A Spiteful Tenant Smashed a 1929 Sign and Gave Carbone Its Trademark

On the morning of January 1, Jeff Zalaznick, a young restaurateur hunting for a home for his Italian-American restaurant Carbone, walked down Thompson Street in Greenwich Village and stopped cold. Beneath the old storefront, the sidewalk glittered with broken glass. All the neon tubing in the antique sign he had just paid $10,000 to save had been smashed.

The night before had been New Year's Eve, the last night for the older tenant, who had run the place for decades. The space had been Rocco, an Italian-American restaurant operating since 1929, and by the time Zalaznick found it, it was worn down and poorly maintained. By Zalaznick's account, the tenant had not paid rent in about six months. Trying to stay friendly, Zalaznick had agreed to let him stay through the holiday and take over on January 1.

That act of spite on the way out, Zalaznick says, led to "what is probably the most iconic sign in fine dining restaurants in the world," a stacked red and green neon now used at Carbone restaurants around the world.

Zalaznick had been looking for a home for Carbone for more than a year and had refused to settle. He already had a small sandwich shop running nearby and was developing the food and concept while he waited for a room with the right bones and the right history. Then a man he knew tapped him on the shoulder and said he might have something around the corner.

They turned onto Thompson Street, and Zalaznick saw it, a tall old sign reading Rocco in red, with wines and liquor in green below. Before stepping inside, he told the man who had shown him the space, "We'll take it." The man said he had not even seen what was inside. Zalaznick answered that it did not matter. Inside was a mess, with the tenant smoking in the corner, but the building carried almost a century of New York and Italian-American history.

He made one demand nonnegotiable in the lease. The sign had to stay. Just before signing, the tenant asked for $10,000 to leave it. For a young company opening its first big restaurant, that was a serious conversation, but Zalaznick paid it.

Then came the shattered glass. Zalaznick admits he was furious at first, yelling, cursing, and calling the landlord. After a few minutes, Zalaznick looked again and said, "I think this guy gave me the biggest gift he could have given me."

With the original red Rocco neon destroyed, Zalaznick kept the frame, put Carbone in neon across the top, kept Rocco below, and restored the green wines and liquor. If the old neon had survived, Carbone would have simply preserved someone else's landmark. Because it was broken, the team had to build something new on top of it, and the accident became the trademark.