Mike’s Upper East Side (Yorkville)
Recorded June, 2020
On the evening of June 17, 2020, despite the lockdown, the Society for Commercial Archeology and New York Neon author Thomas E. Rinaldi took SCA members on a tour of existing and historical signs across New York City’s Upper East Side.
The tour began (virtually) at Lexington Avenue Candy. From there, we searched for traces of the German, Eastern European and Irish immigrants who settled in the East 80’s the 1930s in places like Schaller & Weber Butcher Shop (established in 1937) and the Heidelberg Restaurant. From there, we traveled to Papaya King, viewed the former Lascoff’s sign, recently adopted by Warby Parker, and ended at the spectacular Windsor Garage tri-color (with a bonus stop at the dive bar, Subway Inn – again virtually, unfortunately).
NEW YORK NEON
Thomas E. Rinaldi
Treating New York City as an open-air museum, Thomas E. Rinaldi captures the brilliant glow of surviving early- and mid-twentieth-century neon signs. Buy on Amazon.