That's one very faded ad: "Hires," "root beer," and "good all" are all I can make out. For clarification I turned to Jerome Gundrum, also known as "Dr. Root Beer," a North Carolina-based collector of memorabilia and brewer of soft drinks. That's one very faded ad, he agreed. Though his collection contains nothing that helps fill in the blank spaces on the wall, he did note the long tail on the "R" in "Root," which possibly dates the sign to the early 1900s.
Dr. Root Beer also made a gift of two bottles of his own dark brown brew (not generally available in New York), which makes a generous, "thick" impression without tasting too syrupy, sweet, or biting. Sadly, it vanished much more quickly than the sign.
"Hires Root Beer"
Surviving sign on Christopher Columbus Dr., Jersey City
It's high time for Hires!
Posted by: Petercherches.blogspot.com | April 13, 2010 at 11:27 AM