Boro Park Snapshot: Hatzlocha Cleaners
Boro Park sways with the Jewish calendar. Weeks before Pesach hardware stores are all the rage. You know Sukkos is somewhat close when lumberyards begin advertising. Chanukah is marked with jugs of oil, greasy donuts and silver store sales. Purim brings out every supermarket, costume store and bakery.
But cleaners are a year-round business. You have to get that
kittel laundered before Yom Kippur, atarah polished for Pesach, the bekitche cleaned
every so often and that dress about, oh, twelve times a year. Mess up once —
shrink the suit or leave lint all over a mink coat — and your reputation washes
away quickly.
Levi Tzvi Klein is up to the task. The owner of Hatzlocha
Cleaners at 4420 16th Ave., his moving racks brim with dark suits, white
shirts, colorful dresses, woolen talleisim and lace chasuna gowns.
The store is an old one, Mr. Klein says, but he bought it off
nine years ago. It was established by a Mr. Rosenberg 25 years ago as Rosenberg
Cleaners, sold a decade ago and resold a year later to Mr. Klein. The store’s third
owner, he says he had experience prior to the purchase by working in a
different cleaners before deciding to strike off on his own.
He runs a full-service dry cleaning and related operation,
he told boropark24.com’s Heshy Rubinstein in
an interview. Hatzlocha does alterations, cleans bekitches, whitens
shirts, and buffs leather into a full shine. He has a tailor on site to make
custom made dresses. Furs take a week to clean, he noted.
Neighbored by Jo-Safe Security and the Spy Store, Hatzolcha
makes a pretty conventional imprint on the block. But Mr. Klein says he
utilizes the latest in cleaning tech to spruce up the clothes with which he’s
entrusted. He’s called on by the big boys when times get hectic and people need
their get-ups ready for the simcha or frock for yom tov.
“When G&G has a sale and they have a lot of alterations jobs
they come here to do it,” Mr. Klein said with pride. “We have even made custom
made bekitches once for Purim.”
In between cleaning up Boro Parkers’ ketchup stains and wine
spills, Mr. Klein does heavier jobs as well. He cleans kalla gowns and tallis
ataras.
Hatzlocha was left minorly bruised by the coronavirus, when
people stayed home and didn’t care that much to have their clothes cleaned. But
cleaning is an essential business so it was allowed to be open for the fewer
customers who needed it.
“People cleaned their clothes less this past Pesach and they
were out on the streets less,” Mr. Klein said. “But I had with what to make
kiddush. There was enough so the bracha could land on.”
Hatzolcha!