Ideal Dinettes on Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn was founded in 1953 when the neighborhood was still had a huge Italian population with many large extended families living in the same household. As Bushwick underwent gentrification in the 2000s, business declined as families moved out of the area and there was less of a need for large “dinette” sets, coupled with the fact that the second-generation owners were getting older and they decided to close their shop in 2008. The saddest part of this story is that the owners knew that we were huge fans of the gorgeous neon sign and before they closed the shop, asked if we wanted to keep it. We live in a small studio in the East Village and could not possibly fit the large sign inside our apartment, let alone carry it up the necessary stairs to our floor so we had to decline their offer. This was before we were active on social media (we didn’t start our Instagram account until 2014) and did not have the large network of friends and followers that we now have and surely now would easily be able to find a great home for this neon sign and the signage ended up being heaped into a dumpster. Our film photo from 2004 and interview with the 2nd-generation owners of Ideal Dinettes appears in our book “Store Front II- A History Preserved”.
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