Eating In Translation

Budweiser and baseball

From my photo archives: By swapping in the appropriate logo and team uniform, this poster could have easily been adapted to any major-league city. Sadly, though, it suits the Mets particularly well. If you read the dot of the "i" in "Budweiser" as the baseball, this looks like one more mistimed jump at the fence.

Also shown: Unpaved, undrained Willets Point roadways after heavy rain. In the final photo, the bullpen gate of Citi Field is dead ahead.

Budweiser and baseball
Sign (no longer extant) at the Mets-Willets Point station of the 7 train, Corona, Queens

Peter Doelger's Extra Beer

Though sometimes credited as a former Peter Doelger's brewery, these vintage-1880s premises are much too small for what was, by 1895, the eleventh-largest such operation in the country. More likely this sign marked a franchise bar serving the beer in question. The stained glass has held up well over the decades; Peter Doelger's gave up the ghost in 1947.

Peter Doelger's Extra Beer
Surviving signage at Teddy's
96 Berry St. (at North 8th St.), Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718-384-9787
www.TeddysWilliamsburg.com

Eskimo pie?

Igloo as pizza oven
Sign outside Uni Cafe, 2937 Broadway (at West 115th St.), Manhattan
212-662-1000

Iavarone Brothers

The forebear of this small chain of Italian markets opened in 1919; most current locations are on Long Island, in service of a newer generation of Italian-Americans.

Iavarone Brothers
Surviving signage above Eva Deli Grocery, 165 Wilson Ave. (Hart St.-Dekalb Ave.), Bushwick, Brooklyn

O St. Market

With the Eastern Market and the Georgetown Market, this 1881 Victorian structure is one of three 19th century public markets in the District. It joined the National Registry of Historic Places in 1995; by late 2013, apartments are expected to be available at a made-over City Market at O.

O St. Market
Surviving signage at 1400 7th St. N.W. (at O St.), Washington, D.C.
(From an Easter 2013 visit)

Shiner Bock

Mural in progress at 354 Metropolitan Ave. (near Havemeyer St., above the outdoor seats at Fette Sau), Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Quaker Oats

In the first photo, the wavy overline that reads "our monogram flour" probably belongs to a sign of another vintage. That side of the building now faces an alley; doorways and a fire escape are more-recent additions. The second photo shows the vantage from the avenue.

Quaker Oats
Surviving signage at 2002 Georgia Ave. N.W. (at Florida Ave.), Washington, D.C.
(From an Easter 2013 visit)

"Saloon"

Surviving signage at 1358 H St. N.E. (13th-14th Sts.), Washington, D.C.

General Electric monitor-top refrigerator

This ghostly advertisement depicts a kitchen appliance famously promoted by Rex Cole. It dates from sometime between 1927, when General Electric introduced the monitor-top model, and the early 1930s; the company introduced a flat-top fridge, which concealed the compressor within the cabinet, in 1933.

The final photo, in which the GE ad appears at far right, features Rack 'N Roll, offering billiards and ice cream both.

General Electric monitor-top refrigerator
Surviving signage on Broadway between Main and Hoover Aves., Passaic, New Jersey

"Refrigeration equipment"

Surviving signage at 585 Wales Ave. (East 149th-East 150th Sts.), Melrose, Bronx

Glassman's Pharmacy

Before it was whited out, the panel on the side street also advertised Hershey's Ice Cream; at one time this drug store probably dispensed all sorts of symptomatic relief for your sweet tooth. I imagine a soda fountain, though one brief online reminiscence mentions only a phone booth in back. By now even this must be gone; reportedly, in recent years Glassman's has done business solely as a liquor store.

Glassman's Pharmacy
893 Main St. (at Elk St.), Paterson, New Jersey

Merkel Pork Store

Once also a purveyor of "beef veal lamb poultry," according to faint silhouettes between the two lamps. A 1932 newspaper ad listed a dozen Merkel's locations, all in Queens; this Brooklyn shop may date from some later decade. The chain seems not to have outlived the 1960s.

Merkel Pork Store
Surviving signage at 415 Myrtle Ave. (Vanderbilt-Clinton Aves.), Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

El Chico

Ah, the tenacity of wheat paste. This decades-old poster for a Washington Heights nightspot was recently uncovered during construction nearby. Starch-based liquid adhesives have been used at least since the time of Toulouse-Lautrec to affix handbills and posters to flat surfaces; if not peeled free before the paste has dried, they're very difficult to remove. Adhesive tape, used on many Columbia band flyers from the same period, is much less messy and more amenable to preservation, too.

El Chico
In 1983, near the corner of Jumel Pl. and West 170th St., Manhattan

Clinton Cafe

Surviving signage, Clinton St. near Mill St., Red Hook, Brooklyn

"Specialties"

Surviving signage, East 139th St. at Willis Ave., Mott Haven, Bronx

American Can Company Stopper Factory

The American Stopper Co. moved to this former Chesebrough Manufacturing complex in 1903 and expanded the facility to accommodate its own growing business. The company, which made tin containers for chocolate as well as many personal-care products, was acquired by the American Can Co. in 1915; the precise date of this sign is unknown. Today the complex is occupied by apartments and small businesses.

American Can Company Stopper Factory
Surviving signage on Verona St. (Richards-Dwight Sts.), Red Hook, Brooklyn

Chung's Candy & Soda Stand

Chung's is not ancient — it was extant at least as recently as 1996 — but I like it for the charmingly personal lettering. Even the 7Up and Coca-Cola logos were drawn by hand.

Chung's Candy & Soda Stand
Surviving signage on the site of C&L Sunrise Grocery
149 Hester Street (at the Bowery), Manhattan

Gold Medal Flour

Two copies of a familiar faded ad appear here, stacked one atop the other. In various type sizes and styles, each reads:

Eventually

Washburn-
Crosby's

Gold
Medal
Flour

Why not now?

According to the photographer of a more elaborate version, in which a clown dangles a string to a kitten, the company employed this ad campaign from 1907 through the early 1950s.

Gold Medal Flour
Surviving signage on Nostrand ave. near the northwest corner with Jefferson Ave., Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

"UNdo It"

Surviving signage from a 1970s 7Up campaign, Port Chester, New York

Kam Fung Wong Chicken Market

A rebus requires no foreign-language skills. Here, the Chinese character for "chicken" is replaced by an appropriate image; it's simple to puzzle out KFW's stock in trade. Though those first two characters can be understood as "phoenix," we would imagine that the product line is limited to non-mythological fowl.

As it happens, several very real domestic breeds do share the phoenix name. They are reared not for eggs or meat, however, but for their looks.

See also "I have a nose for pig's feet."

Kam Fung Wong Chicken Market
4008 Third Ave. (40th-41st Sts.), Sunset Park, Brooklyn
718-965-6078