There’s an “EATS” restaurant in Atlanta with just such a sign, but it was named in homage to the restaurants described in the OP. (Well, homage or else a bit of postmodern irony.)
For many years in dropzone’s hometown, there was a joint right across from the train station with a big EAT sign. Way cool sign, sticking off at an angle from the corner of the building. The place’s real name was (IIRC) Art and Vi’s Blue Plate - old fashioned diner/greasy spoon only open for breakfast and lunch. The diner relocated, but the sign didn’t go with them and the building eventually was torn down.
The entire block was an old movie palace building which was the object of a decades-long preservation struggle. Years after the diner moved and the building was shuttered, I saw some photos of the theater interior, and one of them showed the EAT sign sitting on the floor in the middle of the auditorium.
Wonder what happened to that sign? You can just barely see it on the left side of this picture.
I grew up in Neenah, WI and there was an flashing “EAT” restaurant on Main St. a block away from U.S. 41, the local freeway. The restaurant was called “Bradke’s” but you had to look hard to find the “Bradke’s” sign. Once I learned to read I remember chanting “EAT EAT EAT EAT” as the sign flashed whenever we drove by. I’m sure my parents and older sister found it endearing. 
According to Google the restaurant is still Bradke’s and is still on the same corner, but I don’t know if they kept up their flashing EAT sign. I remember the sign was looking ragged in the late 80s (we moved away in 1991), but they seemed to be careful that all the neon letters lit up. I’m sure it wasn’t cheap.
I was preparing to mention just that restaurant, except that its cuisine is nothing like what you’d find at the restaurants described in the OP.
And in Austin there is (or was) a restaurant called “Good Eats.” But that name is probably too specific to be noteworthy.
It’s likely a sure sign I’m getting old but I do remember seeing restaurants with the large overhead “EAT” signs. However, I haven’t seen any recently (at least not those who were using such a sign ironically). As Booker57 referred to in his post, use of “EAT” signs declined mainly due to the bad reputations of the restaurants that had them (and the spread of chains and fast-food franchises).
Off-hand, the one restaurant I remember that had a large “EAT” sign was some independently-run place in Fairfield, California along Interstate 80 as you were heading out of town toward Sacramento. I seriously doubt if it’s still there.
“Girl IN Gold Boots”-you got it right the first time.
That was my first thought when I saw the title. That was a great episode.
There used to be a place with a giant FOOD sign in a town immediately south of Saskatoon on the highway between Regina and Saskatoon. The sign was quite impressive at night because you could see it from quite a distance away. At one point, the D burned out and it shouted FOO to the night-time travellers. The sign is now gone, alas.
Back in the late Seventies there was an EAT truck stop across the road from the stockyards in Lexington KY. We never ate there but I took a picture of it and a few years later made an etching print of it. The etching is now hanging on my living room wall; I don’t know if the restaurant still exists.
I seem to recall a sign like this visible when walking west along Market Street here in Ballard - I remember seeing it on my way towards the Majestic Bay movie theatre and looking south, but it is a vague memory, I only remember seeing it at night, once. I haven’t thought to look for it again. I remember reading it aloud, then saying, “okay”, and heading into the nearby Ben & Jerry’s.
Any Seattlites/Ballardites know what I’m talking about? Or am I misremembering?
I have searched the web for this, but can’t find it, but, such a great cartoon, I’ll describe it, so perfect for the thread. (if anyone can find it, please post).
It’s a Gahan Wilson, brilliantly macabre cartoon, full page in Playboy in the 80’s: Dark night drawing of a desolate desert landscape, with a lone road through it, and a small diner, with a giant EAT neon sign above, in the lower right corner. two diner workers are inside, and staring at an enormous giant, low-crawling beast, evil squinty glint in his eye, coming over the whole left side of the horizon.
Caption; "My God, you don’t suppose it can read???’’
This is my favorite cartoon, I have the original ripped out of the magazine, but can’t find it online. Sigh.
Just outside the Los Feliz golf course, right by the L.A. River (yes, there is such a thing), there is a tiny little cafe with a large “EAT” sign next to it. It used to be called the Eatz Cafe in the mid-90s, and now it has a different name, but I don’t remember it. All I know is that it is not currently named “Eat”.
Wow! good ol’ EAT.
We had an EAT on the edge of town near the river bank,old cinder block building painted white,nothing else near it, except a gas station across the street,never even looked like it was open.My buddy and I always made jokes about it growing up.
One day during high school lunch hour we decided to go eat at EAT.Greasy spoon diner all the way,old battleax of a waitress,couple old men drinking coffee,smoking cigarettes and reading newspapers at the counter.I ordered the breakfast,two greasy eggs and a slab of meat, wasn’t anything special but we liked the price,so we went to EAT many times after that.I think we were the only ones under 65 that ever ate at EAT.The restaurant is still there,but now it’s some fancy schmancy coffee house that probably serves DONishes and doesn’t allow smoking.Give me the day old donuts and stale coffee.EAT was NEAT!
Never learned the name of it,as far as I know it was named EAT.
I grew up taking regular family vacations to Palm Springs in the heat of the summer. We’d drive, basically, from Los Angeles to P.S. and knew we were getting close when we’d pass the big ol’ “EAT” sign round about Cabazon. There was nothing there but the “EATat the Wheel Inn” sign, and those big ol’ dinosaurs being constructed over the course of many years.
Of course, now it’s a big booming Indian Casino and Outlet Mall. I have a feeling that the Wheel Inn has moved on.
In Los Angeles: eat. It’s on Sunset, and it’s part of the Patina Group (Nick & Stef’s, Pinot, etc.) I haven’t been there, but I’d like to go. Its sister restaurants are quite good.
Also, in Lompoc, California, there is a restaurant called Hi! Let’s Eat. Haven’t been there either. But given what I know about it, I’m significantly less interested in going there.
EAT HERE, GET GAS may be apocryphal, but I clearly recall a huge neon sign, towering 70 or 80 feet in the air, just off the interstate in central Iowa years ago, that read simply:
CAFE
GAS
EAT HERE, GET GAS may be apocryphal, but I clearly recall a huge neon sign, towering 70 or 80 feet in the air, just off the interstate in central Iowa years ago, that read simply:
CAFE
GAS
Geez. False hamster alert. I do apologize.
Ours had a hamburger painted on the side of the building just in case the word “Eat” didn’t get the message across.
In Phoebus, Virginia, a little town outside of Hampton, there’s a locally famous place called Fuller’s, which has a sign that proudly proclaims “Eat Dirt Cheap at Fuller’s”. As I recall, they sold hats and T-shirts with that saying on it.
I know the place you mean, and I think I remember the sign . . . I’ll watch for it the next time we go by when we’re up in the Valley . . .
Scarlett
who grew up in Appleton