On a recent evening, your Bernalwood editor was strolling in downtown Cortlandia, near the glamorous northeast corner of Cortland and Ellsworth. I looked up as I passed the corner store, and noticed a rather beautiful, retrolicious neon sign that declared “Pay Little.”
“Words to live by!” I thought. “A credo for the Bernal tribe!”
It was right there — in gorgeous glowing neon. Yet why hadn’t I noticed this gem before?
From the style and the typeface, the sign looked midcentury, circa 1940s. But it was also pristine, and as I looked more closely, I realized that it wasn’t old at all. It was a new sign, extremely well executed. Bravo!
A quick chat with the gentleman behind the counter at the Pay Little confirmed my hypothesis: The sign is new, although it does look old. And it’s classically cool, regardless.
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
Bernalwood 
Same thing happened to me……a cool old sign ….was that there before? How could I have missed it? A great addition to the street.
Love it!
Great to see new old style neon!
Great sign. And a nice story as the current owners have done a lot to make it a sweet little neighborhood store.
YES! I love old style neon. One of my favorite road trips is Central Avenue, the old U.S. 66, through Albuquerque. It has probably the largest collection of neon along one stretch of highway in America. Also, El Camino Real in the San Jose area has some good signs.
That sign does look great, well done!
Speaking of signs, is there a way to get the ‘Welcome to Bernal Heights’ sign replaced at the bottom of Cortland near Bayshore? It was always nice seeing that on the journey home, but it seems to have been missing for a couple of years now.
Yikes – I didn’t notice it was gone 😦
Would be great to get that “Welcome” sign back!
Haha, such a relief to know that I haven’t simply been looking past it all these years!
This shop is greatly improved with the new owners. So glad to have them in the neighborhood!
Did you notice the Cinema neon sign up now next to the patio entrance to Bernal Star? its subtle but nice too!
I was wondering for a moment if the Pentecostalists had decided to make room for a Cortland Theatre revival…
OMG that’s funny!
Came here to ask if this one was new, too. I kinda love it, even though I can’t really afford to go to the restaurant for more than a drink or two.
Love it. Let a thousand neon signs bloom!
Try one in your living room window.
Ouch. Do you live in that unit with the window above the sign?
I did when Nimer put the sign in when he opened up the store. We came back from vacation and it was there. Big difference.