Minty 1970s-style mansard McDonald's to meet its maker; hunting the ghost signs of San Francisco; mourning a lost one in Portland; sampling Wisconsin cheese | Rolando's Roadside Roundup

If a time traveler from the 1970s were to pass by this McDonald’s, they’d feel right at home, with the only curiosity being the PlayPlace just outside. This is really one of the nicest-looking McDonald’s around from the mansard era, which began in 1968 and ended in the mid-2000s. The last of those stores will likely be gone this year, I’d reckon.

This one, in Reading, Massachusetts, still has its presumably original cedar-shingled roof, which was standard at so many fast-food restaurants of the 1970s and even into the 1980s. Most mansards saw their roofs updated to other materials, and many were repainted red in later years.

I visited this store last summer, and here are some of my pictures. This location has been on my radar since my friend, the diner expert Larry Cultrera, visited in April 2022. This is store No. 595, which would date this franchise to 1963 or so, which means there was an original “red and white” structure here in the early days. Presumably, the mansard followed in the 1970s, and now, and this can’t surprise anyone at this point, the next generation of design will soon be unveiled here.

I received a tip in my Instagram inbox that the operator of this minty mansard has filed plans to demolish this structure and replace it with a box. According to the plans — which you can see here in the Reading Post — it will be a brown box, which somehow makes it a little easier to bear than that soul-crushing gray.

Reading is just outside Boston, so if you are a connoisseur of the mansards, and can get yourself this way for a visit, I would not dawdle. [MAP]

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Boo! The ghost signs of San Francisco, mapped

A San Francisco-born artist, now based in the Netherlands, has been fascinated with the ghost signs of San Francisco since 2011, and her work documenting them is now the subject of an article in the San Francisco Standard. The artist, Kasey Smith, put together a map with locations as well.

I, too, enjoy exploring San Francisco and stumbling into its wonderful ghost signs. Below are three of my favorites.[H/T, SCA WEEKLY REVIEW]

CARNATION MUSH is at 1586 Market St.

IT HASTA BE SHASTA sign is next to the 76 station at 401 Portrero Ave. I love the little spaceman dude, who is toting a rifle for some reason.

FRESH UP WITH 7 UP at 166 Turk St.

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Ghost sign gives up the ghost in Portland

Shooting this sign for Hires Root Beer was one of the highlights of my visit to Portland in May 2021, so I was sad to learn from dkcomet on Instagram that the sign, and the charming building it was attached to, were recently demolished. [MAP]

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Say cheese! It’s National Cheese Day!

National Cheese Day — Sunday, June 4 — has me thinking fondly about my travels last July through Wisconsin, where I stopped at a few cheese shops and partook in a bag or two of squeakily delicious cheese curds.

Here are some of the stops that caught my attention, along with where you can find them.

THE CHEESE BOX: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin [MAP]

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MARKET SQUARE CHEESE: Wisconsin Dells. [MAP]

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MARIEKE GOUDA. Thorp, Wisconsin. [MAP]

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SCHULTZ’S CHEESE HAUS. Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. [MAP]

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THE GOOD …

• An upstate New York diner is being moved to New York City, where it will be used by the Jackson Hole hamburger chain. Jackson Hole has done a wonderful job reusing the old Airline Diner in East Elmhurst, Queens, where a scene from “Goodfellas” was filmed. Will this diner be used at that location, or is this part of an expansion? Details are scant at the moment. [Times Union]

• Progress continues as the Crest Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles, is reborn as the Nimoy, as in Leonard. [Los Angeles Theatres]

  

• The iconic Joe’s Liquor and Bar is seeking to raise funds to restore its famous neon sign. This is how it looked when I visited Rock Springs, Wyoming, nine years ago. [Rocket Miner] [MAP]

• The Aloha Motel sign has returned to its longtime home in Bellingham, Washington. It’s been restored and in the eyes of city leaders, purged of the seedy reputation the motel had in its final days. [KGMI]

• A profile of Cook’s Garage, a restaurant in Lubbock, Texas, that doubles as a neon sign museum. [Texas Monthly]

  

• The renovation of Tiffany’s flagship on Fifth Avenue is complete, and it comes with a new addition — a three-story blue “jewel box” on the roof![Robb Report]

• A historic sign for Muscle Shoals, Alabama, radio station WLAY, gone for over two decades, has been reinstalled! It was saved by a local business and then sold back to the owner of the media group that runs the station, which restored the sign and had it reinstalled. [Video: WAAY-TV]

THE SAD …

(Rolando Pujol)

• The old-school Oxford Bake Shop in Ozone Park, Queens, is closing on June 25. [Queens Chronicle]

• Rosie O’Grady’s, a midtown Manhattan staple since 1973, is closing at the end of the month. This is one I have always taken for granted — I don’t have a picture of it, an oversight I will soon fix. [amNY]

• G.D. Ritzy’s was a Midwest restaurant chain that has declined to a handful from close to 100 in its heyday. Another location, in Huntington, West Virginia, is now closing. [WSAZ]

• Some interesting background on the chain, founded in Ohio in 1980, from AP.

• Long Island’s Lantern Diner has closed “until further notice.” [News 12]

• The shuttered Rod’s in Arcadia, California, is now for sale. I somehow never got to visit this Googie classic, which stood in for a Howard Johnson’s restaurant on an episode of “Mad Men.” The LA Conservancy explains how it’s not too late to save it.

• Raceway Pizza in Yonkers, New York, has closed after 52 years. [Daily Voice]

AND THE GRATEFUL (That’s me!)

I have long been a fan of Atlas Obscura, and I’m sure you are, too, if you follow me. That’s why I was so honored to be featured in a recent article profiling my work. Sam O’Brien of Gastro Obscura interviewed me. Here’s how the article begins:

ONE SATURDAY MORNING IN 2022, Rolando Pujol awoke in his Queens apartment with a hankering for orange juice. So he got in his car, drove nearly 400 miles, and pulled into a Montreal parking lot that sat in the shadow of a three-story-high giant orange.

This wasn’t just any juice stand. It was Gibeau Orange Julep, a towering dome run by a family that’s slung their orange juleps—a creamier take on squeezed citrus, thanks to the addition of powdered egg—since the 1930s.

“Most people spend, like, a year planning that,” he laughs. “I just go.”

Read the rest of the article here.

I’m also grateful for all of your support here on Substack. Substack just notified me that my account is now considered a bestseller as I passed a key threshold of paid subscribers!

I appreciate the support at any level. If you’d like to sign up, free or paid, all you have to do is click below! Paid subscribers get extra content as well as my advice on retro trip planning, and of course, my gratitude for helping support this (expensive) labor of love! Thank you!