Vintage Restaurants
Historic restaurants of the New York metropolitan area
I grew up in a time when the optimistic restaurant architecture of the mid twentieth century was still omnipresent. Today most of those restaurants are gone, but some of the old buildings remain.
My earliest memories of eating out on Long Island are from the early 1970s. One evening when I was four, as we drove home from the beach, my dad suggested stopping at a Wetson’s on Sunrise Highway in Freeport. I was amazed by the bustling window activity, people taking away crisp bags of hot food and eating IN THEIR CARS. My first ever fast food meal consisted of a Wetson’s burger, fries, and orange drink… I can still recall the perfect taste of each, as well as the sight of glowing orange neon rings on the eatery’s roof.
A summer or two later, I sampled broiled swordfish at the Fisherman’s Rest in Cutchogue, and became a seafood enthusiast. I loved getting the chance to eat at Nathan’s on Long Beach Road in Oceanside, where I had my first ever fried fish sandwich, with lemon, tartar sauce, and fries… heavenly.
In addition to the bucolic, suburban side of Long Island, there was a propulsion to the tenor of life there, like waves of energy from the metropolitan area, that these restaurants partook of. And while still possessing a sheen of modern efficiency and “futuristic” design, they seemed to belong to an earlier era—a cheerful, orderly, innovative one—whose fading away gave them a certain poignancy.
Here I have collected my renderings of some of the most notable vintage restaurants of the area.
This is an ongoing series of eateries through the decades. Feel free to inquire about an artwork, or suggest one you’d like to see turned into a painting.
A watercolor painting I made of Nunley’s Carousel, as it looked in Baldwin, Long Island, my hometown, around 1970. The view from the parking lot, when the ferris wheel had six colors, rather than just three. The cars in the parking lot resemble the children’s car rides in the park. 14 by 18 inches, with border. Click on thumbnail to see full image.
Each giclee print is one of an edition of 250, printed on archival Hahnemuhle paper, signed and numbered by the artist.