How humble roadside signage took on a life of its own and became a messenger of solidarity and perserverance
On a Monday in early March, stray autumn maple leaves hurtle down empty Triskett Road. The metal prongs of “Re-Elect Michael O’Malley for Prosecutor” yard signs battle the first purple crocus sprigs for space in the thawing lawns on the residential side of the street.
To the north, industrial machines crank and grind and a “Tim Misney Makes Them Pay” billboard looms above, big eyes staring down at I-90. At the entrance of Brennan’s Catering and Banquet Center, a ribbon-tied pink and platinum balloon trio bounces on the asphalt, losing helium, but still catching air – a leftover from a weekend baby shower. Inside, the phones are ringing.
In 1984, when brothers Sean and Brian Brennan purchased a brick building a few blocks from George’s Kitchen for their party center business, it included a serendipitous asset: a plexiglass billboard facing I-90.
At least, that’s the current backstory.
“You know, it’s funny – I was just talking to my dad in the back and I asked him, ‘when did the billboard go up? Was it here when we bought it or did we put it up?’ And he couldn’t remember,” laughed Jason Brennan, general manager of Brennan’s Catering and Banquet Center, and son of owner Sean Brennan.
What they do know for certain is that those four rows of blank space would never be used for advertising. Instead, they would be used to display quotes.
“People call us all the time – they want to buy that space,” Jason added. “We always said ‘no, I mean, it’s not for sale.’ We just use it for our quotes. Whatever we think might spread goodwill, give people something to talk about.”
The quote sign has been quietly tended ever since by this hard-working family team, now celebrating 40 years of business in the West Park neighborhood.
The sign itself stretches wider than tall, maybe 15×10, and is made of weathered plexiglass held up by a black trellis frame. Plastic block letters slide manually into the grooves.
“I’ve got four lines to work with, there’s only so much space.” said Jason.
Decades of rush hour soot and debris fill in the cracks between those 4 lines – at this point, more of a sealant than a tarnish. The overall ethos is “community garden perennial” over “ideological pulpit.”
The job of quote selection started with Jason’s uncle Brian who then passed the duties to him 20 years ago.
“It sounds weird to say, but that was pre-internet. And people would give me books of quotes,” Jason recalled.
The quotes – typically simple, altruistic and non-controversial, yet thought-provoking – came from a book early on, which became a handed-down stack of books. Then yes, eventually, the internet. Jason selects the quotes, and there is a rotation of Brennan’s staff members who get the honor of changing the letters.
“We always joke, ‘who’s going to go out there and spread the message to Cleveland today,’” Jason said, smiling. “Sometimes it’s like, ‘ah I don’t wanna do it.’”
The sign has served as an object of interest, and a west-side landmark of sorts, for generations of Clevelanders who live nearby or pass through in that liminal space between home and work, past and present.
“I try to stay away from anything that could be misconstrued,” Jason said. “It’s not intended to rile people up. It’s just to say ‘hey, this is something to think about.’”
Still, they are occasionally needled via email over technical misinterpretation of quotes.
“A pessimist looks both ways on a one way road,” read one board. “You should look both ways on a one way road,” one man wrote in response.
“Ok, you’re right,” Jason admitted with a laugh.
The Brennans have also been pitched profitable advertising deals and courted by politicians, but these overtures have been turned down without exception.
“You’ll never see Brennan’s New Year’s Eve, or elect this person for judge,” said Jason.
Then, there are those moments where the billboard’s intent and real-life impact synthesize.
“I got an email from a lady that said ‘I’ve been waiting, and I wanted to write to you because four years ago, I drove by the sign and you had a quote that said “the road to someday leads to nowhere.” And I thought about it, and I thought – that’s kind of where my life is going. So I enrolled in college and I just graduated this week. And it was that sign, seeing that sign, that inspired me to go back to college.’
“I knew people read it and they enjoyed it, but for someone to attribute that to a pivotal point in their life – where they say, ‘I’m going to make a change.’ Good for her, for putting the work in,” Jason said.
Embracing the need to adapt
Throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, the robust party center business served as the primary focus for Brennan’s, which has four on-premise ballrooms tailored to event hosting. This was during an era when city employees were encouraged to live within city limits.
“We did a lot of police and fire weddings, back then,” Jason recalled. “We were the go-to.”
Brian Kazy, councilman for Ward 16, remembers attending his senior prom at Brennan’s along with his sister’s wedding reception. He credits Brennan’s and other family-owned stalwarts as being economic anchors and sources of cultural pride for the blue-collar community.
“It’s businesses like Brennan’s that keep neighborhoods thriving,” Kazy said. “They become an institution, they are like the rock of the neighborhood.”
Ten years ago, Brennan’s developed an off-premise catering arm to provide corporate and social catering services focusing on downtown and citywide Cleveland organizations such as the Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Metropolitan schools.
According to Jason, the sign was never intended to drive new business, but occasionally it helps with recognition.
“We’ll just ask ‘how did you hear about us?’ And, often they will say ‘I see the sign on 90,’” he said. “So I guess it leaves an impression on them, without us being like ‘we are trying to draw you in.’ Still, it’s just there for people to enjoy.”
Laura DeMarco, author of the book Lost Cleveland, commented on the importance of local institutions due to their shared nature and the communal experience that they provide. She believes that intent plays a crucial role in the evolution of institutions from their traditional form and function to something beyond.
“I think it’s when people on the outside of it start to take notice,” DeMarco said. “Maybe with the Brennan’s sign, that was it. It’s by the highway, so a lot of people start to take notice of the sign. Or you just have to have an owner or manager that has the intent to do something more than just make money.”
The event center often hosts speaker events in collaboration with Councilman Kazy such as the State of the Ward, which are all open to the public, and provide a forum to discuss issues affecting the neighborhood.
In addition, Brennan’s has recently forged exclusive catering partnerships with greater Cleveland organizations including the St. Paul Hellenic Center and the West Side Irish American Club.
COVID challenges – “This too shall pass”
As a gathering-centric business, Brennan’s was hit hard by COVID.
“We are a tight group, there’s 20 of us and it’s sort of like a big family. You couldn’t have parties. We just sort of hunkered down,” Jason said with frank resignation.
Though Brennan’s historically avoided using the billboard for making statements, the COVID pandemic felt like a distinct moment. Jason decided to summon back some of his grandmother’s wisdom.
“It was the one time that we used the quote (board) for something like that,” Jason said. “A quote that my grandmother used to always say to us – she always used to say ‘this too shall pass.’ It was COVID when everything shut down. I just put ‘this too shall pass’ (on the board). It was the only time where I was like ‘this is just something to think about,’ that ‘hey we’re gonna get through it.’”
Live like it’s spring
By April 1st, Tim Misney had been replaced by Patrick Quinn The Ohio DUI Guy – at least in billboard form. Throughout March, the Brennan’s sign allowed Clevelanders to ponder musings such as:
“Happiness is a how, not a what”
“Impossible is just an opinion”
After quick consideration, Jason said he likes “impossible is just an opinion” the best. He had to pull out the ladder and change that quote a few weeks back, though. He’s changed it twice since. Part of the job.
Sometimes the staff will ask him; why not just switch to a digital sign for the quotes? Jason feels that there’s something about the process of physically putting up the words that is important to him. He said they cleaned up the brush that had overgrown the space between the highway and the sign during COVID.
He is trying to get back onto a scheduled routine, changing the quote once every two weeks. It feels like a good interval to him.
The Brennans made it through mid-March – always a hectic time, since Brennan’s is now the exclusive caterer for the West Side Irish American Club. With Fish Fry Fridays ending on March 29th, Jason and his dad get a quick breather, but summer wedding season is just around the corner.
One of the last quotes before the April shift was “Your Mind Can Only Hold One Thought at a Time”
“That’s right, that’s right,” he said with a grin. “It’s true.”
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