Johnny’s Big Red Grill Sign Is All Aglow—in Ohio

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Collegetown Eateries and Watering Holes: A Celebration

Restored and radiant, the bygone Collegetown landmark has found a forever home in a museum

By Joe Wilensky

The 21-foot-tall Johnny’s Big Red Grill sign—an iconic Collegetown landmark for six decades—is shining brightly once again in its new digs: the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati. The red, J-shaped neon sign, which is emblazoned with the restaurant’s name and a jolly-looking Cornell bear, was originally installed in 1949.

Located at 202 Dryden Road and beloved by generations of Cornellians, the eatery was operated by the Petrillose family from 1919–81.

Early color image of Johnny's Big Red Grill and the sign outside the building in the early 1950s
Collegetown classic: Johnny’s in the early 1950s.

(The Hot Truck, the mobile pizza kitchen that Johnny’s launched in 1960, eventually outlasted it, becoming its own legendary destination.)

The City of Ithaca granted the sign historic landmark status in 1980. Even long after the Big Red Grill closed, it remained an outsized fixture on the building’s façade—and one of Collegetown’s most identifiable symbols.

The City of Ithaca granted the sign historic landmark status in 1980.

When the sign was finally taken down for safety reasons in 2009, the building’s owner put it up for sale on eBay—with the listing touting “the mother of all neon signs,” and a chance to “own a piece of Collegetown lore.”

Having read about the sale in the media, Carolyn Levine Coplan ’76 saw an opportunity: to snag “a cool birthday gift” for her husband, Neil Coplan ’76, BA ’75. The auction had only one other bidder—and she won.

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But she hadn’t realized just how massive it was: two stories high and weighing 700 pounds. As she recalls: “I was shocked to learn that its height and weight made it prohibitive for me to actually hang it anywhere.”

Finding no Ithaca-area organizations that would accept it as a donation, she eventually connected with the American Sign Museum.

And as it turned out, museum founder Tod Swormstedt is the son of a late alum: Dave Swormstedt ’51, who was an undergrad when the sign was originally installed.

I was shocked to learn that its height and weight made it prohibitive for me to actually hang it anywhere.

Carolyn Levine Coplan ’76

For transport to Cincinnati, the sign was disassembled into two pieces and strapped onto a flatbed trailer.

Years passed, as it underwent restoration and awaited the completion of its ultimate home in a newly expanded wing of the museum, which now boasts more than 600 signs and welcomes about 64,000 visitors a year.

In July 2024, the Johnny’s sign made its debut—looking as good as new. After enduring decades of Ithaca weather, it has been completely rewired, its transformers replaced, and its glass and neon restored.

Tod Swormstedt prepares to load the Johnny's Big Red Grill sign on a trailer for the trip to Cincinnati in 2009Provided
Preparing it for transport to Ohio in 2009.

Standing as the tallest resident of the new wing, it shares space with such items as a rotating, ball-shaped “76” gas station sign from the 1960s and a 14-foot-tall, ’50s-era figurine from a Big Boy hamburger joint.

“The special part about this sign is its story—that it had this relationship to a major college in a small town,” Swormstedt says of the Johnny’s icon. “It makes it more real, more personal, than just a sum of nuts and bolts and metal.”

Top: Video by Erin Holland / American Sign Museum. Photo of new wing courtesy of Signs of the Times. Archival images provided by Mimi Petrillose.

Published September 10, 2024


Comments

  1. Shelley Winkler, Class of 1976

    Yay, Carolyn and Neil! You saved this iconic piece of Cornell history!

  2. Mary Cockram, Class of 1989

    The sign museum is a must-see in Cincinnati. And that the Johnny’s sign is there, how awesome.

  3. Paul Bingham, Class of 1982

    Joe, Thank you for reporting this news and to Mimi Petrillose for sharing the historic photos. If not the Smithsonian Museum, the Sign Museum is a good resting place for the Johnny’s sign. Is there a museum that would display the Hot Truck?

  4. Logan M. Cheek III, Class of 1960

    Having grown up in Cincinnati, I shared this with several high school classmates. Their responses on the “Sign Museum” were overwhelmingly positive endorsements — it’s a “must see”, even if you not in the design, nostalgia, or consumer product marketing business.

    • Logan M. Cheek III, Class of 1960

      BTW, I don’t believe they serve pizza there. But at any nearby Krogers, pick up a Stouffer’s French Bread Pizza to get in the spirit. They licensed the recipe from one of the Petrilloses, who offered it on his Big Red Truck.

  5. Makarand Joshi

    I lived above the restaurant from 1979-81. The window you see left of the sign on second floor was our apartment. I have heard that Vladimir Nabokov (author of Lolita) stayed in the same apartment for some time when he taught at Cornell (1948-59). Lots of memories. Had interacted with Mr John Petrillose ( the owner) many times.

  6. James

    “the eatery was operated by the Petrillose family from 1919–81”

    What was the history of the location after 1981? I recall it was still a bar well into the 1990s and everyone referred to it as Johnny’s.

  7. James H. Morey, Class of 1990

    The Coplans are both class of ’76. The rotating “76” ball is right there too. Coincidence, or does pop art imitate life?

  8. Gerald Rehkugler, Class of 1957

    I lived in College town during my undergraduate years and walked by that sign on my way to classes! Great memories! Delighted to know it has been preserved !

  9. Lee Kass, Class of 1975

    While writing my doctoral thesis in 1975 I ate dinner at Johnny’s almost every night. I recall Mr. Petrillose at the window reading the newspaper and we always waved to him. When I later returned to Ithaca the place had been renovated, a reading area had been installed, and the menu had changed. But the sign was always a welcome home feature.
    Happy to read it has found a home at a museum in Cincinnati, Ohio thanks to Carolyn and Neil. Go Big Red!

  10. Alex Fairfield, Class of 1978

    So glad you saved the sign! I graduated from Cornell in Dec ’78, so I got a campus research job and a part-time job at Johnny’s to support myself until Commencement in May ’79. Johnny was not a nice boss–he was grumpy, tightfisted and complained loudly about how lazy the waitstaff were. “That hamburger patty costs me 51 cents”, he would yell in my face when I got a dinner break. But I loved the staff–bartender O’Branski was so funny, the kitchen cooks kept a bottle of Scotch going on tough nights. On nights when Johnny was particularly unpleasant I coped by bringing free desserts to the customers.

    • Carl Anderson, Class of 1968

      Our response to grumpy Johnny when I worked in the kitchen in 1969 was prohibited steak or lobster dinners for Huggy the bartender. Back then, waitstaff still used paper check and order forms: one check per table (or customer paying separately), with a carbon-copy order slip every time something new was added to the check. Every evening Mrs. Petrillose sat up front with Johnny, in front of all the waitstaff, confirming that everything on the previous night’s order slips showed up on a check. One evening Johnny had to get a new supply of forms from the basement. When “the silver fox” (as we called him because of his luxuriant head of hair) emerged with an armful of twenty pads, the other cook stared pointedly at him and remarked, “That’s optimistic.”

      Bravo to the Coplans!

  11. Mike Wapner, Class of 1982

    Photographs I took that include the Johnny’s sign appear in the Class of 1982 yearbook. Why? I was the Sun photographer assigned to cover the protest of topless dancers performing inside Johnny’s that year as part of a rent dispute. (No, I did not take pictures inside.)

  12. Jonathan Turetsky, Class of 1977

    Was Johnny’s turned into ״Guido’s״ in “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me”? That’s always been my impression, but can anyone confirm? Or dispute?

    • Andrew Grainger, Class of 1975

      Likely true, because author Richard Farina (along with Mimi Farina – Joan Baez’ sister – and Thomas Pynchon) were Johnny’s regulars in the 50s.

  13. Caryn Abner, Class of 1988

    This was an iconic sign that disntinguished Collegetown for decades. I am thrilled to see it here for generations to enjoy and fondly remember.

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