THE ARCHIVE / Themes
Restaurants.
Roadside restaurants sell an anticipated experience before they serve a meal. An enormous fish, a familiar domestic shape or a carefully lettered name can give a passerby something to remember. Look for the relationship between the promise outside and the practical entrance below it. These photographs bring together restaurants of many scales, from buildings that become their own advertisements to places whose personality rests in a single sign.
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Christie's Restaurant sign, Houston, Texas

A & W Root Beer sign, Wittenberg, Wisconsin

Galat-Inn Restaurant and Lounge statue, Hartford, Michigan

The Hungry Bear Restaurant statue, Chimney Rock, North Carolina

The Hungry Bear Restaurant statue, Chimney Rock, North Carolina

A & W statue, Thermopolis, Wyoming

A & W statue, Thermopolis, Wyoming

Gaido's Restaurant sign, Galveston, Texas

Happy Chef sign, Cherokee, Iowa

Happy Chef sign, Cherokee, Iowa

Happy Chef sign, Cherokee, Iowa

Happy Chef sign, Cherokee, Iowa

Happy Chef sign, Cherokee, Iowa

Telway Burger Bull, Dearborn, Michigan

Bull-Big Texan sign, Amarillo, Texas

Byron's Seafood Restaurant sign, Wareham, Massachusetts

Carter's Drive-in statue, Wilcox, Arizona

Carter's Drive-in statue, Wilcox, Arizona

Big John Restaurant sign, Grand Island, Nebraska

Neiland's Supper Club sign, Tigerton, Wisconsin

Paul Bunyan Park-Out Hamburger sign, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Paul Bunyan Park-Out Hamburger sign, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Rene's Casa Basso Restaurant statue, Quogue, New York
