Fans of John's City Diner may have heard that the classic restaurant was remodeling and planning to take down its original neon sign. Although that's true, there's no cause for despair. Owner Shannon Gober hopes to take down the sign and painstakingly restore it to its former glory as part of a $225,000 two- year renovation plan for the Southern-American restaurant.

You may have already seen the first phase of the renovations at John's. A mural, done by the Birmingham Mural Collective, was installed on the south side of the building in July. It reads "It's nice to have you in Birmingham," over the John's City Diner logo- a cityscape designed by Gober's wife Shana. Gober said he sees a lot of people either walking or driving by just to take pictures of the mural, and that the new art has resulted in an increase in foot traffic and business.

The mural- along with a fresh coat of paint- was the first phase of the John's City Diner face lift.

"These old buildings are like old cars. You're always tinkering, tweaking, replacing and upgrading. Once we had the wall stripped, we knew we wanted to do something but couldn't decide what we wanted to do. When the Mural Collective came along, it seemed like a perfect fit," he says.

Phase two of the renovations are still underway. The restaurant plans to replace and recover its canopy with brushed stainless aluminum trim. LED lights will be installed that will illuminate the façade and the John's sign.

As for the original neon sign, Gober says he hopes to (and thinks he can) fully restore it, but there's always a chance the sign may not survive the removal process. Depending on what happens when the sign is taken down from its perch, patrons will either see a brand new sign that's an exact replica of original, or they'll see the original fully restored.

"If the sign doesn't completely fall apart in our hands as we are taking it down, we'll restore it and put it back up there," Gober says. "We want to save that sign."

The sign- which is much, much bigger than it looks from the street- is actually 16 feet high. If the plans for restoration don't work out, Gober says he has considered bringing it into the restaurant and suspending it from the ceiling or using it as a bar.

"It won't fit through the door, but it will fit through the side door," he says with a laugh. "If money was no object, you could encase it in glass and make a bar out of it, but that may be out of our league. This is Downtown Birmingham, not the Las Vegas strip."

Suspending it from the ceiling is also an option, but Gober said it would eclipse the dining room.

"It would be really cool. But if you lit it, it would be like eating in a tanning booth. It would be way too bright in here."

On the inside of the restaurant, Gober is making a few infrastructure improvements including new grease traps, a new heating system, and a few plumbing and electrical fixes. The restaurant will also be getting a new color scheme and new booths.

The truth is, restaurants just need a little sprucing up every once in a while, Gober says. The upholstery on booths doesn't last forever, and "new" décor only looks fresh for so long.

"If you're in this business and you're not remodeling and refreshing every five years, you're behind. Especially for us with all this activity around us on 20th Street and Second Avenue, we have to continue to upgrade and improve our look. As our neighborhood improves, there's definitely pressure to keep up with the Jones'."

Gober says he's thrilled that new businesses are now starting to populate the spaces near John's- but it ups the ante for his restaurant.

"As our block takes on a new look, we need to be up-to-date with that look as well. Otherwise we look old, right in the middle of all the new," he says. "Old is okay, as long as you're embracing the historical. Old is cool. Run-down is not cool. And while we aren't run-down, there are certain design elements we need to have that can freshen up our look."

With stainless steel trimmings and off-white paint used all around, Gober says the new look will be "sharper, fresher, cooler" than before. The interior booths will be a gunmetal grey, and the red back wall will stay as it is for an accent wall.

Gober says he wouldn't have been able to do such a complete renovation without the uptick in business he's seen in the last few years. The increased foot traffic, retail outlets and bars have been great for business, he says. Of course, there's also more competition now than ever before.

"When we opened, it was just us and Café Dupont. In the last 3-5 years there have been 15-20 new restaurants within just a few blocks. It's a unique position for us to be in because we've got to stay updated and stay unique without losing the core of who we are."

Gober refers to the current revitalization happening downtown as the "re-revitalization," and says that things were on the upswing for the area in 2008, just before the economy tanked.

"Things had already started picking up, but they got interrupted by the economy. It didn't put us out of business, but it did set us back," he said.

Although these renovations are extensive, they are by no means the first the Gober has done at John's. When he first purchased the building 10 years ago, it was in "dire need of a lot of love," he said. He gutted the kitchen and installed new equipment, and in the dining room installed new chairs and tables. He also installed a computerized point-of-sale (POS) system to streamline ordering and payments.

The only thing Gober says he'd like to see that isn't quite on the agenda just yet is an exterior window on the bar side of the restaurant. The window would allow patrons to see into the bar and order food from the window.

"Right now we're trying to figure out if that wall is load-bearing. We don't know if we can put the window in or not, but being able to serve from a window is something we really want to do. We'll do it if we can do it for a $2,500 window, but not if it opens a structural can of worms and costs $20,000."

Over the last few years, John's has made important changes to the menu too, though it's not something the average diner may notice.

"Everything we can get local is coming from local farmers. All our meats are humanely-raised and antibiotic-free, and so many of our fruits and vegetables are grown in the Birmingham area," he says.