A Good Sign: Sante Fe Grill

It's the side wall of this Bronx restaurant that has the signage appeal.

Though it's not practiced that often anymore, wall sign-painting—raw paint on a raw brick wall—still retains a certain visceral aesthetic appeal. The bold lines; the textural feel of the bricks coming through the paint; the sense of an individual, human—rather than machine—effort; the possibility of idiosyncratic expression and of endearing mistakes—it all adds up to something a factory-made plastic awning can't begin to approach.

Bonus points: the way vines have begun to grow over the landscape of desert shrubland.

On Broadway near 242nd Street.