Westside Billiards and its cafe has been on San Jose's San Carlos Street since the 1940s, and its iconic sign is part of its history.
As such, the city is working hard to preserve some of its history before it disappears, and has created a unique Contains programs.
Yvette Tsaboukos, co-owner of Westside Billiards, said the signs are to let people know they are there.
“That's how people used to get to know me, right? Such a silver lining. Oh, yeah, and San Carlos. 'Y Not', 'Oh McDonald', those were everywhere. But now there are very few,” she said.
Westside Billiards was closed during the pandemic but recently reopened.
The San Jose Preservation Council, a group that normally focuses on buildings, helped Westside Billiards begin the restoration of the sign through a fundraising campaign. It became a model for how the commission plans to help other businesses restore their landmark signs and stay in business. .
“We're starting to lose a lot of mom-and-pop stores. The things that people associate with San Jose, the legacy businesses that have been around forever. Sometimes they have really nice signs. I This sign restoration fund, created by San Jose Preservation Council, is an attempt to help these property owners keep their signs in place so they can continue to operate their businesses without losing their signs.'' Executive Director Ben Leach said. .
The city also launched a sign restoration program as part of its storefront revitalization program to help with iconic, but sometimes expensive and high-maintenance signs.
“Wow. This sign really means a lot to people,” Tsaboukos said.
The Preservation Action Council has already received calls from other businesses wanting to restore and preserve their trademark signs, and the committee hopes to have a full-scale program up and running by May, National Preservation Month. It is said that they plan to do so.
