Royal Cleaners

I am short and always need my pants hemmed. At $ 10 a pop it’s cheap and I never find myself walking away with high-​water pants, like I have at some other places.
I don’t have much to dry-​clean but again – affordable and done just right. John, who runs the place, always recognizes me and we have pleasant little chats even though I only come in sporadically.
That being said — the dresses that I had hemmed did not come out so great. The hem was uneven as was the stitching. I wouldn’t come here for anything more complicated that shortening my jeans.

I’ve been going here for a year or so and everything has gone swimmingly. Mostly, I like the guy who works there and they haven’t lost my shirts or anything (so I guess I’m not too discriminating of a consumer here…). The quality seems fine and when I have my jackets done he does but a cardboard cover on the wire hanger which helps keep it nice.
I will say that the writing your name down does get to be a bit much, though. I suppose it’s easier than record keeping.
All in all, a decent business and a friendly guy but not exactly the perfect dry cleaner. If you want your Armani tux cleaned, probably don’t bring it here, otherwise it’s a good place.

UPDATED: 8÷19÷07
My first downgrade.
What seemed charming a year ago was probably just my giddiness at having finally moved away from Packard’s Corner. In those heady days, I would gladly have paid a washerwoman to beat my clothes against the graffiti-​covered rocks lining the banks of the Charles. I now have some perspective.
I should have known Royal Cleaners sucked when I saw the proprietor’s business cards. I assume his name is John but according to his card, it is «Jhon.» I know he’s Greek and that people call him «Yanni» but he’s clearly not illiterate, nor is he unfamiliar with English. Maybe the printer offered a discount when he screwed up the name but this sort of indifference to detail did not bode well.
John (or Jhon) can’t be bothered to write my name down on the dry-​cleaning tickets. I don’t mind that although he’s seen me every week for the past forty-​seven, he can’t remember my name. No, that doesn’t bother me. But he could at least ask me my name when I bring him $ 30 worth of business. Instead, he just pushes pen and paper across the counter and tells *me* to do it.
I don’t know why he bothers to sew the buttons back on my shirts – not once has he gotten it right and I always end up sewing them on correctly myself. This is not hard – you don’t need a BS from MIT to align a button with a buttonhole.
He hangs my suit jackets on thin wire hangers without any additional padding. It sounds like a minor issue but it makes a difference. By the time I pick up my suit and get it home, it looks like crap. Every other dry-​cleaner I’ve used has some stupid cardboard inserts that are made for suits. I’ve never seen a dry-​cleaner care so little. And I can’t even say that I’m getting what I pay for because the prices Royal Cleaners charges suggest I should get a higher degree of service.
And I’m still pissed because his kid threatened to break my legs.
Ahhh. .. I feel better.
*****
I just moved to this part of Allston-​Brighton from Packard’s Corner and I needed a new drycleaner. Sure, my new neighborhood is only three streetcar stops from my old apartment but it may as well be the other side of town: new dry-​cleaner, new pizza joint, new corner store, etc. It’s not like I’m going to walk half a mile to go to my old dry-​cleaner, who I wasn’t crazy about anyway. So I’m in a new neighborhood and Royal Cleaners is a short block away.
The prices are typical for the area and the guy who runs the place seems pretty nice. He doesn’t hassle me if I miscalculate the number of shirts I wear in a week and need something the same day. When buttons fall off in the laundry, he sews them back on, although not necessarily in their original location. I discovered this one morning when my collar wouldn’t close and I thought I’d somehow gained an inch around the neck. Freaked me out. So I had to resew the button myself but the guy gets credit for trying. I hoped the solution would be the same for what appeared to be an extra inch around my waist but that really was an extra inch around my waist. Ah well, at least BSC is only a couple of blocks down the road.
Anyway, I’ve been going to Royal for about three months and I don’t have any real complaints, although the owner’s kid threatened to break my legs if I didn’t pick up my cleaning when I said I would. I hope he was joking.