Found a hat guy in Atlanta

[4crumleys]

If anyone is interested found a retired man from Miami that owned a hat shop down there for 30 years. Retired to north Ga and still works out of his basement. He does great work, can build, and block/shape hats quickly, and actually knows how to fit it to you. Just had my new Akubra blocked by him. Found out that he did several hats for Frank Sinatra, and others in their heyday. His contact info is below.

The Hat Doctor
678-947-3190 his name is Steve Johnson.

 

[Marshall]

Do you know where in North Georgia he is located? If he's nearby I would love to go see him sometime.

 

[Thunderball]

http://www.yelp.com/biz/hat-cleaning-and-blocking-cumming

 

[gtdean48]

Less than 6 miles from the ranch! Many thanks...

 

[Terry "The Hat"]

I've got a couple of hats I was gonna sent to Optimo to be cleaned and reblocked. I might just give this guy a call and get his price. I just want to check him out real quick first. If anyone has anymore feedback on him it would help. I'm gonna send an Open Road 25 and a Borsalino to him. The Borso needs some minor hat band repair (I popped it loose stretching it). It's not bad but I'd like to make it look new again. I'd also consider having him block my new hats too if I can't get them where I want them.

 

[MaricopaKid]

Thank you for the "Heads up"!

 

[dawgvet]

Alright Tom, might be our chance to mount up The Free Home Fedora Faction and take a gander! Thanks for the tip!
Jed

 

[Mystic]

This guy was recommended to me last year when I was looking for a place in my area to clean & block hats.
The closest actual hat store to me is in St Augustine, Fl.. Mainly panamas but some new felts. The owner, Tony Lippi, does some hat work but only for his customers.

He recommends 3 people for cleaning & blocking. Steve Johnson in Cumming, Ga. was one of them....the closest to me.
Info on the 3 guys is on his webpage about the middle of the page. http://www.mypanamahat.com/index.php

I never got around to calling him.

Not a recommendation...just additional input.

Just to be fair...the other 2 guys Lippi recommended were:

Vince Corvelli Washington, D.C.
Pascal Baboulin Virgina City, NV.

 

[gtdean48]

Called & chatted with Steve. He works until 2pm at Chick-fil-A then is at his house for hat business from about 3pm on.
I'm going to put together some odd & ends that I want him to look at for me & go by.
I'll give a report afterwards. He seemed to have that hatter necessary quality (just from a quick phone call) = character!

 

[gtdean48]

Do you know where in North Georgia he is located? If he's nearby I would love to go see him sometime.

Just south of Cumming, GA in the Midway community...

 

[McGeezer]

Interesting news, I'll have to call him. Wonder if he was affiliated with a great hat store called "Roland Your Hatter" in Miami? Visited there just when I began my interest in hats and then it closed.

 

[gtdean48]

http://www.yelp.com/biz/hat-cleaning-and-blocking-cumming

Amazing this review was posted over a year ago....also under category = House Cleaning....no wonder I never stumbled over it...

 

[Mystic]

Just wondering if anyone had tried this guy out yet....

any up-date info ? :ear:

 

[Alive'n'Amplified]

Less than 6 miles from the ranch! Many thanks...

He's not as close to Kennesaw, but certainly closer than VS, Northwest Hats, Falcon Park, etc...

Nice! I will definitely keep his number handy!

 

[gtdean48]

Just wondering if anyone had tried this guy out yet....

any up-date info ? :ear:

Sorry but I have had some business, personal, & weather related distractions...I'll get over soon...I hope...

 

[Dundee]

Keep us posted with any info. Thanks. Having a quality hatter this close is good news.

 

[gtdean48]

Finally got to drop by & meet Steve, aka Stavros. He owned a hat shop in Miami, FL area for many years.
He started out in Greece at a hat shop at 11 years of age for 17 cents a day. He works at Chick-fil-A until mid-afternoon.
He has his workshop set up in his garage = sewing machine, workbench, stretcher, some blocks, brim shaper (his term after I called it a flange). Saw some puggarees, lots of ribbons hanging about, quite a few Greek fisherman caps about...

I asked if he could shorten a brim with binding & he said he could trim the brim but not do the edge binding.
I asked about sweatband replacement which he could do but didn't have leather sweats, said they were too expensive.
So....I had a beater hat that I bought a friend who's grandson ripped out the aged sweatband.
Steve is going to clean & block the hat, put in a cloth sweatband in about a week.
I'll post another write-up when I go get the hat back.
Stay tuned...

 

[WesternHatWearer]

Finally got to drop by & meet Steve, aka Stavros. He owned a hat shop in Miami, FL area for many years.
He started out in Greece at a hat shop at 11 years of age for 17 cents a day. He works at Chick-fil-A until mid-afternoon.
He has his workshop set up in his garage = sewing machine, workbench, stretcher, some blocks, brim shaper (his term after I called it a flange). Saw some puggarees, lots of ribbons hanging about, quite a few Greek fisherman caps about...

I asked if he could shorten a brim with binding & he said he could trim the brim but not do the edge binding.
I asked about sweatband replacement which he could do but didn't have leather sweats, said they were too expensive.
So....I had a beater hat that I bought a friend who's grandson ripped out the aged sweatband.
Steve is going to clean & block the hat, put in a cloth sweatband in about a week.
I'll post another write-up when I go get the hat back.
Stay tuned...

As I live in Georgia, I am very interested to read what the outcome of this adventure was. Please share! Cumming, GA is much closer than Texas, Washington, Covington Tennessee, and so on.

 

[gtdean48]

I thought I followed up on this thread but guess not! Steve's main focus is ladies' hats. He did a decent job cleaning & sewing in a cloth sweatband to that beater. I found no reason to bring him any additional business since I can do as good a job cleaning & hand blocking as he did. Since he wouldn't do leather sweats, I send my lids off for that.

 

[WesternHatWearer]

Thank you for the follow up. I will continue my search.