By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Signaling what they consider appropriate for the appearance of Main Street businesses, town boards Tuesday handed down different verdicts for the signs proposed for two new businesses.

At a joint meeting of the Historic District Commission and Architectural Review Board, the sign for Eleish Van Breems antiques store, opening in the iconic Remarkable Bookstore building at 177 Main St., was approved unanimously.

But a sign for Sushi Jin, a restaurant opening above the defunct Oka home furnishing store at 44 Main St, was sent back for redesign because members thought it did not mesh well with what they consider the historical look of Main Street.

The Eleish Van Breems signs feature black lettering on a white background — one with a drawing of a bee — were quickly and enthusiastically approved by members of both boards.

The Sushi Jin sign, however, got a different reception.

“I’m not thrilled with that concept,” said Grayson Braun, chair of the HDC. “It seems very commercial,” she said of a red-and-black contemporary “blade” sign illuminated from within. The small sign was to be hung at the front of the building to direct customers up stairs to the restaurant located at the back of the Main Street building.

“It’s not appropriate,” agreed Jon Halper, an ARB member, “not when it’s illuminated from inside.”

“It gives an industrial feel to Main Street,” commented Vesna Herman, another ARB member.

And Elayne Landau, of the Historic District Commission, said “the sharp angles” of the sign would detract from “the way we perceive Main Street.”

They suggested the restaurant’s sign be hung inside the stairway entry. However, the entry and stairs are part of the next-door building and signs are restricted by that building’s landlord, said sign designer Greg Theile of Signarama in Stamford, explaining why Sushi Jin’s sign could not be hung there.

But one sign proposed by Theile did win approval. A Sushi Jin sign to be posted on the Elm Street side of the building, the restaurant’s main entrance, won unanimous support. It is “clean and simple, like sushi” said Herman.

Theile said he would return next month for the boards to review a redesigned Sushi Jin sign to hang on Main Street.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.