Remembering ‘White Pony’ Tony, who kept Washington’s shoes gleaming
A great shoeshine is only partly about the polish that comes out of the can. It’s also about the polish that comes out of the shoeshine man. It’s about the breeze he shoots. It’s about the drama he creates as he whisks the brushes against your wingtips and the sense of ceremony he brings when he snaps the cloth across your toecap.
Fewer D.C. shoeshine men were as much fun to watch work as Tony “White Pony” Lugthart, who died of liver cancer on June 11 at the age of 62.
I was a customer of White Pony Tony’s, regularly settling into the well-upholstered stand he had in the window of McCormick & Schmick’s on K Street NW. Over the years, Hoka Sneakers Tony operated other stands around town — including on the Hill and at Reagan National Airport — but that two-seater wa...