The owner and operator of the barbershop inside the Riverside train station, Angelo Sena, died in January. He was 88.
A resident of Westchester and formerly Berwyn, Sena grew up in Milan, Italy. He ran his barbershop in Riverside for several decades.
“He was such a good-natured person. I regularly saw the same guys in the shop, so he had a consistent clientele that went over years and years. I think he was highly respected by everybody,” said Dan Nemec, a longtime customer of Sena’s.
The Landmark was unable to get in contact with Sena’s son, John Sena, to request an interview about his father.
Nemec said he first walked into the barbershop after he moved to Riverside around 20 years ago, and Sena quickly became his go-to barber.
“Anybody who takes Metra would have passed the shop and seen there’s a barber there. Of course, when I moved here, I said, ‘Barber’s right there. You get off the train and go to the barber. It’s so convenient,’” he said. “After going to him for about 20 years, I got to know him as a friend, as a person, and I really liked the guy.”
Over time, Nemec said he got to know Sena’s family, including his son, who also works at the barbershop.
“My son went to school with Angelo’s granddaughter, and he played high school hockey with his grandson,” he said in an email.
Nemec said he was drawn in as a repeat customer due to the no-nonsense attitude Sena brought to his haircuts and the shop.
“There was a sense of comfort in there. There was nothing at all fancy. Throughout the years, a lot of men’s barbers turned into stylist shops, and it was a different aura in there. This felt like an old-time barbershop,” he said. “You know, I don’t want anything fancy. I don’t want my hair shampooed and styled and things like that. I just wanted a basic haircut, and that’s what he gave.”
He said Sena made going to get a haircut every month an enjoyable routine that he started to look forward to due to Sena’s kind and friendly nature.
“A lot of barbers like to talk and go on and on about themselves, but Angelo was a good listener,” Nemec said.
He said Sena often told stories of his life, including of the Italian American community in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood, to which he said Sena belonged before moving out to the suburbs.
“He still stayed close to the Italian American community. I’m not Italian, but I love Italian restaurants and Italian food, and he would tell me where to go to get good Italian groceries, to get prosciutto and good parmesan cheese,” Nemec said. “My daughter did study abroad in Italy, so he shared a lot of experiences of what she should do.”
Nemec said he will miss Sena, not just as his barber but as his friend.
“I could find another barber, but [I’ll miss] the comfort of knowing I can go to him and feel that sense of comfort being in his shop,” he said.
According to Sena’s obituary, he is survived by his wife Beatrice, his son John, and his grandchildren Gianna, Marisa and Giovanni. Services were held at St. Odilo Church in Berwyn on Jan. 31.
