5. Beefburger Fair, 110 East 23rd Street

A ghost sign obscured by a newer building in the Flatiron District reads, "Coffee Shop Beef." It was the site of Beefburger Fair.
Beefburger Fair, 110 East 23rd Street, 2016

“Surely everyone has heard of Beefburger Fair,” reads an article in Baruch College’s newspaper The Ticker. “Beefburger also boasts a variety of sandwiches, cold platters, and salads that some people enjoy more than their burgers. Portions are generous and satisfying, especially the tuna and chicken salads.”

Beefburger Fair was a small chain of Manhattan coffee shops in business from 1974 to about 1990. There was not much of Beefburger Fair’s Flatiron District ghost sign after a building covered much of it in 1981. What was left survived for decades but was painted over in recent years.