Seeing Double: Another Hoagie City, This One Intact

One of the most iconic things about the Hoagie City building that collapsed last week–perhaps the only iconic thing about it–was its sign, the one that crashed down in a most dangerous fashion in the demolition video posted here. Something about the lettering and the illustrations struck us as familiar, and that’s because Hoagie City used to be a chain. (It was originally owned by Joe Carangi, father of Gia, the subject of Steve Fried’s Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia.)

Photo: Liz Spikol

One Hoagie City that still retains its name and that iconic sign design–with a sort of Hawaiian Punch aesthetic–is on Hunting Park Avenue. For the past 15 years or so, it’s been owned by 22 Hunting Park LLC, of which Danny Lim is a principal. Before that, it was owned by a Mr. Kim for many years, who had numerous Hoagie City locations across the city. Lim says most of them did not change the signage.

Since the accident, no one has come to Lim asking if he’s connected to the Hoagie City that collapsed. In fact, he himself was surprised to learn the building that fell had definitely been a Hoagie City at one time. One big difference between Lim’s Hoagie City and that of the one on Market Street: Lim’s has been in business continuously since founded. Not so for the property belonging to Richard Basciano.