MORE SIGNS: Java Jive to Puccini

 "I love coffee, I love tea

I love the java jive and it loves me

Coffee and tea and the java and me

a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, boy."

       —the first stanza of the song Java Jive (Milton Drake and Ben Oakland, 1940)

          as performed by the Ink Spots.

Java N Jazz, Union Sq.

Open 24 Hours, Neon sign, 42nd Street.

Ferrara's, Café, Neon sign, Times Sq.

Ferrara's Bakery and Cafe opened in 1892 on Grand St. off Mott, in Little Italy.
It's still there, and a popular tourist attraction—this branch was, briefly, on Times Sq.

Eight O'Clock Coffee sign, Times Sq., 1993-4?

This original Eight O'Clock sign debuted on Times Sq. in 1933. It was a 25ft tall cup that
gave off real steam, and one of the first, 'spectacular' billboards to light up Broadway.

Cracked White Cup, East 20s, NYC.


This shabby old cup hung outside an equally odd but charming little café that I wandered into one day—it was filled with
young Japanese students—it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

SAN FRANCISCO/North Beach (North Beach is San Francisco's equivalent of New York's Little Italy.)

Bohemian Cigar Store, awning, North Beach, San Francisco.

MUSETTA

No coffee? No wine?

MARCELLO

Nothing! Oh, what it is to be poor!  

            —From the Opera ‘La Bohème’ (1896), Giacomo Puccini. 

Caffé Puccini, street placard, North Beach, San Francisco.