Fedora NYC's New and Old Neon Sign, West Village, NYC

The original Fedora restaurant located on W. 4^th Street by W. 10^th Street in the West Village was in business from 1952 to 2010.

Our friend @Rachel4D who knows that we are huge fans of everything #vintage and especially #neon signage contacted us to let us know that although the restaurant has been renovated and under the ownership of restauranteur Gabriel Stulman the original #neonsign from 1952 that once graced the facade of the #storefront is sitting in the back garden area of the building. Below is our photo of the original #signage sitting in the garden and the new sign for "Fedora" that was created to match the older original sign. They also kept part of the original bar (10 seats to be exact) and a photo of Fedora Dorato sits framed behind the bar. We originally photographed Fedora in 2009 for our book "New York Nights" and also spoke with Fedora's son, Charles about the history of the space. He told us, 

 Lots of people think that my mother was named after the hat, but she was born in Italy and was named after the opera by Umberto Giordano.

Fedora’s became well known in the neighborhood because my parents were willing to serve same sex couples whereas many restaurants in the city did not serve gay men. Over the years, they put up lots of old photos of patrons and other memorabilia such as signed playbills and sheet music.  My father is the one who originally did all the cooking but after he passed away my mother did all the cooking as well as ran the day-to-day operations of the restaurant until July 2010 when she retired at 90 years old.