Save-d Ruby's Toes the Sign at Coney Island

Summer is underway on the boardwalk at Coney Island. The Brooklyn Cyclones beat the Staten Island Yankees for their home opener, old and new amusements are eliciting screams from visitors, and Ruby's Bar & Grill is open for business. After nearing the brink of closure, however, Depression-era Ruby's is sporting a new sign that helps it fit in with the happier, shinier Coney Island brought to Brooklyn by developer Joe Sitt and Zamperla Amusements. The recently replaced 78-year-old hand-painted wooden sign was from a different era, and was thus swapped out for a brighter plastic sign. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the change was necessitated by an agreement that Ruby's owner Michael Sarrel made with Central Amusements that allowed Ruby's to stay—along with nearby Paul's Daughter—if the establishments made required cosmetic upgrades. A more telling sign of the times: the "Save Coney Island" graffiti on Ruby's metal shutter gates (with an accompanying mermaid, [photo inset]) has been painted over, leaving just "Coney Island" visible.