Monday, December 30, 2019

Have you seen the former Coffee Shop space on Union Square?



Several EVG readers have shared photos of the recent storefront transformation on the southwest corner of West 16th Street and Union Square West ...



The Coffee Shop closed here in October 2018 after 28 years in business. As you may already know, the Chase branch opened on Dec. 17 ... along with Chase-partnered Joe Coffee. There's also another vegan quick-serve outpost of by CHLOE on the 16th Street side.

Gothamist has been documenting — here and here and here — the blandification of the space, which saw the removal of the classic neon Coffee sign.



As for the sign, it disappeared after 8 p.m. on Dec. 5...


No one seems to have any idea what happened to the sign, which predated the coffee shop.

Some signage history via Robert Sietsema at Eater:

Coffee Shop replaced an actual coffee shop called Chase but retained the coffee shop’s old neon sign that climbed the corner of the building, which said Coffee Shop in a gigantic font. In fact, it was probably one of the first places to “steal” the identity of a previous establishment, imbuing the neon sign with a certain irony.

Jeremiah Moss has more about the space here.


[Photo via Jeremiah Moss]
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7 comments:

  1. Jim!December 30, 2019 at 8:52 AM

    How was this place ever Iconic? It was the first wave of gentrification/richification of the Union Square area.

    ReplyDelete
  2. greensauceDecember 30, 2019 at 10:02 AM

    nothing is sacred anymore!

    ReplyDelete
  3. noble neolaniDecember 31, 2019 at 10:07 AM

    Agree with Jim, I thought this place was meant to appeal to the early 2000ish "Wallpaper Magazine" crowd with it's theme like retro styling and model filled seats. The sign was not original but a (a pretty good) movie set prop piece. I will say that the restaurant was preferable to a Chase Bank.

    ReplyDelete
  4. GrieveDecember 31, 2019 at 10:16 AM

    I thought people liked the neon Coffee Shop sign more than the actual Coffee Shop.

    ReplyDelete
  5. anonymousDecember 31, 2019 at 12:02 PM

    I'm not so sure about the sign "not being original"!!!! While I agree with Jim, green and noble this place was an actual Greek diner back in the 70's and early 80's!!! I remember eating there quite a bit in my early teens!!! Food was good, cheap and you got a lot of it!!! But I'm not sure about the sign???

    ReplyDelete
  6. Franz KafkaJanuary 1, 2020 at 6:30 PM

    Coffee Shop certainly became synonymous with post-9/11 hipsterism. But it actually was an early pioneer in the late 80s/early 90s when there was nothing at all in Union Square except heroin dealers. It represents the fall of the NYC club scene that surrounded it. Many people from the music scene hung out there. It was a place to be discovered. It has a cultural synergy with Florent at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJanuary 2, 2020 at 4:56 PM

    The sign is still in the basement. Ready to be reused by future tenants potentially.

    ReplyDelete

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