A Good Sign: York Deli

Just the Pepsi sign, I mean, not the awning. Bold. Simple. In Yorkville.

A Good Sign: Joe's Tavern

Found this battered old vertical neon sign outside a building way over on 10th Avenue and 25th. Joe's is long gone, and it doesn't look like the ground floor business space has been inhabited for years. I've seen this style of sign, with the horizontal "BAR" tacked on the end, countless times. But the forlorn appearance of this specimen makes it particularly poignant.

A Good Sign: Gramercy Cafe

Get rid of the awning. The neon sign is all this cafe needs. In Gramercy Park.

A Good Sign: Columbia Florist

A family-owned florist on 231st Street in Riverdale, The Bronx, Columbia has been in the neighborhood for decades. The newer awning does nothing for me, but the older sign on top does.

A Good Sign: Cambridge Podiatry Center

Nice blocky letters. Plain and simple, yet it has a style. Like the whole storefront, too, with the yellow brick and venetian blinds.

Four Season Cleaner's Past Season

A peek under the plastic awning of the nondescript Four Seasons Cleaners on Church Avenue in Borough Park reveals that it was once the much-more-interesting Steve -N-Allen French Cleaners. Fantastic sign, particularly the way the "French" is incorporated into the "C."

The best part of the signage, however, is this little guy, a tailor with slicked-back black hair ready to serve you. Something's been covered up above and below the tailor, probably advertisements of services that are no longer provided.



At some point in between its days at Steve -N- Allen and Four Seasons, it seems to have been called Sparkle French Cleaners.

A Good Sign: PItta Funeral Home

The Pitta Funeral Home is on McDonald Avenue in the Kensington section on Brooklyn. They are to be applauded not only for their jazzy two-font main signage, but the style with which the print their address on the front, glass, double doors. Pitta was founded in 1951. Funny story about the place can be read here.

The Story of the Te-Amo Cigar Sign, a New York Icon

I've always enjoyed spotting one of these Te-Amo Cigar signs over a New York deli, newsstand or bodega. But they are getting rarer, as storeowners take them down and replace them with awnings, or as the businesses shutter and are replaced with boutiques and restaurants.

Te-Amo is a brand of Mexican cigar. Like Knox Hats in the world of habidashery, and Coca-Cola in the worlds of pharmacies and diners, Te-Amo once found an effective way to advertise its products by volunteering to buy signs for small, independent businesses. (Optimo cigar signs were also once a common sight. Optimo is an American-made cigar.)

Te-Amo cigars are made by Mexico's largest cigar maker, Nueva Matacapan Tabacos S.A, which has been run by five generations of the Turrent family. As you might guess, the Te-Amo brand exploded in the U.S. following President Kennedy's embargo on all things Cuban, and grew into a leading U.S. brand. Prior to 1960, the company sold most of its tobacco to Europe; after 1960, they began doing business with the U.S. The Te-Amo brand was created in 1966. That is when most of the Te-Amo store signs went up.

Alberto Turrent said in an interview with Cigar Aficionado: "Te-Amo [was a separate partnership that] had a warehouse in New Jersey. [At] the beginning it was in Miami—it didn't work. They had two partners, and one of the partners moved from Miami to New York. The best sales [for Te-Amo] were in the New York area....[The New York partner] died, and we bought the company in 1972."

Turrent further commented: "At one point we had 170 stores around the New York City area selling the cigars... [It was] mostly a New York cigar. In the '70s, about 60 percent of our sales [of the Te-Amo brand] came from New York."

170 stores! How many are left today? Without knowing what Te-Amo signs might be hiding in parts of The Bronx, Staten Island and Queens, I'd guess about a couple dozen.

I am not a big cigar smoker, but I enjoy a stogie a few times a year. I have not overly liked the Te-Amos I've tried in the U.S. But today the brand is also sold in Mexico. I can attest to the fact that the Te-Amos sold below the border are excellent cigars. 

A Good Sign: Travel

A reader sent in this lovely photo of an old sign that sits above a children's clothing store called Thank Heaven on Austin Street in Forest Hills. It used to be for a travel agency called Plan Travel. I like the font very much. Very tiki. Makes me think of tropical locales. 

Lost City: Louisville Edition: A Good Sign: S.E. Davis Loans

Here's a potent, Southern-style mercantile combination. Loans! Guns! Musical Instruments!

It's hard to enumerate the things that are fantastic about this old Louisville sign. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to light up at night, since I also saw it during the evening.

S. E. Davis was found in 1936. Its Facebook page tells us this with a straight face: "We sell new and previously owned jewelry at a fraction of the cost of retail stores. We also have a music room with all the accessories you may need. We make loans on jewelry, musical instruments, electronics, firearms and most things of value."

Most things of value. Hilarious.

Perhaps you can take out a loan to buy a gun or a musical instrument.

Lost City: Louisville Edition: A Good Sign: The Murphy Elevator Co.

The wonderful, and very large, neon sign is on E. Main Street in downtown Louisville. The company has been operating and family-owned since 1932. They make passenger as well as freight elevators, as the sign attests. They also do repairs and maintenance. Murphy also has locations in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia, but this is the original.

Downtown Brooklyn Cafeteria Glimpsed Once Again

The removal of some signage from a Jay Street Sprint store in downtown Brooklyn has uncovered a former resident of the block, indicated by a half of lovely old sign, saying "Cafeteria." Fantastic font on that sign. There is a red circle with a "W" in the middle of it, and there appears to be another "W" under the red section of the old/new sign that still remains.

A Good Sign: Cato's Army & Navy

In Greenpoint. Dramatic name: Cato.

A Good Sign: Ho May Kitchen

In western Williamsburg, an old-fashioned 1970s style Chinese take-out joint, with bulletproof plexiglass inside and everything.

A Good Sign: Price Wise Discount Center

In Glendale, Queens. Nice, fading, hand-painted sign. I like the choice of font for the words near the bottom.

A Good Sign: Mike's Donuts & Coffee

In Bay Ridge. Making homemade donuts on the premises since 1976. Still family owned.

Neon Dogs and Cats

Behold, what is surely the only neon sign in New York City that spells out "Dog & Cat"! This is the Bay Ridge Animal Hospital, on Fifth Avenue, which has been providing "Quality veterinary care since 1945."

The place, from what I can gather, is run by Dr. Howard Hollander, who was born in Far Rockaway and still lives there. He took over the practice in 1981 from Dr. Richard Gillespie. I can't speak to the quality of the treatment here—though based on a number of stinging web reviews, a visit here will relieve you of a great portion of the cash in your wallets. Bill padding seems to be regular practice. But I can speak in favor of the sign, which is a beaut.

A Good Sign: Rick's Superette

Rick's Superette on glorious 15th Avenue in Dyker Heights has heros, catering, and no "E." A nice sign, too.

Lost City: Wisconsin Edition: Cape Cod Hotel

The Door County resort area of Wisconsin has suffered a great deal of overdevelopment in recent years, with unsightly condo villages popping up everywhere. But much of the region's old charm remains, including many restaurants, shops, hotels and motels that date the mid-20th century, when Wisconsinites and Illinois residents first discovered the scenic joys of the peninsula county, which juts out into Lake Michigan, and was settled in the 19th century by Icelandic and Norwegian immigrants.

There are a lot of similarities between Door County and Cape Cod—the climate and abundance of shoreline and beaches not the least of them. That must have been on the minds of the founders of the Cape Cod Motel when they named their small Egg Harbor residence. The motel has a classic, 1950s layout—a long, one-story line of rooms with a central, check-in structure. There are nine rooms, priced under $100 a night. The currently owner renovated the place about five years ago. I don't know exactly how old the place is, but judging by the classic sign, I'd say it's at least 50 or 60 years old.

A Good Sign: Wolf Jewelers

Wolf Jewelers is on Myrtle Avenue in Glendale, Queens. I have read an account that it was founded in 1982. With that sign? With that awning? No way. I'd say 1950s, though I have no evidence to back that up.