04 April 2011

The Visual Feast That Is Big Nick's


A newly arrived immigrant could learn English standing outside Big Nick's Burger and Pizza Joint on Broadway in the Upper West Side, there's so much to read on the 39-year-old restaurant's facade. Of course, that immigrant would have a vocabulary in which "breakfast," "burger," "pizza," "coffee" and "big" feature prominently.


The collection of signage, however, really is a work of art, the collage of a generation. Paper signs. Plastic signs. Written in pen, marker, paint. Hand-written and professionally printed. Dozens of different fonts and colors. Some nice neon bits, too. It's chaos. It's beautiful.




"Several Foreign Guidebooks"!



"Open 23 Hours." Which hour is it closed?

3 comments:

  1. upstate Johnny G4/04/2011 6:53 PM

    Nice find Brooks! That signage is truly awesome, and besides that....as far as I could tell, there are no contradictory messages, which is surprising considering how many years' worth of signs are sitting there.

    I love the ability to get bagged ice to go. If you run out in the middle of a party....no problem....Big Nick's got you covered.

    I wonder how their apple pie is. My favorite all time breakfast is a plateful of hot apple pie covered in vanilla ice cream.

    Keep up the good work!

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  2. Nice one... Good memories!

    I spent a lot of time at Big Nick's in the '80s, but mostly at their other spot on 71st Street, which has a bit less of the visual overload as the Broadway spot.

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  3. Another nice find Brook !! How did you get it ?? The signage is simple INCREDIBLE. In fact, I have lot of good memories attached with Big Nick's. Thanks for sharing...:)

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