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The 10.5-ft. wide Busch's Grove sign from the storied Ladue eatery
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Obsessive antique collector Greg Rhomberg with a "Corn Dogs & Cocktails" neon sign custom-made for a party
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Rhomberg calls these turn-of-the-century, horse-driven, steam-powered popcorn/hot dog/peanut wagons "the first food trucks"
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You can have drugs, you can have Pevely Ice Cream, and if you behave you can have both
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A never-used sign for the iconic Brentwood grill, identical to the one they have in use now
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From Jack Carl’s late, lamented 2 Cents Plain: “One of the coolest and best delis ever,” said Rhomberg.
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OT Hodge's Chile Parlor still exists; this is from an earlier incarnation
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The "Root Beer" sign once hung outside Ted Drewes; beneath it, a Griesedieck Bros. Beer sign. The latter company has been revived by nostalgic brewers in recent years.
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Rhomberg is asking for your help in figuring out the name of the restaurant that once featured this charming couple on its sign. The six-foot-high neon sign reads “El Charro” in several places, but that's not quite enough to go on, said the collector.
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A rare apple-vending machine.
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Once upon a time, chili was literally sold by the bucket
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There has never been a Fitz's Root Beer soda machine; Rhomberg had this one made to look period-appropriate.
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Promotional statuette for St. Louis' own Smile soda
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From the exterior of Crown Candy Kitchen
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A clock distributed by the makers of locally bottled Brownie soda
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Collectors adore memorabilia from the late Falstaff Brewing Co.
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Another defunct company, Chapman's Ice Cream
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Another defunct local food manufacturer
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Magic Chef stove co., founded in StL and subsequently sold to Maytag, among other companies
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Meletio’s Hot Fish was marketed to observant Catholics on Friday nights in particular, said Rhomberg, at pubs like the Haven on Morgan Ford Road. The tavern is still in business.
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Inside the Pevely Dairy wagon: another Pevely Dairy wagon
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Classic "EAT" signs, piggybacked
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Another fun "EAT" sign (provenance unknown)
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A refurbished Good Humor ice-cream novelty cart
Greg Rhomberg is a boy who likes his toys. His multiple warehouses in the Metro area are stuffed with a museum-quality collection of vintage autos, tractors, bicycles, coin-operated machines, carousel horses, menus, pinball machines, gumball machines, bumper cars, phone booths, barber chairs, pedal cars, carnival rides, fire trucks, jukeboxes, camping trailers… and neon signs.
So. Many. Signs. Rhomberg, the president of the Nu Way, Inc. construction-materials company, is famed as an obsessive collector, who, with the aid of a network of assistants, keeps tabs on every noteworthy sign in the area. If it’s vintage and charming, he’s got his eye on it. If a business goes belly-up, Rhomberg often gets a call to come over and buy and remove the sign right away, before it becomes scrap. These removals may require “a small army of people,” he said, a crane, boom trucks, and dealing with high winds and live electrical wires.
But it’s worth it. His collection of rescued and restored signs is just dazzling; many of them once hung outside St. Louis restaurants and food businesses that are no longer. His very first sign purchase, he said, was one of those generic “EAT” signs that blinked from atop the diners of yesteryear. To tour his warehouse is to realize that if Rhomberg wasn’t saving this stuff, it would probably live in memory alone – and because he is saving it, hopefully someday it will be displayed in a museum, so locals can walk amongst the literal signs of the times.
Rhomberg said he envisions putting a chunk of his collection into a space within the City Museum, which would be a perfect fit, we reckon. In the meantime, you might see some of his finds on display at the Missouri History Museum and the Museum of Transportation. The collector will lend a variety of materials to an exhibition honoring nostalgic Route 66 at MoHist in 2016.
We’re happy to share a selection of images that remind us the St. Louis restaurant scene did not arise from a vacuum. In addition to these signs, Rhomberg owns others that once adorned Phil’s Bar-B-Q, Lake Forest Pastry Shop, Country Inn Donut Inn, Federhofer’s Bakery, and hundreds of other eateries, some extinct and some extant.
He even owns replicas of the “lucky stork” sculptures that once perched on the roofs of businesses including the Bevo Mill, Schneithorst’s, Al Smith’s, and of course, the Stork Inn.
