The landmark street sign for long time Eastside favorite “CHRONI’S FAMOUS SANDWICH SHOP” recently fell victim to a “hostile makeover.”
The former original version had featured a flickering neon outline that animated the doggie’s wagging tail and tongue. The new flat paint job reduces the sign to a shadow of it’s former self. By simply filling in the original outlines with bright primary colors instead of attempting to restore the original design, the management continues to further alienate us purists by continuing a string of Chroni’s atrocities such as putting lettuce in the hamburgers.
As an avid preservationist and historian, I lament yet another loss of our city’s original flavor. My only consolation at this point is that I had managed to document images of the original version.
The original Chroni’s sign now becomes yet another bit of L.A. history that we’ll have to find in some future coffee table book. (Sigh) At least we’ll have the pictures, and the memories…………….
That’s awful. Let the owner know they trashed something cool!
Chroni’s is all unincorporated East Los, not LA, but yeah the new sign is a shame.
yes I hate seening old sign’s get make-overs, esp if they have none of the orig class and look all generic.
That does suck. And, it only adds insult to injury when they try to make the new sign look all retro. Just make it look new, like all of those greenish brown, checkered looking apartment buildings going up everywhere. Don’t insult our intelligence. It’s no different than when your dog loses a toy, and you try to buy him an identical one. You know that look your dog gives you when you try to pull that shit? Even dogs are too smart for it. But not humans. “look, it’s so ’50s looking!”
DJ- Exactly!
I didn’t grow up in LA, so when my eastside and hollywood friends took me to chroni’s and pink’s—uh, I think its a memory-dog thing. Me and my Bro like big and thick bar-be-cued hot-links—because we’re cool like that.
So you like it big and thick eh Victoria !?!?!?!?
jeez, what’s next? the dude with the mustache that takes your order will start using a calculator instead of figuring out the price in his head?
(admittedly, it’s been a good ten years since i’ve been there, so he might not even be there anymore)
jimmy, He’s not.:(
Stringbean’s been gone for about a year now, last time I saw him I thanked him for scaring me as a child. I believe his real name was Ron and he worked at there since a teen at the OG location on eastern (or something, Im too young to know the old spot). The 2 latino brothers are still there though, you know the one with the weird eye.
East LA is the eastern part of the city of Los Angeles.
It is within the city.
The sign i think is art and as such is subjective and open to interpretation- some will love it others will hate it..and thats ok!
What really matters is the food..I havent been there in about 5 yrs.
BTW- i like mines a little grilled with mustard and relish no mayo or ketchup.
Regular size for me because i dont want or need to get stretch marks around my mouth lol
– latino homo here 🙂
Al- I think I may have been one of the first to point out that sign “restoration”, I think it is a disaster to see that sign as it looks now!! Especially for someone like me who remembers when Cronis was on Eastern and Whittier Blvds, next to a construction material building!! WOW!!! so sad!!!
Why do they do pull this crap, why?!?! Over in Hawthorne (yup, I’m a South Bay chick!), on Hawthorne Blvd, there is a coffee shop/dinner called Chips that has been there since 1957. Hawthorne Blvd is our “Main Street” and I’ve been passing by that dinner nearly every day of my life. The giant “Chips” sign towering above the resaurant would blink out one letter at a time, with the previous letter staying lit, and then all letters would blink at the same time, all in big bright white lights, and I think there was some neon somewhere in there too, not sure… It was so cool!! Well, a few years ago they remodeled the sign, I thought they were cleaning it when I saw them doing it. How naive I was. They painted the towers the letters were on a dark green (it was a cool mint before) and took off the blinking letters and replaced them with identical ones… or nearly identical… NO BLINKING AT ALL!! Nothing! Zilch! At night, they just sit there dark, I swear you can hardly see that big-ass sign! They took away all the charm, the happy little feeling we’d get when we passed by there at night, seeing a cute ’50s dinner with the huge blinking sign welcoming us in. NO MORE! You know what the first words out of my mouth were when I saw what they did? THEY’VE F@#*ED IT UP! I’m not kidding, I did, and they did too. Why….
And on a different note – random hero, I don’t know about Victoria, but I sure like them big and thick.
Oh, I mean my hot-links… yeah, hot-links… 😉