Best Close Shave

Jun Yu

32 Ross (at Jackson), 362-7776

It's getting more and more difficult to find a barber willing to soap up your kisser, scrape off your stubble, and slap on a little Vitalis for good measure, but Jun Yu performs this bygone ritual with professional panache on a regular basis. Make your way into his tiny, memento-crowded operation (Sinatra, Eastwood, and Como are among your predecessors), sink into the single chair, and place your physiognomy in his capable hands. You're cranked back into a horizontal position, just like a big shot in the movies, and then piping hot towels are draped over your face as a sort of prep treatment. One of Jun's buddies might drop by and kibitz for a while in Mandarin while you're being lathered, shaved, and squirted with cologne; afterward Jun employs the time-honored evaporation procedure of flapping a towel at your freshly shorn face. You emerge from the experience glowing, fragrant, and smooth as a Spitzenburg apple.