Does anyone know what happened to The Only Seafood sign at 20 East Hastings? As far as we can tell, it went missing shortly after the Portland Hotel Society sold the building to the City of Vancouver this past Fall. We’ve been trying to find out what happened to the iconic neon seahorse signage ever since, but to no avail. Our enquiries with the City have unfortunately come to naught.
Did it return to the Thodos family, who operated the DTES restaurant for so many years? Was it – perish the thought – stolen by dastardly vandals in the dead of night? Or was it perhaps secreted away to some vast warehouse of boxed-up treasures, like at the end of Raiders of the Last Ark?
Here are some photos of the exterior, interior, and upstairs to jog the memory. To quote Indiana Jones, it’s an important artifact and it belongs in a museum! If you know where it is, please let us know by emailing andrew [at] scoutmagazine.ca.
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Did you check with the Vancouver Museum? A lot of old neon cities have become part of their collection of city historical items.
I ate there once. Four weeks later it was shut down because of excessive rodents. Thanks for the reminder.
Glad to now you think this is part of our history though.
Here is your answer http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/neon+icon+disappears+from+Vancouver+Downtown+Eastside/10916423/story.html
Everytime I read a comment on this blog about the “sense of community” in the Downtown Eastside aand then I read something like this (from the linked article below):
Vandals broke in and stole pipes, which led to extensive flooding in the basement.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/neon+icon+disappears+from+Vancouver+Downtown+Eastside/10916423/story.html#ixzz3Vt5vNHTN
I laugh and laugh and laugh.
That’s some community you’ve got there. It eats itself from within. (Is Sean Orr going to argue that this is kids from Surrey coming in to steal the plumbing? Can’t wait.)
I use to eat there as a kid and it was pretty cool In the 70’s the DTES was still a place to frequent for eats and shopping, pre-Woodwards shutdown.