Businesses that operate at thrift-minded price points often reuse old signage rather than start from scratch.
Cost generally drives the decision, but local ordinances play a part, too. Many municipalities (I'm not sure if Newark is one of them) are especially strict with prominent signs such as this that extend out over the sidewalk. The installation of similar signage may be rigorously regulated while existing structures, provided that they're still sound, may be grandfathered, and adapted for current purposes — sometimes with curious results. On one made-over sign in San Francisco, for an alcohol-free South Asian restaurant, a whitewash of the surviving framework didn't conceal a familiar Tenderloin come-on.
Until some panels were torn away, probably during a windstorm, both faces of the sign shown here were much the same. The surviving portion still promotes an Ecuadorian fish market and its sibling restaurant; the flip side now marks the location of an ancient drive-in. How long ago did it close its doors? Also shown, from nearby: surviving signage for a local DJ, whose quarter-century of spinning platters is also years in the past.
Mi Lindo Ecuador
182 Bloomfield Ave. (at Ridge St.), Newark, New Jersey
973-483-8363
