Manager at Larry's pondering new uses for an Akron icon
By Jim Carney, Beacon Journal staff writer
1-5-08
It was one of the most recognizable old signs left in downtown Akron.
And the first thing you noticed about it when you saw it on South Main Street across from the Canal Park baseball field was the simple word:
Eat.
Underneath were the words Open 24 hours, Akron's Finest Grill.
Alan Perella, 44, manager of Larry's Main Entrance on West Market Street in Akron, loved the green-and-white sign.
It was, he said, one of the ''few reminders we have of the Akron that once was.''
So Perella called George Giancarli, owner of the sign and the building where it had hung since about 1956, and asked him what he planned to do with it.
Giancarli said he had no plans for it and would give the sign to Perella.
Six floodlights illuminated the porcelain sign that Giancarli had made for a restaurant that once stood in the 300 block of South Main Street.
In recent times, a tavern called the Little Bar, was in a section of the building, but the business closed a few years ago.
About three months ago, Perella hired a company to remove the sign and took it to his North Akron home.
''It was so much bigger than we realized it was,'' Perella said.
Hanging above the sidewalk like it did for five decades, it looked smaller, Perella said.
The sign, which Perella said was in great shape except for some rust, had the same inscription on both sides and was held together with copper framing.
Perella took the copper framing off the 8-foot-by-4-foot sign and now has two identical Eat signs in his backyard.
His plan is to give one to his friend, Lee McClain, who runs Underhill's Games on State Road in Cuyahoga Falls, where it might hang inside.
Perella is trying to figure out what to do with the other half.
Initially, Perella thought he could hang it inside his bar and restaurant, which reopened after a kitchen fire before Christmas.
''I didn't have room for it,'' he said.
Now, he is thinking he may try to hang it on the ceiling at the restaurant or perhaps hang it vertically on the rear of the building.
If that doesn't work, he may hang it on the back fence at his house.
Perella loved the fact that the sign was unchanged from when it was first hung downtown. Even the old Goodyear neon sign in East Akron has been changed, he said.
''As long as the sign exists, a part of old Akron exists,'' he said.
The sign will remain outside his house this winter, Perella said.
''One more winter outside after 50 years won't hurt it,'' he said.
Perella, as the owner of one of Akron's most famous landmarks, said he plans to take care of it.
''I'm not gonna let it get in disrepair,'' he said. ''It won't go to waste. I'll do something clever with it.''
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com
