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What Happened To Crabbby Kim's Sign? Donated To Schools!

 The bikini bar is closed but its sign was salvaged and donated to neighborhood schools.
The bikini bar is closed but its sign was salvaged and donated to neighborhood schools.
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Yelp

NORTH CENTER — Known for its scantily clad female bartenders and not much more, Crabbby Kim's Bikini Bar was not, shall we say, a kid-friendly establishment.

But its sign, salvaged by the new owners of the Crabbby's building, wound up in the hands of neighborhood youngsters.

Allow us to clarify.

When North Center residents Craig Bell and Adrienne Fasano bought Crabbby's in 2016, the husband-and-wife team immediately undertook a gut rehab.

"The bar fell through the floor the first night," Fasano said.

"There was so much grease," she added, "it took [workers] four days to scrub."

Inside the couple's new Reclaimed Bar and Restaurant, every trace of Crabbby's — and no, the three "b"s aren't a typo — has been erased.

But one fixture of the dive bar escaped the trash heap.

The exterior sign, a long-time fixture at 3655 N. Western Ave., was saved and split in two. One half was donated to Bell Elementary and its twin was given to St. Benedict Preparatory Schools — not for the schools to keep, but to auction at their annual fundraisers. 

"We're very big on giving back to this area and neighborhood," Fasano said.

Between the two schools, the signs netted more than $1,200.