Not a year after Mr. Wong’s retirement, Annie, the eternally-chipper proprietor of Mandalay One Cleaners [111 Montague Street], has executed a swift, near-complete renovation of the famed dry cleaner — somehow managing to avoid closing for all of three business days. (And on the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh days, she rested.)
The new, pink-hued place is, in a word, delicious. (So much so, in fact, that your faithful correspondent wasn’t disappointed that Annie declined to take his suggestion, that she install a ping-pong table, seriously.) The ancient plants, those towering sentinels so familiar to passersby, are gone, but yet somehow not missed. There’s a beautiful ceiling fan, shiny new shelves in place of the old sturdy wooden ones, and, say sources, a forthcoming counter from which customers will be greeted.
All in all, one is pleased that Dickens’ dictum, “Change begets change,” remains as true today as it was in 1844.
