Trimmings

A Pancake House Gets a Slight Makeover

<a href=Dandeluca's Flickr, Daniel Maurer" width="400" height="400" style="width:100%;height:auto;" fetchPriority="high" >
Dandeluca’s Flickr, Daniel Maurer

We were taken aback to discover that Di Palo isn’t the only place off the San Gennaro strip to have just changed its signage — the Landmark Coffee Shop and Pancake House is a greasy spoon notable for being one of the last locals-only cheap-grub spots in Soho. It’s the kind of place you can stagger into with your hair all mussed and get a lumberjack breakfast and bottomless coffee for about $12, or banana pancakes, if that’s your preference. Until recently, it was graced with a dilapidated, faded blue awning that slumped in the middle — a lovable token of dinginess in a neighborhood where hotels like the Mondrian and the Crosby Street have been going up. It was what Lost City might’ve called “a good sign.” Well, that’s gone, and in place of the awning that advertised old-fashioned egg creams and Nescafé, there’s a blindingly bright green sign advertising French toast and hamburger. Also of note: The word famous no longer precedes the Landmark’s name. Perhaps a show of humility. Well, at least the Landmark is looking ahead to the future — that sagging sign, adorable though it was, did cause us to worry, as one always does with places like this.

A Pancake House Gets a Slight Makeover