I have the answers to all your questions (at least the ones posed above).

Tony Nik was actually Antonio Nicco, my grandfather. When prohibition was repealed in 1933, he and my grandmother opened Tony Nicco’s Cafe. Previously, that was the site for Madame Nicco’s French Laundry.

The sign you see is the original sign. My grandfather ran the bar until 1950, when he sold it to longtime friend and fellow bartender Charles “Butch” Lavagnino. Butch changed the name to Tony Nik’s – hence the painting over the original “Nicco’s” (you can almost see it on close inpection) to change it to Nik’s.

Well, that’s it for Tony Nik’s for beginners. If you have other questions, please contact me. Thank you for your interest.

Mark Nicco.

The desert climate is interesting because it simultaneously destroys and preserves. This beautiful mid-century neon sign for the now abandoned Hacienda Riviera is located on Hacienda Avenue in Desert Hot Springs, California. The wind and sand have stripped away much of the paint subduing the original colors and revealing the artists brush strokes in the lettering. The neon tubing has been destroyed by vandals or the elements. However, because of the dry air, the structure is not rusting, so there’s a lovely sad sense of arrested decay. Remarkably the sign is completely graffiti free.

A neon sign lit at night is glorious, but often there are stories hidden behind the lights. The sign lit shouts the sign maker’s intention. The daylight sign tells other stories: the story of an aging neighborhood, the stories behind the business, the hidden components of the sign maker’s craft. This great old sign is locate in San Francisco’s North Beach at 1534 Stockton Ave. It advertises a nice little neighborhood bar that has been open since prohibition days. I can’t find any information about who Tony Nik was, but I wonder why and when somebody painted over the “Nik’s.” If anybody knows anything about the history of this joint, let me know.

Monkeypete loves the urban poetry of real hand-crafted neon signs. This amazing sign, on Woerner’s Cigar and Liquor, can still be found in San Francisco’s Tenderloin  at 901 Geary Street between Larkin and Polk. The history and science behind neon can be found at http://inventors.about.com/od/qstartinventions/a/neon.htm. However, the emotional pull of a great neon sign is better explained by Jonathan Richman in his song Neon Sign which can be found on lyricsmania.com.