former Bickford's Cafeteria, New York

The sight of the New Yorker Hotel on the skyline drew me like a beacon to one of NYC's Art Deco gems but when I got there I found this modest little building across the road at 488 Eighth Avenue.

The name Bickford's can be seen clearly in a cartouche below the stepped roofline of the building surrounded by Art Deco chevrons and grecian design elements.

An internet search reveals a photo of the street level facade from the early 1940s when the building housed a Bickford's cafeteria and an article from the New York Times from 2000 entitled Breakfast at Bickford's prompted by this very building.

Both items are reproduced on www.plazaview.com, a financial forecasting website setup by Jeffrey S Bickford, a descendent of Samuel Bickford the founder of a chain of restaurants and cafeterias bearing the Bickford name which at one time had 48 branches all over New York dwindling to just 2 in 1980 when the name vanished from the New York streets.

The article explains that the Bickford name returned when a metal facade was removed from an Adult Entertainment Centre.

Now, in the summer of 2009, the building is vacant, seeking a retail tenant.

Hopefully a sympathetic business can see the potential in this building and keep the Bickford name on Eighth Avenue opposite it's grand deco neighbour.