Dining out in Big Sur, California, requires intentionality. There’s nothing casual about visiting a restaurant off the cliff-hugging stretch of Highway 1, a place once described to me as “California’s Delphi.” The coastal community has long been a place of artistic and culinary pilgrimage, for folks in search of Big Sur Bakery scones (here’s hoping for a return), a golden hour drink at Nepenthe, and, of course, a meal at the storybook restaurant at Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn. For almost 80 years, Deetjen’s has been serving diners heaps of charm alongside its famous buttermilk pancakes and beef ragu; the redwood building feels like a rustic tchotchke- and art-filled English tavern, where each ceramic jester, rabbit, or antique teapot has a heartbeat. So when a painting was allegedly stolen from the restaurant last fall, it hit a central nerve for not just the restaurant, but an even broader community of Deetjen’s lovers. Immediately, an informal, grassroots search and rescue campaign began on Instagram, as users shared their own photos of the painting in a quest to help track it down.
The painting in question was gifted to the Inn’s late founder Helmuth Deetjen by the late, celebrated local artist George Choley. As Deetjen’s archivist and historian Michelle Provost tells Eater, “This particular Choley [painting] had been in the same place [since the 1980s], undisturbed, and a symbol of continued historic preservation.”
It wasn’t just decor. It was a part of what she says gives repeat guests a sense of comfort upon entering the restaurant and “a feeling of coming home.”
Restaurants need art to cultivate a lived-in, meaningful environment. A painting can carry weight as a standalone piece, but in the context of a restaurant, it enhances the connection between the diner and the establishment. Often, as was the case with Deetjen’s Choley, these artworks serve as literal landscapes into which guests can mentally return long after leaving; a visual shorthand for the restaurant’s history and quirks.
I spoke to a handful of restaurants from across the United States about their signature artworks, asking them about the stories behind their ambiance-making pieces. Some could easily fetch big numbers at a Sotheby’s auction, while others reflect a more folksy, homegrown approach; some are carved, some are painted, and all are proudly made by humans.
The tapestry bringing the Mediterranean to March (Houston)
When March opened in 2021, the 28-seat Houston restaurant received a lot of attention for its hyper-regional menu, which shifts its focus every five-to-six months to a different area of the Mediterranean. The wall-to-ceiling tapestry in the Michelin-starred restaurant has become just as memorable.June Rodil, the CEO of the restaurant group behind March, tells Eater that it “is rooted in the study of the Mediterranean, not only in cuisine, but in landscape, history, climate, and the way people live in conversation with the land.” The massive artwork, (titled As Above, So Below), was commissioned from Argentinian textile artist Alexandra Kehayoglou, whose tufted, textured works, Rodil says, pack emotional depth. Initially concerned about where such a tactile piece would go, they kept returning to the softness and intimacy of placing the piece largely overhead diners. As Rodil says, “We were basically like, no, this cannot live where chairs and heels, dropped forks, [and] jovial splashes of wine are going to have their way with it.” The result is a work that she says feels “responsive, generous, and alive” — ideal for the space’s intimate, history-informed identity.
The hand-carved bar at The Madonna Inn (San Luis Obispo, California)
The queen of America’s kitsch roadside hotels is the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, California. The interiors of the midcentury modern hotel favor hot pink, glitter, and floral carpets, and the sprawling Silver Bar Cocktail Lounge and Gold Rush Diner are united by a series of intricate wood carvings of grapes and vines. hey were commissioned by the late founder Alex Madonna from an artisan named Alexander Zeller, a Bavarian woodworker from Munich lovingly known as “Mr. Chips,” who drew inspiration from European design traditions. The archways feature intricate scrollwork, floral patterns, and ornamental details that create a richly textured, old-world atmosphere. As the Inn tells Eater, portions of Mr. Chips’ carvings were intentionally left unfinished after his passing in 1961 as a tribute to him, preserving his original outlines, and adding “a meaningful historical layer to the space, allowing guests to experience not only the artistry itself but also the story behind it.”
The jazzy sandwich and salad art at South Coast Deli (Santa Barbara, California)
For more than 30 years, South Coast Deli has been one of the best places to grab a salad or sandwich (you can’t go wrong with the Eggplant Sammie) in Santa Barbara, California. The casual space has a Factory Pomo-meets-Global Village Coffeehouse aesthetic that sparks ’90s/aughts nostalgia, and an especially memorable painting at its San Roque neighborhood location of a woman riding a carrot in a salad bowl between two figures, a man and a woman, with the latter downing a sub. As owner Jim St. John tells Eater, it was commissioned from a friend and artist named Lloyd Dallett, who cites layered colors, rich textures, “and flavors of butter, cheese, baguettes, and beautiful old stone walls” as inspiration in her art. “[That] piece [was] originally commissioned for our Isla Vista location,” St. John tells Eater, where it hung for a decade before they decided not to renew the lease there. “We like to support local artists, and the pieces we commissioned over the years have tremendous personality and reflect the energy and whimsy associated with South Coast Deli.”
The Ballad of the Dish and the Spoon at Chez Nous (Manhattan, New York)
You would need some serious construction equipment to remove the signature artwork at Chez Nous in Manhattan, New York, as it was painted directly onto the French restaurant’s wall by celebrated British artist Cecily Brown. Titled The Ballad of the Dish and the Spoon, the artwork is a one-of-a-kind mural that runs the length of the space and complements Chez Nous’ mirrored, coffered ceilings, rich dark wood dining tables, and maroon velvet banquettes. As the restaurant tells Eater, “[It’s] inspired by the famous Mother Goose nursery rhyme, and there are many images and hidden references to the rhyme in the painting.” It’s a unique opportunity to dine beside a museum-worthy work, and it finds extra meaning as a piece that lives in the West Village, where Brown first supported herself through waitressing when she moved to New York City in the 1990s.
A pizza parlor’s homage to Brokeback Mountain at Roberta’s (Brooklyn, New York)
When famed Brooklyn pizzeria Roberta’s opened nearly 20 years ago, its Bee Sting Pizza helped put Bushwick on the food tourism map. The Italian-American restaurant is still a must for folks on the NYC pizza crawl, and, as any elder Bushwickian will tell you, dining at Roberta’s original string-light-covered converted factory still serves peak Girls-era Brooklyn charm. Holding court in the first dining room, you’ll find a painting that co-founder and owner Brandon Hoy tells Eater still sparks a lot of commentary from guests: an homage to Brokeback Mountain in pizza form. In lieu of realistic depictions of the 2005 film’s stars, it features a pizza-faced Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. “People really love it,” Hoy tells Eater, explaining that the artist, Zachary Kinsella, was an early regular; “He worked with Chris Parachini and myself at Royal Oak before we opened Roberta’s.” Hoy also notes that Kinsella made multiple drawings for Roberta’s in that series, including an unfinished, classic scene from Dirty Dancing. “[Kinsella] was doing a bunch of movies and tv shows,” he concludes, “Not really sure how he landed on Brokeback Mountain [for us], but it’s legendary.”
At a time when so many restaurants are using AI to churn out everything from murals to logos, it feels especially timely to remind ourselves about why the state of a restaurant’s art can be one of its most viable signs of life. Real food, like real art (and not even particularly clouty or critically-acclaimed art) will always be imbued with the efforts of an authentic, human-led creative process. And isn’t there something delicious about that?
