They did it up right. For years, the corner of Park and Chapel streets in New Haven had been marked by a small area at the base of the bulding housing Dunkin’ Donuts which spelled out, in mailbox-sticker letters, “GAG JR.’S CORNER.” A few months ago, a petition circulated asking the city to improve upon this recognition. As of last week, there are not just two hefty new metal plaques marking the corner by a shiny green streetsign.

I haven’t run across him in eons, but I’m told by his tenants that Mr. Gagliardi is still with us, still overseeing his properties and occasionally visiting them.

His name is already emblazoned on Gag Jr.’s Liquor Shop at 1183 Chapel. But this latest encomium is welcome. Those of us who’ve been in the neighborhood since the 1970s or 1980s fondly recall that corner of Gag Jr.’s old breakfast joint, adorned with mugshots of actors who’d eaten there—everyone from then-Yalies such as Mark-Linn Baker to bigwheels like Sammy Davis Jr.

I remember getting the sad scoop that Gag Jr.’s was closing, sometime in the late ‘80s. I was covering a whole different story about the restaurant, and Mr. Gagliardi casually mentioned that he was giving up the daily grind. The announcement was met with the same sort of panic which arose when the Yankee Doodle Diner closed on Elm Street more recently.

A relative took over Gag Jr.’s and made changes, and it didn’t last long after that, becoming the Dunkin’ Donuts it still is today.

Having housed one comics shop or another for a couple of decades now, plus the amiable package store, it remains a cool corner, where the gregarious gather in gaggles.