9th Avenue and 38th Street. Taken last night on a windy twilight. I love old-fasioned signage, and I am sad that there is so little of it left in New York City. But all is not lost. You really have to keep your eyes peeled for it, because it is still there, AND, very important, take a picture of it when you see it, because it may have been torn down tomorrow.
I’ve loved the Esposito Pork Shop sign for a couple decades now. Last night, as the wind whipped at us at every corner (anyone who was in New York yesterday knows how insanely windy it was), I decided finally to just take a damn picture.
Just looking at that sign satisfies me.
Nice snap. I assume you’ve seen the Retronaut photos of NYC’s vanishing storefronts?
No – what’s that? I am a daily reader of Lost New York – which sounds similar. But give me a link, would love to check it out!
This is the collection I referred to, but honestly, the whole site is an enormous time suck. Brace yourself.
http://www.retronaut.co/2011/05/the-disappearing-face-of-new-york/
Hey! The Pork Shop is in that collection!!
Everybody loves the Pork Shop.
They sell great meat in there as well. I was in there picking up a leg of lamb for Easter a few years ago and the celebrity chef Bobby Flay was ahead of me in line ordering his. Not only is the old fashioned signage going away, but the old fashioned meat market as well. There was a place down the street from me out here near Montclair where I would go in on Saturday morning and Karl would give my kids a slice of bologna and pretty much know my order before I told him. No prices posted just the pencil behind his ear. When the order was done he tallied it up with the pencil on the brown paper bag in about two seconds. Alas when Karl retired the place turned into a pet grooming shop.
Call me goofy (and not to diminish the joy of seeing all those classic signs, Sheila) but when I went to Dan’s suggested site “retronaut”, I found it an even more fascinating trip going through the “Celebrity Yearbook” link to the right. (Over and down from “Esposito’s Meat Shop”) And not just because of the obvious part where you try to guess who they are, but… knowing who they are now and all they’ve gone through, and seeing those innocent mugs back then totally unaware of what lies ahead of them, is really food for thought and something to think about. Know what I mean? Especially in the cases where it’s Napoleon Dynamite to sex symbol.
The picture of George Clooney alone is worth the linkage! Jeezuzzz, who knew?
I’ve never once spent a minute in NYC, but I get lost for hours and hours at http://forgotten-ny.com/.
Lisa – wow, that’s an excellent one!!
Speaking of reading things I can’t relate to and totally getting sucked in, I have to talk to you about mommybloggers.