Barclay Rex

Barclay Rex is a tobacconist's shop opened in lower Manhattan in 1910 by Vincent Nastri, and kept in the same family to this day. Its founder was a pipemaker who had emigrated from Italy; records give his hometown as Salerno. In the shop's early years, part of what sat on its shelves was pipes made by Nastri's own hand. The name arose from a combination of two sources: Barclay Street, where the first shop stood, and Rex, Nastri's Great Dane.

The Story of the Name and the Early Years

How the second word in the shop's name became permanent rests on a story told within the family: as the account goes, rather than placing a newspaper ad, Nastri used his dog instead, fitting Rex with a cover bearing the shop's name and walking the animal around the neighborhood. This detail has no documented basis; what is certain is that the dog's name settled into the business's name.

The business built its early years on pipes and pipe tobacco, later broadening its range toward cigars. Its address did not stay fixed either. The shop moved more than once within Manhattan's financial district, with known addresses including Broad Street, 42nd Street near Grand Central, and Lexington Avenue; the opening and closing dates of these branches do not agree across sources. In later years the business consolidated into a single shop on Pearl Street. According to news sources, management passed in 2019 to Vanessa Nastri, a descendant of the founder; which generation of the family is now at the helm varies from source to source.