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.
756 photographs
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Rene's Casa Basso Restaurant statue, Quogue, New York

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

Mammy's Cupboard, Route 61, Natchez, Mississippi

Mammy's Cupboard, Route 61, Natchez, Mississippi

Uncle Sam Fast Food symbol, Toledo, Ohio

Uncle Sam Fast Food symbol, Toledo, Ohio

Uncle Sam Fast Food symbol, Toledo, Ohio

Uncle Sam Fast Food symbol, Toledo, Ohio

Yum Yum Malt Shop Drive-in sign, Bossier City, Louisiana

Farmer's Dairy sign, Hazleton, Pennsylvania

Tastee-Freez sign, Jacksonville, North Carolina

Jolly Kone Drive-in sign, Bakersfield, California

Foster's Freeze ice cream stand, Cloverdale, California

Dairy Mart Drive-in sign, Artesia, New Mexico

South 21 Curb Service, Charlotte, North Carolina

South 21 Curb Service, Charlotte, North Carolina

South 21 Curb Service, Charlotte, North Carolina

South 21 Curb Service, Charlotte, North Carolina

Kwik Chick sign, San Angelo, Texas

Bull sign, seafood, Chittenango, New York

The Chicken Shack sign, Waco, Texas

Texas Grill sign, Rosenberg, Texas

Meletio's Hot Fish sign, Saint Louis, Missouri
