A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from June 03, 2010
“Hippies use side door” (restaurant sign)

“Hippies Use Side Door” is a sign that has decorated many restaurants in the 2000s, as a piece of joke nostalgia. The Fairview Inn (Talkeetna, Alaska) actually had such a sign in the 1970s—and the side door was kept locked.
 
‘Hippies Use Back Door” (“Hippies Use Backdoor”) is a sign that’s less frequently used.
   
       
Google News Archive
20 September 1978, Anchorage (AK) Daily News, “The Alaska Ear,” pg. 2, col. 1:
FROM EAR’S FAR-FLUNG LISTENING POSTS…Talkeetna’s Fairview Inn is so much fun, it has a sign on the front door, “HIPPIES Use Side Door.” And, oh yes, the side door is kept locked.
 
Google News Archive
12 July 1987, Anchorage (AK) Daily News, “Talkeetna” by John Carlson, We Alaskans, pg. F8, col. 2:
There is also talk in cafe about the time a handwritten sign—“Hippies use side door”—appeared on the front door of the Fairview Inn.  side door was locked. Someone ripped the sign down, and when a new sign was posted on the door, the window was smashed. This went on and several more windows were lost.
 
Google Books
Mount McKinley:
Icy crown of North America

By Fred W Beckey
Seattle, WA: The Mountaineers,
1993
Pg. 283:
Some long-hair types who arrived at the Fairview in the 1970s found a backwoods greeting sign: “Hippies Use Side Door.” Walking around to this entry, they found a notice stating, “This Door Locked.”
         
13 April 2000, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Lone Star Cafe is a taste of Texas” by Annette Reynolds:
Hippies use side door.
 
New York (NY) Times
In Telluride, the Skis Are Stowed, but Good Times Aren’t
By ALISON BERKLEY
Published: July 3, 2005
(...)
There’s the occasional chairlift patio swing, the benches made from skis, and a “Hippies Use Side Door” sign posted on the front of that small lemon-colored house on West Pacific Street.
 
Google Books
Meals worth stopping for in Florida:
Local restaurants within 10 miles of the interstate

By Nancy Barber and Jane Bolding
Guilford, CT: GPP Travel
2008
Pg. 30:
There’s lots of mosaic work with stones that say things like LOVE, PEACE, and FRIENDSHIP on them, a giant tie-dye square on the ceiling, funky signs, chalk drawings on the brick walls, and specific instructions: “hippies use side door.”
 
Google Books
The Carolinas, Georgia & the South trips:
65 themed itineraries, 1192 local places to see

By Alex Leviton; Lonely Planet Publications (Firm)
Oakland, CA: Lonely Planet Pub.
2009
Pg. 160:
Still a gathering spot for locals and now visitors, the mercantile shop sells a dozen types of bacon, traditional handmade hard candy, games of pick-up sticks and paddle ball, signs that read “Hippies Use Side Door,” and a complete selection of women’s bonnets.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityRestaurants/Bars/Coffeehouses/Food Stores • Thursday, June 03, 2010 • Permalink


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