Vegetarian restaurants are becoming more mainstream and, inadvertently or not, distinctive branding and signage helps them stand out from the herd.

It Ain’t Meat, Babe

You can take their word for it, this meat-free eatery in Tokyo’s Kinshicho district is, er, as meat-free as they come. Mind you, they’re not stating It’s Delicious, only that It’s Vegetable. At least it’s not Mineral. Flickr member non-euclidean photography captured the above Taiwanese restaurant’s front facade and sign in June of 2008.

Pot Pies?

Best thing about the Herbal (not “Horrible”) Pizzeria? When calling in an order, you never have to specify “no anchovies, please”. That said, what the heck is an herbal pizza? Try the Scarborough Fair, topped with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Looking ahead, this shop’s already got a running start on the budding CBD-infused pizza sector. What’s more: they work with Gold Bee to ensure that they only use the finest CBD oil to infuse into their slices of pizza goodness! Goodbye ham & pineapple, hello hemp & pineapple express! Flickr member Jeff snapped the venerable vegetarian pizza parlor in early 2011.

Oh Yah

Chicago-area foodies oughta check out this place, recommended by Flickr member Eric Allix Rogers as “still the best vegan soul food joint in South Shore.” While such glowing reviews are a good sign for any restaurant, this one has some bad issues with its sign. Not the tilted and/or missing letters… they evoke a certain sense of charm. Nope, we’re referring to the font used on the sign just below. Pro tip: a restaurant that offers meals sans meat should present signage sans Comic Sans.

Goulash Vegas

What happens in Budapest stays in Budapest, whether one’s Hungary or not. Welcome to Las Vegan’s, a rather inconspicuous dining kiosk that probably won’t make anyone’s to-do Liszt. Flickr member Sharon Hahn Darlin took a gamble on this cutely-named diner on the Danube in June of 2018.

Milkshaken, not Stirred

Vegetarian sushi is one of those uncomfortable conjunctions like jumbo shrimp, plastic glass and military intelligence. Still, you’ve gotta give Emeryville, CA’s Sushi Village props for advertising “vegetarian drinks”, whatever that means. We can guess what it doesn’t mean: no Bloody Marys, Moscow Mules, or anything made with Wild Turkey bourbon. Flickr member David Cohen felt intrigued enough by the concept to snap the store sign back in October of 2006.

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Food trucks need to step up their game lest the edibles prepared behind the grill lose out to competitors with flashier paint jobs and more memorable names.

We’re Number Hun!

Are you ready for “an Asian flavor invasion”? It sure beats a British invasion, assuming the latter involves British “food”. But we digress… Attila The HUNgry serves up a ravening horde of fusion foods like their signature Thai PB & J, made with Thai peanut butter and strawberry Sriracha jam. Sounds like that could turn hungry feelings to hangry ones but at least they’ll never run out of Hun puns. Flickr member Mack Male photographed – and possibly pillaged – this aggressively red food truck in Edmonton, Canada, during the summer of 2014.

Spam I Am

Serve canned pork loaf from a mobile platform and price the offerings accordingly? Brilliant! Hey, sushi is sushi, even if it’s Spam Musubi, so get yer wallet out if you wanna chow down. Flickr member Sam Howzit spied the Aloha Plate food truck at Coachella 2014, which is undoubtedly the ideal place to serve sushi made with Spam.

Lucious Speed

According to Flickr member Ezra Wolfe, “Big Lucious belongs to the third-tier syndicate known as the Oryza Kings, where he is a ground-level distributor selling sticky rice directly to the public.” That may or may not be entirely true (though we really, really hope it is), but the copious quilted foil cladding and enormous extractor thingy on the roof indicate the eponymous owner’s definitely cooking up something special inside.

Food Truckin’

If the Grateful Dead had a food truck, it would probably look a lot like this though using a VW Microbus would have completely nailed it. That said, Honest Tom’s Taco Shop’s pushes all the right buttons from the LSD-lightful paint job to a decorated grinning skull right out of Dia de Muertos. Gotta love their menu board too: breakfast tacos and iced coffee are a classic post-hangover meal. Flickr member Ezra Wolfe snapped the flashback-inducing roving roach coach in May of 2010.

Praise Cheeses

You can’t get more understated than the Big Cheese food truck, shown here at PopaPalooza… a convention-style event for the Funko community. Indeed, even Funko fans gotta feed their faces sometime and nothing satisfies like cheese in all its deliciously odoriferous permutations. Yes whey! Those reluctant to accept cheeses as their gustatorial savior can seek solace via the truck’s Nutella with Roasted Banana sandwich. Flickr member justgrimes caught up with the charmingly minimalist food truck in April of 2011.

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Chain store competition is creaming Milk Bars across Australia, leaving independent store owners, desperate smokers and the odd lost droog thirsting for more.

Milked Dry

Milk bars have a curiously convoluted history dating back almost a century: the first so-named establishment opened in India back in 1930. The concept of an alcohol-free pub catering to the younger set with healthy, dairy-based fresh and frozen comestibles then took off in the UK, and by 1940 had spread to the United States.

In Australia, milk bars evolved into proto-convenience stores selling cigarettes, newspapers and sundries alongside trademark tasty treats. Our lead images of the abandoned Oak Milk Bar in Kangaroo Point, NSW were taken in 2003 by Flickr member Geoff Eastwood though by that time, the quintessentially Sixties structure had already been long-abandoned.

Nixed Business

The sign says “Mixed… Business” but to the average Aussie, that meant a milk bar with the aforementioned odds & ends sold within. One would hope the floor within this abandoned milk bar in Fitzroy (a suburb of Melbourne) was more level than the street outside but if not, any spilt milk would run off instead of forming a puddle. Call it a feature, not a bug. Flickr member Susan Fitzgerald snapped the tipsy ex-establishment in July of 2006.

Petered Out

They do things a little differently in the Antipodes… care for some “Tea of Flavor”, fer instance? You’ll find it – at least you COULD, before the shop went (down) under, sold along with Peter’s ice cream at this unnamed former milk bar in Annandale, Sydney. Aussies also take their milk barrista-ing seriously: none other than Mrs. R.V. Craig, “Reg. Milk Vendor”, served up the cow juice with fresh or frozen att-teat-tude! Flickr member Navin (no, not Navin R Johnson) posted the above pic early in 2010.

Heavy Medal

The weight of time is apparent when gazing at the now-demolished Olympia Milk Bar in Stanmore, Sydney. Flickr member Newtown grafitti recalls a movie house just next door, the closing of which likely decimated business at the Olympia. Too bad – a scoop or two of Street’s Ice Cream would have made a notoriously hot Sydney summer evening a tad less hellish.

Never On Sundae

From the serene blue-tiled facade to the homely (in a good way) rose-patterned window curtains, this nameless former milk bar in Murrayville, Victoria just oozes cooling replenishment of the dairy persuasion. One wonders, did anybody ever actually “insist” on being served a “delightfully refreshing” Holten’s aerated drink? We sure wish we could do so but alas, Flickr member Matt‘s photo above plainly and painfully points out the milk bar’s CLOSED status as of January 2010.

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When the auto sector’s hurting, dealers feel the pain and these closed and abandoned auto dealerships are the poster-kids of decline in a once-proud industry.

The Buick Stops Here

Take Rassas Buick, a GM dealership in Red Bank, NJ that closed after an astonishing 83 years in business because, according to Flickr member Jazz Guy, “GM wants to right-size markets it considers overfranchised.” Too bad the braintrust at GM couldn’t let the market decide which dealerships were viable and which ones weren’t… applied capitalism, one might say.

Hardt Earned

Here’s the former Earnhardt Ford in Tempe, AZ, as photo-documented inside and out by Flickr member oati in March of 2008. The self-proclaimed “#1 In Arizona” Ford dealership may have moved to a presumably bigger and better location (or perhaps a smaller, more economical one considering the move took place in the midst of the Great Recession) but geez, did they ever leave a mess behind!

No A for Effort

Are they open to closing? We don’t know the circumstances revolving around this apparently stillborn GM dealership in (we’re guessing) Colma, CA but kudos to Flickr member Dave Fayram anyway. Timing is everything when it comes to photography… and to auto sales, for that matter.

Like A Rose

Bronx car dealer Sam M Rose passed away in 1990 at the age of 77, leaving the remnants of his long-time Chevy dealership behind. Fast-forward to the summer of 2009 and Rose Chevrolet’s big neon bowtie sign still loomed over Fordham Road, roughly three decades after Rose’s namesake dealership closed. A tip ‘o the cap to Flickr member Traci Lawson for snapping this shot and it’s a good thing she did: according to one commenter, the venerable sign was finally removed in 2016.

M Squared

Towards the end of the twentieth century, a trend developed where disparate auto dealerships congregated together in sprawling “auto centers” in a bid to attract more customers. Trouble was, most customers only want to buy one car regardless of how many different dealerships are clustered around them. The result? Something like the former Metro Auto Center in Tucson, AZ, snapped in July of 2011 by Flickr member Ginger Bidwell.

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Unfortunately named women‘s wear retailer DressBarn is slamming the door on 650 retail stores in 45 states as sales decline and branding loses focus.

Barn Storm

DressBarn made its debut in 1962 – a time when American women were flooding into the workforce and unlike the era’s Mad Men, had a limited choice of workwear options from which to chose from. Founder Roslyn Jaffe’s bright idea was a hit then… but a Misses now. Kudos to Flickr member Mike Mozart for the two images above taken in early April of 2014.

Agri Culture Wars

In 1982 the company was listed on NASDAQ (symbol DBRN) and in 2011 the reorganized firm was renamed Ascena Retail Group, Inc. DressBarn was flying high… or was it? By almost any measure, the American economy has been on a roll for the better part of the past decade. Yet on May 21st of 2019, Ascena announced the imminent closing of all 650 DressBarn stores. By the way, Flickr member stevetursi‘s image above illustrates what must be the cheesiest “corporate headquarters” we’ve ever seen. Just sayin’.

Not Makin’ Hay

The announcement deals a haymaker (pun intended) to roughly 6,800 employees with the pain spread nationwide as DressBarn has stores in 45 states. “This decision was difficult, but necessary,” explained Steven Taylor, chief financial officer of Dressbarn, “as the DressBarn chain has not been operating at an acceptable level of profitability in today’s retail environment.” One might say management is closing the (Dress)Barn door after the horse has escaped but that would be too obvious, so we won’t. The store above, located in Torrington, CT and snapped by Flickr member JJBers in mid-2018, appears to be getting the jump on the mass-closing.

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