Ferndale's Loving Touch talks up Nov opening and new sign

Thursday, September 25, 2008 | Source: metromode

The sign for the new The Loving Touch pool hall in downtown Ferndale is expected to turn heads and (hopefully) bring business.

The retro tongue-in-cheek design calls for a neon silhouette of the classic mud flap girl. One of its legs will kick out, prompting a neon pool ball to roll down to the main sign, illuminating the business' name.

"I think it would be an iconically cool, hip sign personally," says Chris Johnston, one of the co-owners of the highly anticipated billard joint. "It would be the type of thing that would show up in pictures of road rallies and coffee table books."

Johnston also owns a piece of The Emory and Woodward Avenue Brewers, which is adjacent to the space for The Living Touch. He said the idea has received a cool reception from a few city officials, but still thinks it will happen eventually.

Right now Johnston and his partners are concentrating on opening the pool hall by its new opening date of Nov. 18. He thinks that once local officials see the inside of the newest addition to the Woodward corridor, they will have a better appreciation for the sign. He expects to go for approval of it next spring.

The Loving Touch has enjoyed a bit of eye-rolling notoriety in Ferndale. The name was originally the moniker of an infamous massage parlor in downtown that closed in the early 1990s. Johnston and his partners have decided to keep the old signs for the massage parlor a decor for Johnston's latest venture.

The pool hall replaces the old Paperbacks Unlimited storefront next to the WAB facing Woodward. The 5,000-square-foot space will have eight or nine pool tables and an atrium in the back. The side of it all will be two walls "alive with plants," according to Johnston.

Johnston and his partners knew the project would be a little controversial, but believe it will be a great addition to the downtown district, catering to hipsters and young professionals.

"I don't mind ruffling a few feathers," Johnston says, "but not too many."

Source: Chris Johnston, co-owner of Woodward Avenue Brewers and The Loving Touch
Writer: Jon Zemke