A Burger King with retro touches; a hidden NYC sign gem (briefly) revealed; the worm turns at NASA | Retrologist's Roadside Roundup
PLUS: More must-see headlines from the American roadside
Everyone’s talking about McDonald’s these days, between CosMc’s first store, located in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and the return of the McNugget Buddies, designed by Kerwin Frost, in Adult Happy Meals, along with the rare “Golden Legend” McNugget Buddy.
I’ll talk about them, too, I promise. You know I love the Golden Arches. I’m so very curious about CosMc that I might make like CosMc - an obscure 1980s McDonaldland alien character who could fly, and now the baffling but perhaps brilliant basis for this spin-off restaurant — and jet to Chicagoland to see the store myself. Hopefully, by then, I won’t have to wait in my car for four hours.
But today, fellow Retrologists, I want to have it my way and talk about Burger King.
I spotted this location recently on a drive through Westchester County, New York, and I knew I had to pull over.
The new retro logo, inspired by the 1969 classic, is becoming common enough now that I no longer totally lose it behind the wheel when I spot one. But boy, it sure looked nice here with this golden-hour glow.
I love how the franchise here, in Mount Kisco, has gone all-in on retro BK. Outside, the logo has been slapped on those pebble-covered trash cans, themselves old-school. The round sign enclosure that once held the swoosh logo now displays the square burger.
Inside, for the connoisseur of American roadside iconography, you’ll find treats that don’t require ordering anything from the menu. (Though, since you’re here, you might as well go for the onion rings.)
The actual 1969 logo can be found by the front door, beside a vintage picture of an old Burger King. The glass window separating the dining room from the operating play area features a depiction of The King from the 1960s, a pre-1969 Burger King logo.
An earlier iteration of this location appeared in a Burger King commercial filmed in April 1982 to promote the Barbecue Double Cheeseburger. The restaurant, which I believe opened in 1974, was shut for a day to shoot a drive-thru scene that reportedly would occupy all of two seconds in the commercial.
BK has really been leading the way in reinvigorating its brand through a refreshed interpretation of its iconographic heritage. Put another way, retro is cool, and they get it!
A VIP sign find — revealed and quickly concealed!
VIP is a popular name for businesses. Cleaners are quite fond of it, it seems. For many years, one could find a VIP Dry Cleaners at the corner of 70th Street and Northern Boulevard in Jackson Heights, Queens.
As long as anybody could remember, there was a bland awning over the door, the sort of dullness that permeates so much of the streetscape these days. But I had noticed long ago that a much cooler, older sign lurked beneath.
I had been keeping my eye on this sign for a while. I knew it was there because I make it a habit to peek under awnings in search of hidden gems. Some of New York’s coolest vintage signs are hiding in plain sight.
The old, hidden sign spelled VIP quaintly with periods, and the letters were rendered in plastic, with VIP in white and Cleaners in a bold orange. The type was set against a period corrugated metal background.
And last week, it was visible for all to see, the ugly awning gone.
These signs were once so common — almost the citywide default in the 1970s — but today, they are special indeed.
The day after I noticed the vintage sign was exposed, it was hidden again! A new sign for the pharmacy was installed, but the old one survived YET AGAIN, and will delight future Retrologists one day when it reemerges from its storefront tomb.
At least it wasn’t trashed, which was my fear when I saw it exposed.
Retrologist’s Roadside News Roundup
A curated digest of news from across America
CLOSING … Cupid’s Hot Dogs will close its Northridge, California, location at the end of the year. The other locations in the chain will remain open.
AND STAYING. While in Northridge, be sure to visit what will soon be the last Chuck E. Cheese location with an animatronic band. There has been a wealth of coverage since I told you about this a few weeks ago. Here are some notable examples in the LA Times and NPR.
HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN … SORT OF. The space belonging to the shuttered Happy Days Diner in downtown Brooklyn Heights, in Brooklyn, New York, will soon be home to a new classic-style diner from the owners of Fort Greene’s Margot. Happy Days opened in 2000, and was reportedly felled under the weight of over half a million dollars in debt.
THE WORM HAS TURNED. The New York Times has published an ode to NASA’s 1973 “Worm” logo, which has wormed its way back into good standing at the agency, decades after its 1992 slaughter. NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin, who killed the logo and restored the 1950s “Meatball”, may not have realized worms have a funny way of regenerating. I LOVE the Worm logo, and I was so intrigued to see it last year, not on a spacecraft but on a storefront at this location of the NASA Federal Credit Union in Oak Hall, Virginia.
RATED Rx NO LONGER. The Rite Aid in the old Broadway Theatre in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood has closed. The marquee was preserved, and its neon still glowed. The theater has a long history, going back to 1911.
ROSEBUD (SAID IN ORSON WELLES WHISPER) The Rosebud Diner has reopened in Somerville, Massachusetts, with its gorgeous sign intact. If only the old interior could be restored. A new menu has been rolled out, with Indian-inspired cuisine, for those stopping for more than a photo.
LIKE MAGIC! There’s construction buzz around the Magic Lamp Inn on Route 66 in Cucamonga, California, reports Chris Nichols on his Instagram page, with a sign promising a new chef, a new owner and a “new attitude,” and Chris rightly asks what was wrong with the old attitude. But we digress … This is my photo from a visit in June 2013, and Chris’ post is below.
LAST PICTURE SHOW. The Santee Drive-in theater in Santee, California, is closing after 65 years. The last day is Dec. 31. “Sadly, due to the loss of customers, higher costs of business, and competition with streaming services, we can no longer afford to stay open,” the business posted on its website.
I’LL DRINK TO THAT! Trad’r Sam’s neon sign — a San Francisco classic — is glowing anew! There have been changes, inside, however, including the elimination of “somewhat cringe-inducing island names for the seating areas.”