The shop, despite all of its arcane glamor, is subtly gritty. In a certainly pleasing sense. The grit does not distract, instead only enhancing the shop's positive aesthetic qualities. Where the wall meets the ceiling there is a slight sepia toned tinge. At certain points the wallpaper bends back from the wall. The griddle looks of something manufactured before woman's suffrage.It is the sort of place one could imagine the protagonist of 'The Catcher in the Rye' or 'Junky' going to have a hamburger and a coffee. It confirms a conception of post-war solidity. Quiet, nonchalant, and above all conformist. Spot on mid-twentieth century New York. Definitively American. The aesthetic works to stoke nostalgic yearnings of an illegitimate nature. Unless of course you were born during Truman's first term. At once you relish and detest the establishment because of it's archetypal nature. The shop could be described nearly as walking into a Normal Rockwell diorama. A false, romanticized concept of America. Unlike the concept however, the Lexington Soda Shop does exist.