was hired on the spot and became the preferred barber to many, including Michael J. Fox, for over six years.

As the litigation at Paul Molé heated up last year, one of Rubinov’s clients told him he should look into getting his own place, saying that the recently closed 65-year-old Delta salon could be a good location.

“We went to look at it, and within a day I signed a lease," Rubinov said. "So fast, I didn’t even believe it myself."

With help from his client, who’s support Rubinov said was partially financial but mostly a business mentorship — “priceless,” he said — Rubinov slowly built out his shop over the next six months or so before he left Paul Molé at the end of the year.

“It’s a huge risk,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was going to have these guys with me — there was no guarantee of any of that.”

Now, Rubinov has seven workers total: him and the three others barbers, Benny, Guido and Leo from Paul Molé and two former owners of the Delta salon, Peter and Dimitri.

One of the barbers, Guido, had worked at Paul Molé for 25 years.

But Rubinov isn’t only looking to cut hair. He has a vision of a large operation on day where men can come in for a full spruce-up.

“I want to expand into a full service men’s grooming salon one day,” Rubinov told Patch, “a convenient one stop-shop to get everything done.”

Until then, he’s still cutting hair from his loyal clients' heads, like Richard Diamond, an Upper East Sider who for the last four years has only allowed Rubinov to touch his hair.

“I’m thrilled for him,” Diamond said as Rubinov’s blades danced around his head, “I’m excited for him.”

“Moses is the best barber that I’ve ever had.”