Smith Street's Saga of the Carniceria Sign
Did that sign at Carniceria, the defunct restaurant on Smith Street that sprang up in place of the also defunct Porchetta which took the place of the dead Banania, look familiar to you? Indeed, it should have. A special GL correspondent in Carroll Gardens sent us these photos along with an email entitled "The Rape of Smith Street." Here is what she wrote:
Just a small observation. The nice old Carniceria on Smith Street sells its sign to new owner of the space that once housed Banania. Banania closed to become Porcetta. While Banania was a Smith Street favorite, tasteful inside and out, Porcetta and Carniceria both tanked. I only mention this due to the opportunistic nature of the last owner, buying the 50 year old sign from an original Smith Street business and gluing it to the facade of his new cafe to cash in on what? Ye Old Smith Street? Using the Old to attract the new?...Where is that wonderful old sign??? Don't think it's going back where it came from...To a new restaurant trying to create faux old, perhaps?
Labels: Smith Street
posted by rsguskind at 8:20 AM
4 Comments:
There seems to be a tradition in the area of leaving up old signs when new businessed opens. Rocketship has the shoe store sign still mounted above the shop. Brooklyn General left some of the Frank's Department Store signage intact (over on Union near Coulmbia). The Red Rail (now Naidre's) displayed signs from the beauty parlor and bakery that were there before. Lucali's decorated with some signage from the candy store that closed after decades of egg cream making. An doesn't Bagels on the Park incorporate a old florist's sign?
Not the same as buying a sign from an existing business to sell a new business. The "trend" of leaving the old signs is either a product of a small budget, costly to remove them, or a nice way to keep the character of a building. Bagels on the Park does not "incorporate" anything. It's not called 'Florist Bagels'. Again, it is laziness/budget and or the owner's taste. Fine examples are business' in Chinatown/ Lower East Side that keep the old sinage for, say, a Barber shop, but a trendy bar has moved in, with no name. Get it? And just FYI, the signage at Naidre's is fake. Those signs were painted for movies that was filmed there, including Moonstruck.
I am pretty sure that THE RED RAIL used the real signs from the bakery and beauty parlor that were former tenants. Maybe a longtime resident can confirm or deny. Anyway, I wasn't claiming it was "the same thing". I just find it interesting that there are so many examples in one neighborhood of people opening businesses and preserving signage.
Very sad to say that the sign was taken down and thrown out in a large dumpster last week. Maybe there was a midnight recovery and we'll see it in it's 3rd life?
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