Coolidge Corner Mom & Pop Shoe Store Closed

BROOKLINE, MA — They sold everything from Clogs, to UGGS and flip flops. They sold the pair of sandals for folks on a first cruise, first clogs, the bright red ones. If you've lived in Brookline for any time, you know Downtown Shooz on Harvard Street next to the Coolidge Corner Clubhouse and JP Licks. You also may remember it was once called Mel's Capital Shoes. And had iterations in Brighton before landing in Coolidge Corner.

And you probably know Mel. A throwback from a bygone era of salesmen. This was the man who would write on an index card details he learned about you while you chatted with him over that pair of Frye boots you were considering.

After more than 45 years in the business in various forms, Downtown Shooz, has now closed.

Although for the past two decades the shop has been owned by Andy Natasi. Melvin Kravitz, who sold the shop to Natasi, was still the face of all things Shooz.

The 87 year old worked there six days a week, driving his car down to the gas station in Belmont, filling it up to drive the handful of miles to Brookline, park in an alley and hobble around to open up the store.

"That's been his life; It's shoes. He's been there for at least 45 years," said his daughter Rhonda Kravitz McGee. "That's been his world, his identity. It's going to be a very sad day when it closes up."

People love Kravitz. He's the last of the old traditional sales person that engages with customers, chats with them, finds out where they are traveling from and to. He'll suggest people to meet up with and he'll pause to make best friends with your toddler.

"People just adore him;" and he adores people, said McGee. And she should know. Nearly every night she'd get a phone call from the store while her dad was working with him wanting to put a customer on the line to chat with her about something they have in common.

According to those familiar with the closing, the landlord raised the rent and that was a major reason the store's owner decided to close up shop.

"The rent is high and people don't buy the way they used to," said McGee.

It's the same story for a number of businesses in Coolidge Corner. And online big box retailers like Amazon and Walmart don't help. It's easy to scoot in and get measured by someone in person, but then turn around and go online to buy it cheaper.

"The whole thing is just kind of killing him, you can hear it in his voice when he picks up the phone. But he is still hopeful. If you know anyone hiring a little old gray haired man, he's not ready to retire," said McGee.

McGee said she has never known her father to take a vacation. "For him it's a hard pill to swallow. He wants to work. He's not ready to retire... He doesn't want to quit ... He doesn't see himself as an old man."

Kravitz does keep busy as a "little brother" to the elderly, delivering meals to older people around the holidays, but it's the shoe business and the interaction with people around shoes that he loves.

"It's sad to see. He would have gone on until he physically couldn't any more," she said. "You'll never find anyone who loves working more than him."

She said it's what's kept him young at heart, getting to know people over a selection of shoes. He's made some cameos in local movies: Boston Casting has come in to buy shoes, he was in a converse commercial, supplied boxes of old shoes for a scene in "Good Will Hunting," and has a story about Katie Couric coming in for a pair of converse.

Kravitz was one of three sons of Westborough natives Abe and Lillian Kravitz. He grew up in Worcester. After graduating high school in 1949, he joined the Navy Reserve, spent two weeks training in the summer off the East Coast. In 1953 on Kenberma Street in Nantasket, he met his wife, Loretta, a Dorchester native. The two have been married for 64 years.

The Kravitzes settled in Somerville, and then Belmont, where they still live. They raised three daughters in the town. His parents lived to 106 and 104.

Photos by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff