St. Catharines barber shop offers up pints, mixed drinks, specialty coffee while you’re geting a trim

With a name like Frontier Barbers and Company, you just know there’s going to be an old time feel to this hair-cutting establishment.

It certainly doesn’t disappoint. When customers walk in, they’re not staring at a tiny cash register counter. No, what greets them instead is a full length wooden bar.

The chairs for washing and cutting hair are stationed toward the back but between the bar and those chairs is a beautiful wooden sliding barn door leading to a backroom. Frontier days, indeed.

Even straight-razor shaves and hot towels are on the menu to make this one of the most relaxed atmospheres in the downtown St. Catharines corridor.

For owners Matthew and Brittney Bodis, that’s the only way they’d have it. The couple opened their barber shop on the north-west corner of St. Paul Street West and Ontario Street way in May 2019, seeking a different experience for their customers.

Brittney and Matthew Bodis have created an unique and relaxed atmosphere at
Frontier Barbers and Company on the corner of Ontario Street and St. Paul Street
West in St. Catharine. (Photo: InvestInSC)

Certainly, the bar alone speaks to that. “Well, we had to make it fun and interesting,” laughed Matthew when we talked to him.

Matthew watched the business end of Frontier while Brittney maintains the hair-cutting side, now with a handful of helpers. “We have a great staff,” said Matthew happily. But it wasn’t always that way.

“When we started, it was just a Brittney and myself but by about September (of 2019), we really started to see our vision come together,” he noted.

Even though it’s their place, the pair has a new owner who can be at times a little bit demanding. Well, okay, it’s a six-month-old infant boy and on the day we caught up with him over the phone, we instantly recognized the sounds. Matthew chuckled that he was pulling “Daddy Day Care” that day.

Naturally, like the rest of the world, the couple had no idea what was in store come March 2020. “Those were interesting times, to say the least,” said Matthew. “Like everyone, we were shocked when we found out (everything was getting shut down by the pandemic.)”

Fortunately, he noted, the pair “had squirreled away as much as we could during the first year,” he said, leaving them able to pay bills during closures.

As you can see on the left, as much as an ample liquor stock, Frontier offers up some of the finest craft beer from around the Niagara Region. To the right, Brittney cuts the hair of a young man bathed in the early morning light.

Looking back now, he notes, “We had been a COVID-run business much longer than a non-COVID one.”

With some health official believing that Omicron might just be the last gasp of the pandemic, he said, like other businesses owners he is “cautious but optimistic” that the worst has past. He added that he wants that, not just for their business but rather all the businesses in the city.

“In St. Catharines, it’s all about the community,” he said. “Like they say, a high tide raises all ships and this is truly a close-knit place.”

As for their primo location at the entry-point of downtown, Matthew can only smile. “It’s great that people driving home from work can look at a see the haircut and maybe a couple of people of the bar. This location is out bread-and-butter.”

Frontier Barbers and Company is located at 19 Ontario Street in St Catharines. Phone: 289-362-6081. Website: https://frontierbarbers.ca/Hours are: Wednesday through Friday 9 am to 8 pm, Tuesday and Saturday 9 am to 5 pm, Sunday 10 am to 5 pm and Mondays closed.

1. Frontier Barbers and Company