McHale's Future Looking Not So Bright

When McHale's glorious tavern at Eight Avenue and 46th Street closed in January 2006 to make way for a vile condo tower dedicated to life in the Platinum lane, the owner Jimmy McHale said he was saving much of the interior and the classic neon sign in hopes of reopening some day, possibly in the ground floor space of the tavern.

Well, he may still do so, but it will apparently be without the sign. Through the SnugMug.com site, I am late in noticing an item on the New York magazine site saying the grand old green-and-red neon artwork had turned up in a Chelsea antique store. Don't know which which Chelsea antique shop or how Jimmy could part with that object above all others. In may ways, that sign WAS McHale's, a beacon which said everything about the place: traditional, old-style, classy, unpretentious, urban, vintage New York. These signs are irreplacable. Why aren't they being snatched up by MOMA or something?

Excuse me while I heave a big sigh.