Sign up for the Brownstoner daily email
« The Times Goes Rental LPC Decision on Riverside Apartments Makeover Postponed »

August 25, 2008

The History/Mystery of the Hot Bird Sign

hot-bird-0808.jpg
We've always been curious about the Hot Bird signs on Atlantic Avenue, those broad, bright yellow proclamations that "New York's best bar-b-q" is a few blocks behind you, or just around the corner. Well, the New York Times dug into their history this weekend, revealing this much: the Hot Bird restaurants closed in the 90s, or went "the way of the dodo,” according to Robert Perris, the district manager of Community Board 2. Though new businesses have opened in the former Hot Bird spots, most have chosen not to replace the signs—they are now part of the landscape, a mural representing an older Brooklyn.
On Teasing Walls, Traces of Roasters Past [NY Times]
Photo by krooooop




Posted by lisa at 10:15 AM | Comments (20)
Categories: Historical

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/5989

Comments

This is news? You didn't know this already?

Posted by: Petebklyn at August 25, 2008 10:28 AM

News to a lot of people who discovered Brooklyn this decade. For those who remember, hard to believe so much time has passed.

Posted by: jawbreaker at August 25, 2008 10:33 AM

I love that sign.

Posted by: KHuebbe at August 25, 2008 10:37 AM

My friends and I used to order from Hot Bird all the time...they were great. As 7th or 8th graders at the time, we found the name kinda funny for some reason...can't quite remember the reason at present...but this post has brought back great memories.

Posted by: fbh at August 25, 2008 10:42 AM

has anybody ever managed to find anyone who actually ate at Hot Bird? i'm surprised young woodward & bernsteins of the Times weren't even able to find any actual patrons. or the owner? i love the signs, but i also love all the really old ad murals; can these be landmarked?

Posted by: Jimmy Legs at August 25, 2008 10:44 AM

There's a great one in CHN on Nostrand and Dean (I think) of a beautiful Black woman and the caption : You do not smile. It's an old ad for a neighborhood dentist.

Posted by: bxgrl at August 25, 2008 10:49 AM

I used to stop there on the drive home from work. Their barbequed chickens were far better than the hard, meatless, tasteless ones most other places sell.

Posted by: Bob Marvin at August 25, 2008 10:50 AM

I'm pretty sure there used to be a Hot Bird on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. Wherever it was, my mom used to order from there for dinner a lot, and it was good.

Posted by: CMM at August 25, 2008 11:05 AM

There was a Hot Bird on Montague. It was in one of the upstairs commercial spaces between Clinton and Henry. The chicken was awesome but I think the whole thing was felled by some major health code issues. If memory serves there was a salmonella issue. Also, they used to pay high school kids to dress up in a chicken suit and hand out menus.

Posted by: SouthBklynPartisan at August 25, 2008 11:15 AM

I guess my mind is in the gutter but when I read, " Hot Bird" all I can think of is Benny Hill. "Bird" is UK slang for a sexy woman.

Sex trumps food, yet again.

Posted by: Prodigal_Son at August 25, 2008 11:19 AM

Hot Bird began around 1987-88. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but it was very popular for a while and had a very active marketing campaign. But even more memorable than the Hot Bird walls were the Hot Bird delivery cars with their chicken on top of the roof. These cars were seen all over.

Posted by: kzditmaspark at August 25, 2008 12:44 PM

Oh my god yes, the cars! I had completely forgotten. Thanks kz.

Posted by: altervoce at August 25, 2008 1:21 PM

Ate lots of Hot Bird. It's a relic from a different era... Brooklyn was a lot of fun back then - not as many uppity 20-something Murray Hill transplants. (At least, that's how most new Brooklynites would seem to my then-high-school mind...)

These seriously should be landmarked.

Posted by: sdrubbins at August 25, 2008 2:47 PM

"There's a great one in CHN on Nostrand and Dean (I think) of a beautiful Black woman and the caption : You do not smile. It's an old ad for a neighborhood dentist."

That is a very creepy looking ad. It gives me the willies.

Posted by: East New York at August 25, 2008 3:01 PM

"uppity 20-something Murray Hill transplants" can't afford brooklyn.

Posted by: BrooklynLove at August 25, 2008 3:04 PM

BkLove you miss the point. Young professoinal college grads mostly stayed in Manhattan back then. Seemed like everyone in Brooklyn was either a teenager, a 40-something, or elderly. Lots more thugs and street crime - you actually had to have some street sense when walking around, and if you wore Nikes or a Jansport bag you were a walking target. Hip hop culture, like me, was an awkward teenager that didn't yet know what it would turn out to be when it grew up. (I almost remember the exact week the whole baggy pants thing happened.)

Man, those were the days. (I haven't yet seen "The Wackness" - I really want to for the sake of nostalgia, but I'm afraid it might be terrible.)

Posted by: sdrubbins at August 25, 2008 3:24 PM

Hot Bird was tasty, but if it represents "an older Brooklyn", that makes me ancient history. I've lived in Bklyn since 1986, but don't consider myself to be anything other than another yuppie transplant.

Does anyone remember the fried chicken/ribs place that was on Bartel Pritchard square? I think it was called Al's, or something like that - Connecticut Muffin is there now. It was *great* - extremely greasy chicken and fries, very yummy, and a huge pall of smoke inside the place. I was quite sad when it closed.

Posted by: mscrochety at August 25, 2008 3:48 PM

"Hot Bird was tasty, but if it represents "an older Brooklyn", that makes me ancient history. I've lived in Bklyn since 1986, but don't consider myself to be anything other than another yuppie transplant."

Agree 100%. I also arrived here in 1986, and by then Park Slope already seemed thoroughly yuppified. The past twenty-one years have just seen the further playing out of something that was already old news then.

Anyone else remember Desert Storm Car Service on 6th Avenue?

Posted by: Flatbushwhacker at August 25, 2008 4:48 PM

sdrubb - i was just messin with you. it sounds like we're around the same bk vintage.

Posted by: BrooklynLove at August 25, 2008 5:28 PM

Cool - it's all good.

crochety & whacker: not saying 1985-1995 was ancient history or anything like that. Just a particular, culturally identifiable moment in the history of the borough (and city). I believe it's a noteworthy time because a) I came of age then; and b) that moment gave way to and laid the foundation for the Brooklyn (and NYC) of 1998-2008, which has been even more noteworthy and which is responsible for this very website (among other things).

For a more in-depth consideration of more ancient Brooklyn history, check out this 1969 piece by Pete Hamill in New York Magazine:

http://nymag.com/news/features/46992/

Posted by: sdrubbins at August 26, 2008 11:45 AM

Post a comment

Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.

Latest Restaurant Additions