Minutes before the opening of his latest show, artist Gary Baseman, dressed as a retro diner cook, in a red-orange jumpsuit, white apron and hat, paced around Johnie’s Coffee Shop, moving art frames from one counter to another and adjusting the position of a cartoon cat plush toy.
The exhibition, “Off the Menu,” located inside the long-shuttered diner on Wilshire and Fairfax, is Baseman’s first hometown solo show in more than a decade.
Featuring about 40 colored pencil drawings — mostly on real menus from L.A. restaurants — the whimsical show is a love letter to his Fairfax neighborhood. It launched Friday in conjunction with the opening of the Wilshire and Fairfax subway station and is set to run through June 14.
“[Fairfax District] was a special place,” he said during a phone interview Thursday. His mother worked at Canter’s Deli down the street from Johnie’s. “This is where the Hasidic Jews and the punks lived side by side together in harmony.”
The show, a celebration of L.A.’s dining culture, features drawings in Baseman’s signature “dream reality” style that blends real-life surroundings — his dining companions included — with mythical creatures from his universe and fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White. Featured restaurants include classic establishments Musso & Frank, Canter’s Deli and Genghis Cohen, as well as relative newcomers like Jon & Vinny’s, Coucou and Max & Helen’s.
Gary Baseman’s drawings on menus on display at the press preview of the “Off the Menu” exhibition.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
The lion’s share of his menu drawings were completed in the two to three hours that he spent enjoying his meal and conversing with his dining companions. He occasionally challenges himself by limiting his color palette. Restricting his color choices speeds up the drawing process and pushes him to create something new, he said.
Baseman is an almost lifelong L.A. resident, aside from the decade he spent in New York working as an illustrator. As the child of Holocaust survivors, “I was kind of the American dream accident baby,” he said Thursday. His parents’ experience living under totalitarianism shaped his outlook on the world.
“Even from a very young age, I fell in love with Lady Liberty, and the idea of free speech and the First Amendment were everything for me,” Baseman said.
A free spirit, he never studied art formally because he did not want his work to be influenced by the opinions of professors. Instead, he majored in communication at UCLA.
Baseman’s work melds the worlds of fine art and toymaking. His most recent L.A. show, “The Door Is Always Open” in 2013, turned the Skirball Cultural Center into a living and dining room inspired by his childhood home. He has worked with Mattel and Coach and designed the wacky cartoon characters in the popular board game Cranium.
Gary Baseman’s colored penciled drawings on the counter at Johnie’s Coffee Shop.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Many of the works showcased in the exhibition were made over the last few years. As the COVID-19 pandemic waned, Baseman itched to go out.
“There’s a part of me that … [needs] to create something of value,” he said. “If I’m out and I just exist, I feel like that time just evaporated.” The menu drawings started as a way for him to turn his meals into a piece of art that celebrated L.A. dining culture.
Though he doesn’t identify as a foodie, he is a passionate eater. Langer’s Deli’s No. 19 is the “best sandwich in America,” he says of the pastrami on rye.
A few drawings on display in the show are on standard paper, not menus. One work shows people attending a concert at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. He said he often brings a sandwich from the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills to eat at the cemetery.
Since he never removes pages from his sketchbooks, some restaurant drawings in his sketchbooks were scanned, printed on thick paper and displayed on diner tables as “placemats.” Plush toy versions of his cats and monkey characters sit on recently upholstered matte orange, cream and red booths.
Built in 1955 by Googie architects Louis Armet and Eldon Davis, the Space Age coffee shop opened as Romeo’s Times Square and is featured in the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers music video for the song “Swingin’” and movies including 1988’s “Miracle Mile.”
Plush toys from left to right, Toby, Emmanuel Hare Ray, Manny Moa and Ahwroo at the “Off the Menu” exhibition.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Johnie’s Coffee Shop has not served food to the public in decades. The restaurant closed in 2000, and was used as a gathering place for organizers during Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential bids.
Hours before the show’s opening, Baseman was still contemplating what else he could add. Pointing toward a large fading mural depicting well-dressed dogs having drinks at a bar (an original from Johnie’s), he noted he’d like to make a version of it with characters from his fantasy universe.
Baseman speaks enthusiastically about his work in general, but becomes more animated when talking about cats.
Like many a cat lover, Baseman whips out a phone to share videos of his beloved feline muses. His late cat Blackie was a “sage and genius” with a calming “triple purr.” Bosko had a penchant for leaping onto his shoulder.
Artist Gary Baseman, wearing a diner cook outfit, stands next to 3D-printed sculpture cats Beverly and Fairfax at Johnie’s Coffee Shop.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
His current kittens, Beverly and Fairfax, appear as red 3D-printed sculptures and stand holding plates of burgers and fries on the counter.
Then there is Toby, the fictional, fez-donning cartoon cat that Baseman calls his alter ego.
“I always saw myself as a cat,” he said Friday.
Baseman said the nearly 21-year-old character, named after his childhood crush, is an all-knowing keeper of secrets and represents acceptance. Toby is everywhere: in menu drawings, as a pleather stuffed toy, as a statue, and — on opening day — even shaped as an ice cream bar.
Toby as a stuffed toy at the “Off the Menu” exhibition.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
The line began to form outside the landmark diner more than an hour before the official opening. Many curious passersby poked their heads inside, wondering if the restaurant was serving food again. (No, but there is a feast for your eyes, replied a worker.)
As visitors flooded in at 3 p.m., a performer from the Bob Baker Marionette Theater delighted guests with eccentric puppets, including a red-brown dog that “barked” and “sniffed” people’s shoes.
At one point, Baseman, still dressed in his cook outfit but now wearing a pair of sunglasses and carrying a Toby toy, stood on a counter to thank the crowd for coming.
People walk by Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant on a sunny day.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
‘Off the Menu’
Where: Johnie’s Coffee Shop, 6101 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
When: Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 7 p.m. Closes June 14
Tickets: Free