Venetian Restaurant
Torrington, CT
Photo courtesy Rick Ibsen

As dusk settles over downtown Torrington, the reddish glow from the blade sign at Venetian Restaurant begins bouncing off the brick facade and sidewalk. It's one of those old downtown neon signs that seems to look better as the daylight disappears, especially when dinner time is approaching. 05-08

The Venetian has been serving hungry folks in Torrington since 1925 and is considered the city's oldest continuously operating restaurant. Step through the door and the vintage atmosphere continues, including hand-painted murals depicting scenes of Venice. Italian favorites have long been the draw here, along with the restaurant's tableside Caesar salad, a tradition that reportedly has been performed tens of thousands of times over the years.

Venetian Restaurant
Torrington, CT
Photo courtesy Rick Ibsen

Places like this tend to collect stories along with customers. Generations of Torrington residents have stopped here for dinners, celebrations and nights out, while that familiar vertical neon sign kept watch over East Main Street. It's a simple sign, but when those red letters light up against the brick building after dark, there's no mistaking where dinner is being served.

After nearly a century under longtime ownership, the restaurant changed hands in 2022 when Enio and Tracy Perez took over. Rather than wiping the slate clean, they kept many of the old favorites and much of the familiar atmosphere while carrying the Venetian into its next chapter.

UPDATE: The Venetian reached a pretty impressive milestone in 2025, celebrating 100 years of serving Torrington. The restaurant remains open today, and thankfully that great old blade sign is still hanging over East Main Street. After a century of dinners, changing owners and changing times, the neon continues to glow when evening rolls around. 08-26

George's Coney Island Hot Dogs
Worcester, MA
Photo courtesy Richard Weiss

I saw this Coney Island sign and figured when done photographing I would pop into this place. This sign for the George's Coney Island Hot Dogs is quite large, somewhere around two stories of neon bliss making it one of the most fantastic vintage signs I ever saw. The drips of mustard are animated. 01-13 ~ Richard Weiss

You really can't cruise through downtown Worcester without noticing that giant hot dog hanging over Southbridge Street. George's Coney Island has been serving hungry folks since 1918, and that towering neon hand holding a mustard-covered dog is one of those roadside signs that practically tells you to pull over. Forget the GPS. Just follow the hot dog.

The Tsagarelis family took over the lunch counter in 1926, and George had the place remodeled in an Art Deco style in 1938. According to the family, the famous sign started with a wonderfully simple idea. George held up one of his hot dogs while somebody took a picture, and that pose became the inspiration for the enormous neon version outside. The finished sign rises about 40 feet above the street, complete with a hand gripping the dog and three drops of glowing mustard running down the side.

George's Coney Island Hot Dogs
Worcester, MA
Photo courtesy Richard Weiss

Step through the door and the roadside time warp continues. There are old wooden booths covered with generations of carved initials, a jukebox and a lunch-counter atmosphere that hasn't been polished into some modern retro theme. The specialty is still the Coney dog, topped with the family's secret meat sauce, mustard and onions. During the Depression, George and Catherine were even known to give hot dogs to neighborhood Boys Club kids who didn't have a nickel to buy one.

This little hot dog joint has managed to stick around through the Depression, World War II, changing neighborhoods and more than a dozen presidents. In 2018, Worcester closed part of the street as crowds lined up to celebrate Coney Island's 100th anniversary. The dogs have even made it to the ballpark, with a Coney Island stand at Polar Park serving fans of the Worcester Red Sox. Not bad for a lunch counter that opened more than a century ago.

UPDATE: The famous 80-plus-year-old neon sign was taken down in 2025 for a major restoration by Dave Waller of Neon Williams, who called it the finest sign in New England. The work included the old metalwork, neon and, most importantly, those three dripping drops of mustard. George's Coney Island remains open on Southbridge Street, still serving dogs beneath one of Worcester's great roadside landmarks. 08-26

Wonder Bar Pizza
Worcester, MA
Photo courtesy Richard Weiss

Here's the Wonder Bar Pizza in Worcester, MA with it's bright neon sign. Opening in 1922, the Wonder Bar is known to be a neighborhood pizza eaters delight. 01-1

Cruising along Worcester's Shrewsbury Street, it's hard to miss the bright neon hanging outside Wonder Bar Pizza. This neighborhood pizza joint has been around since 1922, and that wonderful old sign makes it look like the kind of place where pulling over for a pie is probably a pretty good idea. 01-13

Italian immigrant Pasquale Bisceglia started the place, and in the early days a whole pizza could reportedly be had for about 35 cents. The Wonder Bar stayed in the family for generations, becoming one of those neighborhood places where the recipe and the regular customers seemed to stick around together. Thin-crust pizza became the specialty, baked in old-style deck ovens using longtime dough and sauce recipes.

There's even a little Hollywood connection to the name. The Wonder Bar was reportedly named for the 1934 Warner Bros. musical Wonder Bar starring Al Jolson. Of course, the Worcester restaurant had already opened in 1922, so the Wonder Bar name apparently came later. Either way, it's a bit of old Hollywood tucked into a Worcester pizza joint.

Wonder Bar Pizza
Worcester, MA
Photo courtesy Richard Weiss

The original family eventually put the place up for sale in 2014, and for a while it looked like another old neighborhood landmark might be finished. New owners stepped in, renovated the restaurant and reopened it in 2015. Some of the old interior atmosphere disappeared in the process, but thankfully the vintage neon out front survived.

These days Wonder Bar has even made it to the ballpark, serving as one of the local food names found at Polar Park during Worcester Red Sox games. Not bad for a neighborhood pizza place that got its start more than a century ago.

UPDATE: Wonder Bar Pizza is still open on Shrewsbury Street and that great old neon sign continues to light the way. The restaurant passed the century mark in 2022 and is still turning out pizzas in Worcester. 08-26