A Famous Sketch Artist Is Having a Show That Highlights Philadelphia Restaurants | Eater Philly
"From April 29 through June 2 at 917 S. Ninth Street, the gallery will host “The Art of Philly Dining,” a show that will benefit the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The exhibition features sketches of Philadelphia restaurants — some signed by chefs and restaurateurs — drawn as part of John Donohue’s “All the Restaurants” work, which also includes places in New York, Paris, London, Napa Valley, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. The gallery's show includes Philadelphia restaurants such as Parc, Zahav, Friday Saturday Sunday, Palizzi Social Club, Vetri Cucina, Angelo’s, Kalaya, and Forsythia; more than 75 4x6 prints on paper will be for sale, along with a half-dozen 12x12 canvas prints signed by chefs and restaurant owners. Donohue says, “During the pandemic, CHOP was very good to my family,” adding he was spending a lot of time in the city, doing what he does when he’s visiting a place — he draws restaurants; dining around the Philadelphia is “a real pleasure,” he says, noting he found that “Philadelphia has some of the best restaurants in the country.” After falling in love with the Philly dining scene, he says he decided he wanted to honor the city with a show. Based in Brooklyn after living in NYC for the last 40 years, Donohue is the author of three book collections, All the Restaurants in New York, A Table in Paris, and A Taste of London; he says he started drawing restaurants in 2017, inspired by the late Jason Polan’s Every Person in New York and James Gulliver Hancock’s All the Buildings in New York, and told the New York Times in an interview, “drawing saved my life.”" - Melissa McCart
