Upon finding this picture and creating this post (which I am doing on December 11, 2022), I have deeply mixed feelings on learning that, after 90 years, Lim’s Cafe closed forever on September 6, 2022 with the building slated for remodeling.

Although the reviews seemed to have improved since I last posted a photo of this restaurant’s main sign, I stand by what I wrote back then that the food was not very good. I normally agree with photographer Jeff Boyd’s father who quoted him in this picture’s description as saying, "If a restaurant advertises both Chinese and American food, it’s a safe bet they don’t do either very well."

On the other hand, maybe I was just unlucky the two times I ate there. This place lasted 90 years under the same family ownership including well after old U.S. Route 99 was forsaken by most in favor of Interstate 5. It must have had something good about it that I didn’t experience.

In addition to all that, the founder, Peter Lim, opened the restaurant in 1933 after immigrating from China. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. It’s hard to hate on a restaurant with this kind of story.

As for the neon, it was sold with the building and, at the time I am writing this, the family doesn’t know what will happen to it. Once can only hope it will be preserved.