The Backporch Café sign has quite a history. Initially, the eatery was established as a small pie and coffee shop in 1997 by Mike Cooper. It was called “Sweetie Pie.” Paxton Signs created the main sign for that restaurant, as well as the most recent iteration, The Backporch Cafe, pictured.

After establishing “Sweetie Pie,” Cooper decided to change the restaurant’s identity. In the end, he reached out to his regulars for new name suggestions. Eventually, The “Backporch Cafe” was the one that resonated.

At that early time, an area known as their main dining room was actually a deck that provided outdoor seating. The necessary indoor seating was available at the bar tap or in the back room by their neighboring shop, “Lamb Spun.” Since the deck was actually the main dining area, the name, “Backporch Café” seemed appropriate.

Designing The Backporch Cafe sign

Having already built the Sweetie Pie sign, Paxton Signs and The Backporch collaborated on the signage currently used, including the purple archway with gold leaf letters, and sun motif elements. (In addition, we also created the large Lamb Spun, gold leaf sign, located on the corner of Lincoln and Lemay.)

Visit The Backporch website at, thebackporchcafe.com

Pictured: Left to right: detail of the hand-carved, sun motif;  “CAFE” gold leaf archway sign with hand-carved letters; Lamb Spun monument sign and Sweetie Pie sign.

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