1548 Mucho Signo

It's always fun to see the progress restaurants have made over the years. Used to be you could expect pretty simple fare, not too elaborately presented. Especially in roadside diners.
The cost of having too many menu items is what kills most restaurants. You can have the most creative chef in the world who wants to fabricate an enormous amount of toothsome delicacies, but it all boils down to one word.
Spoilage.
The other thing restaurants need is adaptability. Places get old, they get passé, and they get forsaken. So restaurants have to reinvent themselves from time to time to stay relevant.
I saw an example of that the other day when I was driving up to Tacoma. I went by El Toro. El Toro was one of the first truly Mexican eateries in the area. You could tell by their sign how they've been keeping up with restaurant fashions.
Back in the Seventies, their sign just said El Toro. Then, at some point, possibly when Toro Lawn Mowers came into vogue, the sign had obviously been changed to say El Toro Restaurant.
Good enough for a while. But the next part of their current sign, in different font and obviously added later, told the story of a need to perk the place up again. The additional word said, "Cantina."
When I drove by the other day, they’d added an even more contemporary addition to the sign. Also in a different and more modern font. It said, "SportsBar."
Yep, it was now the El Toro Restaurant Cantina SportsBar. That's a mouthful. Now if they can only figure out a way to tack on Tapas Bar, I think they've got it.
And it might not hurt if they got one of those flashing neon signs that says, "espresso."
America, ya gotta love it.