Iconic Pig-and-Chicken Sign Stolen From Fast & French

Broad Street legend Gaulart & Maliclet (better known as Fast & French) is without its playful sidewalk signage today. The red-white-and-blue, pig-and-chicken mascots are missing.

Co-owner Lawrence Mitchell took to Facebook to announce the bad news:

We Need Your Help! Saturday our beloved #pigandchicken sign was stolen. ‍♂️ If you should see it around town please call LaMi at (843) 437 7584. @ Downtown Charleston SC

Gaulart & Maliclet Fast and French Inc./Facebook

Mitchell told Eater, “Everyone that has ever worked here has a relationship to that sign, because they have to lug it out in the morning and bring it back in at night. It’s a two person job that often is performed solo.” The restaurant has sat on Broad Street for 35 years, so plenty of folks have had this duty.

Because of scheduling conflicts this past Saturday, the cafe enlisted former owner Gwylene Gallimard to help out. Mitchell says this incident is “... telling because [Gallimard] has bore witness to every crisis at the cafe, and it was her that discovered it missing as she was leaving and came back in to alert us.”

The sign disappeared briefly in the early 90’s when some undergrads took it as a prank, but they returned it.

“It’s one of these things that is considered a relic around here, and it’s absence makes us all uneasy,” says Mitchell.

If you know anything, please reach out to the Fast & French or Mitchell.

• A Love Letter to Fast & French From Longtime Employees [ECHS]