Adam & Erin
Photography by Ryan Patterson
NYC native Adam Kirsch is one of the founders of The Blind Barber, his other half Erin Thomas kicks ass on the daily instructing at SoulCycle. Interviewed at Blind Barber's first location in the East Village, in summer 2013.
ERIN: You’re really lucky if you meet someone when you both are interested in being in a relationship.
ADAM: Right time, right place.
ERIN: For us there was no major chase involved, no back and forth, or stressful texts. We both just really liked each other and were pretty open about it.
ADAM: Off the bat.
TWP: How’d you guys meet?
ADAM: It was a good point in time for me. We finished opening up Blind Barber in L.A., I had been out there for most of the summer without a normal schedule, obviously didn't have a girlfriend, only focused on work. When that was over I was back in New York, I wanted to take time to settle down. It couldn't have been a more perfect time. I didn't realize it, I wasn't thinking about it, and one night in August I met her and then followed up with her for drinks and dinner.
ERIN: Via social media. He felt like there was something creepy about having hit me up via Facebook, I was like no, of course not! It was the best choice ever, so.
ADAM: We had met through a mutual friend and I added her on Facebook. Then she accepted me not long afterwards. I thought, “All right, cool.” Then I realized, “Why did I even add her if I’m not going to do anything? What was the point?” I went to yoga one morning and I came back like, “I’m just going to send her a message.” I wasn't going to wait to see her again which could take months to run into her.
I didn't realize it, I wasn't thinking about it, and one night in August I met her and then followed up with her for drinks and dinner.
ADAM: I think it’s really nice when you’re enjoying your career or your job and you’re doing good things, working on fun stuff. It's even better to share it with someone and have someone there who is on your team, supporting you.
ERIN: New York is for exploring and it's awesome to have someone to do it all with, to have a partner in crime with you to go and do all of the things you want to do.
ADAM: There’s so many -- before Erin when I was single, there were definitely a lot of cool things I wanted to check out and see, movies I had wanted to see, but it’s hard to find someone to do these things with and it’s really something when you find someone that you get along with. Now it's easy to say, "let’s go see this" or "let’s check out that" or "let’s go to this restaurant." It is like a having a partner and crime, it’s really nice.
Most romantic moment
ADAM: I surprised her and made her dinner on Valentine’s Day. I had her all set up for a fancy meal.
ERIN: I labored over my hair and choosing my outfit.
ADAM: I was laboring more than her hair! Making food. That day we had a big Blind Barber and Gillette event in the Time Warner building. I had a very busy day, ran home, 5:00, went to the grocery store, got all this stuff including a tablecloth, was like making salmon and everything, pulled the table out in the middle, got flowers, candles.
ERIN: It’s cute because our apartment’s so small.
ADAM: I moved around the apartment, was cooking, was calling my brother-in-law, asking him like questions about salmon. And made some kale, who knows what else. I told her, “We’re going on a very romantic date, get pretty dressed up, come over around 8:45." Meanwhile it's 8:30 I’m at the stove watching cooking videos.
ERIN: So our best dating place is in our living room.
ADAM: In our living room, in our small East Village living room.
ERIN: It's important for it to be OK and realize that it can be easy relationship-wise. A lot of people think, "It shouldn't be this easy" and find reasons why it shouldn’t work. If it’s easy, it’s easy. It won’t always be easy I’m sure, but it’s a good thing if you get along (laughs).
ADAM: We don't think relationships should be that much work, especially in the beginning. It's about chemistry and genuinely enjoying the person’s company no matter what else is going on.
ERIN: A sense of humor helps.
ADAM: I definitely think she’s funny. And then career-wise, we definitely talk about our jobs and we support each other in our jobs, but we also keep some of our lives separate and we enjoy our alone time and not let it affect what we have or stress us out, tire us out too much.
ERIN: We're both grateful for the jobs that we have. They are pretty cool.
ADAM: We both get to interact with awesome people every day. We make people feel good, provide services and good times for many.
ERIN: Both of our jobs provide an escape for people, from their real lives. I know that with SoulCycle so many people schedule their time around when they get to go to their SoulCycle class. That’s my whole day. It’s really fun to see people find what you found. People go to SoulCycle to either celebrate or to get through shit. There's a lot of it that’s trendy, but I think what’s more important is when even the people who go there for the trendy reasons in the first place, they might end up there that day that their boyfriend dumped them, on a bike like, getting through some stuff. So you never know who’s in your room.
ADAM: She’s developed a fan club. It’s cool for me to see her in her element. She's almost a performer to a certain extent up there. Some people think she's shy, it's fun to see her having so much fun and being super personable. She's making people happy.
A lot of people think, "It shouldn't be this easy" and find reasons why it shouldn’t work. If it’s easy, it’s easy.
ADAM: Most of my guy friends are in pretty serious relationships or married. But it’s recent, it’s always been up and down. I don't think that played much of a role in us getting together, it was more about the timing in each of our lives. We enjoy going on double dates, it’s good for going away sometimes. I still hang out with the boys plenty. I have to be at the bar, at Blind Barber, between the barbers, the bartenders, the managers, and the people that we have here, I'm part of a little community and she’s completely fine with that. We have our own separate lives.
I still hang out with the boys plenty.
ERIN: The best part is this feeling, that reminder of, you know when you’re a kid and your parents say, “No matter what, I still love you.” That kind of thing. That is what is great about our relationship. You always have someone there. I know that even if I fail at everything, we’re fine.