Mlive Article: Historic Red Lion sign returning to Bridge Street in Grand Rapids in time for ArtPrize
Originally published here: https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2021/09/historic-red-lion-sign-returning-to-bridge-street-in-grand-rapids-in-time-for-artprize.html
By Brian McVicar | bmcvicar@mlive.com
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A piece of local culinary history is returning to Grand Rapids’ west side in time for ArtPrize.
The vintage, neon sign for the Red Lion restaurant, a longtime fixture of city’s west side that closed in 2004, has been restored and will be installed early next week at 412 Bridge Street, a parking lot owned by former Grad Rapids city commissioner and developer Walt Gutowski Jr., as well as his wife, Amy.
The sign will be an entry in ArtPrize, Gutowski told the Grand Rapids Planning Commission this week. But the sign will remain in the lot permanently once the event wraps up in early October.
The parking lot is located on a busy stretch of Bridge Street across the street from New Holland’s Knickerbocker.
“What made that restaurant so special was you could have a person sitting in one booth down on their luck and right next to them there’d be a millionaire eating, and they would be talking to each other,” Gutowski told the Grand Rapids Planning Commission this week.
“It was just a place that brought people together, and I think that’s what’s real special about the west side.”
The refurbished sign is neon lit and advertises “Red Hots, Beef-Burgs, and Chili.” The sign itself is about 11 feet tall, and will sit atop a 14-foot poll, bringing its total height to nearly 25 feet.
The Red Lion, known for its chili covered hot dogs, was originally located nearby at 449 Bridge Street NW. After closing in 2004, the building was demolished more than a decade later. A new building, home to Bridge Street Lofts and Condado Tacos, was built in its place.
The Red Lion was operated by the Koukios family, which owned several other restaurants in Grand Rapids under the Red Hot name.
Most recently, the family closed the Red Hot Inn, 3175 Leonard St. NE, and Gus’s Original Restaurant, 3123 Leonard St. NE, in 2018.
Gutowski’s daughter, Jessica Gutowski-Slaydon, said her parents bought the former Red Lion property in 2005. They decided to keep the sign once they sold the property to another developer because they wanted to keep it and eventually restore it.
“To me this sign really represents community,” said Gutowski-Slaydon, the president of her family’s company, Swift Printing. “The Koukios family that founded the Red Lion just really had a way of equalizing everyone and bringing people together.”
She said her family spent about $50,000 to renovate the sign.
