Quinpool Shoe Repair

I hope readers will indulge me for an old fashioned business plug. Earlier this month, I had finally worn a hole in the soles of my favourite shoes; the choice was between shelling out $150 or so for a replacement pair, or doing the environmentally friendly thing and get ting them re-soled. Thankfully, Halifax has Quinpool Shoe Repair (6424 Quinpool Road, 423-6592). Opened in 1958, the shop doesn’t appear to have changed much since, and is chock full of, well, shoe stuff. The customer area is about the size of my living room, and the day I picked up my re-soled shoes there were seven customers waiting inside, with another three outside. The present owner is Dimitri Christeas, who’s been there “about 22 years,” he says. Christeas repairs shoes, obviously, but also performs leather work and makes keys; he’s a straight-up nice guy, and extended extra free service to no fewer than three of the other customers while I was there---“Oh, I can fix that while you wait, no charge,” he said to a woman with sandal strap problems. My shoes? Fifty-five bucks, gauranteed; I saved $100 and Christeas buffed them up so nicely I didn’t recognize them.