#43 "Two Twenty Two in the Garden of Eden" in Color October 26, 2011

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This one was posted right after my birthday in 2011. I must have been working on the coloring for a while because I know I wasn't working on it on my actual birthday. That was what I now call my "burger birthday." The night before, I had gone out and stayed out late with a couple buddies and my friend Andy Nauss ended up crashing at my house. The next morning we got up and were both in the mood for burgers. We went over to the Cafe Colette and each had a burger. Their burgers are incredibly underrated. In fact, they are the perfect breakfast burger; sweet, savory, and with the "special sauce," perfect! As you may or may not know, breakfast also doubles as lunch for me, so my next meal would be dinner. I went over to my friends house in Carroll Gardens and invited a bunch of people over for a cookout and birthday activities (drinking and smoking). We ended up getting burgers and grilling them out on the porch. I said something like, "funny, this is the second burger I've had today." and Tim looked at me and smiled a huge smile. The reason for his giant grin would become apparent all too soon. After everyone was fully noshed and setting in for the old food coma, out came the birthday cake, which was in the shape of a giant cheeseburger! My friends had gone out and gotten the cake without the knowledge of my breakfast choice, and had simply gotten the cheeseburger cake because of its absurdity. Obviously I loved it, but when everyone found out that I had only eaten burgers on that particular day, it became truly funny and poignant. I don't want you to think that I only eat burgers, although I do love them. At the Loup I have one about once a month, and sometimes actually crave a Cafe Loup burger. They are pretty darn good, some say the best burger in New York City. While high in the running (top twenty at least) I think best in NYC is a bit of a stretch. I think Best Burger on 13th Street is a better assessment. However, they are delicious. I can never eat a whole burger there anymore though. I will usually get one and cut it into quarters and share with whomever is working that night, doling out quarters. I can eat three quarters tops, and that's if no one really feels like sharing, but I find that half of the burger is more than sufficient to my needs.
I remember this picture taking a long time to color in. There is a lot of action happening and a lot of intricate little characters. The thing on the left I tried to keep the same color from the spilled bitters on the faces of the people growing out of the alien head. That also goes for the little "world dog" over on the right. They are different colors because we used two different kinds of bitters for those stains. This was when we were staining the dupe pads with bitters to add some color and also as a motivational tool. There's nothing like some randomness to help spurn creativity. You might have done that activity in your high school art class. The teacher would've asked you to draw completely random things, possibly without looking, then make you find some sort of shape in the randomness and turn it into something you can grasp. I remember liking that activity although now I think that most people will see what they always see, like in a Rorschach picture. I always draw faces, so I would probably will a face out of the chaos. Maybe not, sometimes when I look at the clouds I see monkeys on jet-skis and bears on the couch. I guess if I looked at any of these things today, I would see a cheeseburger. I bet you all a quarter that we will have burgers for staff meal tonight at the Cafe Loup.
I'll keep you updated.

#43 "Two Twenty Two in the Garden of Eden" October 26, 2011

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These drawings that Tim and I do are an exercise in randomness. The drawings are done over the course of a couple days, weeks, and sometimes months. We only work on them at the restaurant, and then only when we have some extra time or are inspired by something or another. In this one, we dripped two different kinds of bitters onto the Triple Dupe Pad and then drew the characters from the spots. After a couple passes at the drawing, there is still never a true narrative and as I have said a couple times on this blog. Sometimes there never is one true narrative. The viewer can make up their own story about what is happening in the drawings. So, the fact that this one is about the Garden of Eden is completely arbitrary. It could be about space aliens invading the earth or about how Jim Morrison defended the Alamo from a horde of Mexican robot animals. It's really all about being random. I think that people need to categorize randomness into something that they can understand. No one really likes randomness because it makes them feel out of control, like they are not the master of their reality. I guess I am like this as well, since I am always trying to steer these drawings into something cohesive instead of just a random bunch of lines and spots on a Triple Dupe Pad, which they are. Finding the meaning in these drawings is almost impossible because they are done by two people over the course of a long time who maybe don't know what they are thinking about when they are drawing these pictures. So, later on, once they are finished, I take them home and conjure up a meaning for them in my head and give meaning to them through their title. I am almost positive that neither Tim nor I were thinking about the Garden of Eden in the least respect while drawing this picture. I know I was not. However, there are the two central figures, nude (but for a hat) in the middle of an incredible variety of animals, many of whom are no longer living and have been extinct since the time of Eden. These two people, though small, bring the picture together as an allegorical Eden. Had they not been right in the middle of the composition, or in it at all, the picture would almost certainly be about something else. Take them out in your mind and you see a bunch of animals, some monstrous multi-headed beast, and some clouds over a landscape. I am also sure that if some people of the church saw this, they would certainly call it sacrilegious. They would say that it looks more like The Garden Of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, signifying man's decline and descent into hell. Our greatest bar regular, Richard always says that Tim and I are the modern versions of Bosch anyway, so that would be okay with me. I always liked that painting; it was so weird and so different from what was happening in art at the time. Western Art was completely devoted to the church and except for portraits of rich people, was the only art form accepted at the time. Bosch was pretty much the first Surrealist, although you could argue that all religious art is surreal since it is depictions of invisible divine figures who have never been seen by the artists. In that sense, the artists had to imagine what these gods looked like, maybe dreaming about them, thus making them Surrealists as well.  Anyway, I did a little research about the Garden of Eden and according to the King James version, Genesis 2:22 is when god makes Eve out of the rib of Adam. So I thought that this would be the time of day that this picture takes place. So this picture is exactly what was happening at 2:22 on October 26, 0. Or would this be year Negative One? I think year 0 is cooler, so we're going to leave it at that. Okay? Good.

#42 "Space/Time Kissing Contest" October 12, 2011 in Color!

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So, people have been blogging about being waiters for as long as the internet has hosted blogs, so I feel like this one is just another drop in the bucket of blogs about waiting tables. I guess the most famous one is Waiter Rant, although that one lost its significance when the guy got fired/quit his restaurant and wrote a book about the whole thing. I read the book. At times I found it funny but as a waiter, maybe it was too close to home, but in actuality I imagined working with this clown and I ended up not liking the guy or the book very much. I recently found another blog that has been getting some legs on the interwebs called The Bitchy Waiter. Again, some funny and valid gripes about the industry, and again; thank the baby jesus I don't work with this clown. I hate my job just as much as the next guy, but I try to see the positive side of it as much as I can. Yes, I will get in the weeds and hate everyone on the earth and wish I could just be at home watching Frankenweenie, but I know that sooner or later I will be in that exact spot so why worry about it. I know that these guys are really just venting their frustration about work onto the internet for everyones enjoyment, and I am glad they are doing that. The internet should know when they are being obnoxious when they go out to dinner. In fact, everyone should read these blogs so as to learn restaurant manners. Think about it. Back in the days, most places didn't allow children. You had to wear a blazer to dinner, shorts and jeans weren't allowed, and the ladies had to wear dresses. Going out to dinner was an event, not a mere formality. Now, that being said, I am sure that waiters back then had it a lot worse than the waiters of today. For one thing, the tips were way smaller, but then so was the bill. I mean, everything was cheaper back then, so of course they are going to get smaller tips, if any at all. Also, the customers back then were all children of the Depression, so they were probably extremely tight with the old purse strings and very vocal about it. I still have customers like this. I attribute their curmudgeonly ways to them being older than dirt, but I bet some of them have been that way since they were young and hip. The moral of the story is that there is always going to be bad customers, just like there is always going to be bad waiters. So, no matter how much these guys rant and bitch about the customers being complete idiots, the situation is never going to change. People are always going to have crazy requests, and it's only going to get worse. Food allergies are way more common these days than ever before, special diets and food regimens, and low/no carb people aren't going anywhere. They are going to be around forever, and I'm sure a lot of them don't like to cook because even they find themselves obnoxious, so they'll be dining out tonight and every night henceforth. I guess the only thing that these bloggers and all waiters nationwide can hope for, is that the new generation of diners learns how to tip. I think all of these bloggers should recommend the Tip Calculator App for the smart phones. There should be sponsored links on the sidebars of their blogs and little plugs in all of the blog posts. I mean, all the kids have smart phones and the app is FREE! Because, let's face it, if you're always getting good tips, how much bitching are you really allowed to do?
Apparently, a lot. Sad emoticon.

#41 "The 35th Annual Women's Mini Golf Invitational" September 6, 2011 in Color!

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With the color on this one I tried to keep the same palette as the triple dupe pad. I used the same color from the bitters on the eyes of the characters on the far left and right, and then the skin tone on all main characters is from the dupe pad itself. The rest of the color I thought looked pretty good all faded out and classic looking. This is still the only one that I used this technique with. Most of the usual coloring is done as colorful as possible, and though it has changed significantly over the years, it still remains vibrant and psychedelic as ever. The right side of this drawing might have fared better with more elements of psychedelia, but who can tell; that might have just made that side a gross generalization and  stereotypical "spaced out hippie" drawing. Pun intended. As it is, this is a little wink at the Cafe Loup itself. I was just checking the interwebs about some history about the Loup and there doesn't seem to be any written history about the place. It doesn't have a Wikipedia entry anyway. The history as I know it has been passed down by word of mouth, which is exactly what the current owners, Lloyd and Ardes want. In fact, that is how we advertise there as well, strictly word of mouth. So, I may be doing the restaurant a disservice by creating a history about the place here on this blog, but it is only a history of my experience there so it is incomplete, one sided, and possibly completely wrong. But here is the history as I know it. Back in 1977 a couple named Bruce and Roxanne wanted to open up a nice little French Bistro in Greenwich Village. They found a place on 13th Street between University and 5th Avenue across the street from Les Trois Petits Cochons, which translates into english as "The Three Little Pigs." Bruce and Roxanne thought it would be a good idea to set up their French Bistro across from this charcuterie and call it Cafe Loup, or "The Wolf Cafe." Cute, right? On a side note, the Loup still gets our pate from Les Trois Petits Cochons and if you can get your hands on some, I highly recommend it. So, Lloyd was the head chef there right from the beginning and he, Bruce and Roxanne served the Village for 12 years over there on 13th Street. In 1989 they moved locations, to the much larger space at 105 West 13th Street where it remains today. A couple years later, in 1995, Lloyd and Ardes bought the place from Bruce and Roxanne and have been running it since then. Almost 20 years! Amazing. I have only met Bruce and Roxanne a couple of times, but I guess they ran a pretty tight ship. Some of the people that still work at the Loup have been there since the early 90's and would be able to go into more detail about how it was working there back then, but I just don't know that much about that time. I do know that not that much has changed. I still get customers who come in and say, "I haven't been here since it was in the old location." Those same people remark on how the food is still the same and that it still has the same vibe that it had when it was just a small 20 seat place on the other side of 5th Avenue. So, the title of this drawing is a homage to the 35 years the Cafe Loup has been open. The stamp on the right hand side is the stamp we still use to stamp customers cash receipts and use on our envelopes. Of course, we don't have an Annual Women's Mini Golf Tournament, but I think if we did, it would look very similar to this picture. I think the Golf Tournament is a metaphor for something or other, I just don't know what it is for.
Your guess is as good as mine.

#41 "The 35th Annual Women's Mini Golf Invitational" September 6, 2011

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So, in the last one, "Motivationally Speaking," you can see some orangish spot on the knee of the twins who seem to be battling inside a giant pair of shorts. The spot is Angostura bitters, spilt unintentionally by one of the bartenders or waiters on a not-so-busy night in the summer of 2011. That spot got Tim and I thinking about using the Bitters intentionally in the Loup drawings, and so this is what you have here. I believe what happened is that we put down some random spots which became the person on the far left's eyes and muzzle. I then colored in the "eyes" on the planet on the right hand side. Had we not had to white out the center and give the mini golf course a little castle, this may have been a perfect T&J drawing. We might not have even had to color it in, since the bitters makes such a nice color, and compliments the creme colored dupe pad so nicely. Oh well. The Bitters looks and tastes great. If you haven't had a Bitters and Soda recently, I highly recommend one. My sister Abbie, doesn't like them because it reminds her of being hungover. I totally get this, as that certain concoction is really good for helping in alleviating the effects of the dreaded hangover. It actually works for that reason, so next time you're hung over get on that train and ride it, my friends. I, personally,  enjoy them as a refreshing beverage during my shifts at the Cafe Loup. Years ago, I was working with this guy at The Lighthouse Inn; Rich was his name, and he and I were enjoying a cigarette in the old smoking room down in the Lower Deck. We were talking about refreshing non-alcoholic beverages that you could drink during the shift, and he told me about Bitters and Soda. He said there was nothing more refreshing after running your ass off all night for the tourists. I had never had one at the time, so later that evening when we were still in the middle of our dinner rush, I went behind the service bar and poured myself a tall Bitters and Soda and gulped it down in one fierce chug. I never looked back; to this day I drink a couple of these during the night while waiting on the good people of the Tri-State Area. It doesn't have to stop at the non-alcoholic level; there are so many great drinks that have, no, need bitters in them to really perform at the professional level. There is The Manhattan and The Sazarac, The Dark & Stormy, The Bloody Mary, The Michelata, The Champagne Cocktail, and so many more delicious beverages that just wouldn't be the same without some delicious bitters to amplify and round out the flavors. I still say that I only drink Manhattans as a platform for the bitters; after a night of Bitters and Soda, I like to switch the ingredients, but not the bitters. I guess in Brooklyn these days, people are making Artisinal Bitters which are apparently pretty good. People are trying different flavor combinations like pineapple, cinnamon, celery and chocolate! I am sure all of these are good, I have tried the celery and it is phenomenal, but you give me a bottle of Angostura and some soda and I am one happy dude. We have another bottle of bitters at the bar that you will end up seeing a fair amount of in upcoming drawings, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

#40 "Motivationally Speaking" July 31, 2011

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When I first started working at the Cafe Loup in February of 2002, one could still smoke in restaurants and bars in New York. We had a smoking section up front and you could smoke at the bar as well. Some of the bar tenders smoked behind the bar and we as waiters could smoke at the bar, right at the end closest to the Waiters Station. It's funny to think that at one time, you could be waiting on someone not two feet away and take a cigerette break right in front of them. They wouldn't even mind, and in more than one case, someone would need something, notice you were smoking and give a gesture indicating that whatever they needed could wait until you were done with your smoke break. When smoking was going to be banned, all the smokers were in an outrage. We thought that we were going to lose a ton of business at the Loup. People were talking about how it would never catch on, that the smokers would win, that the ban would be overturned and the smoking sections would stay. Well, the ban came and went and I think the only customer who we actually lost was Dany Levy. Lloyd would lament the loss as, "She was using me for my smoking section." Ten years later, one forgets that you could smoke in restaurants; it seems insane that you were ever aloud to in the first place. I am a smoker of many years. I quit in December, but even as a smoker, I have a hard time imaging that past reality. I think of all the people who complain about the music being loud and all kinds of other insane complaints and I can't believe that these people ever went out to eat while smoking was allowed in restaurants. I guess people didn't know any better at the time and so it was a given, and it was part of going out. That is really the only explanation I can think of. That, or they were the people who initiated the ban. I personally like that this happened. I remember going out to bars back then and waking up nauseous at the smell of my clothes and hair. Everything always smelled like stale ash, and I was one of the people who was contributing to the problem and loving it.
So here we are ten years later and one can still smoke at the Cafe Loup, but you have to know when. It's one of our awesome little secrets that when it is found out by a non-regular, is news so good, it's as if we told them they won the lottery. These people get so excited, they wax nostalgic about how smoking and drinking go hand in hand and that's the way the world should be. They talk whimsically of dividing the country into two states, smoking and non-smoking. They look off into the distance of the back bar and talk about the old days, the good old days and the nights they can't remember anymore. Granted, this is a very secret and hard to come by secret for the customers of the Cafe Loup. We, as employees, were never banned from smoking inside the Loup. We have always been able to smoke there, and as long as Lloyd continues to smoke, we will always be able to smoke there. We can't take our smoke breaks at the bar during service anymore... well, actually, we can and do just that at certain times of the day. We smoke inside during service, and the customers are never aware of it. It's at times like this that one really thinks about the secret lives of New Yorkers. So much happens behind the scenes of every place in New York, one can hardly comprehend it. Smoking is just the tip of the iceberg. 

#38 "Poseidon Adventure" July 14, 2011

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I couldn't come up with a cool name for this one. I was going to go with "All Hail King Neptune and His Water Breathers!" from the Plastic Beach album by Gorillaz but it's so long and no one in the picture seems to even know King Neptune there. It looks more like there is some sort of movie being filmed and the fisherman, mermaid, and little man are all the stars. King Neptune is maybe the Grip or the director; possibly the props manager. With that in mind, it should have a title that suggests it's Hollywood roots: "Poseidon Adventure" possibly. Actually, that might work. Let's go with that. So, now that I've worked that out in my mind and live on this blog, let's move on. It seems that the summer of 2011 was a very creative time for Tim and I. From #35 up until #42, all of these pieces seem to be very concise and if not well thought out, then at least well executed. As you will see as I post the next couple of T&J drawings, this little section of time is pretty good, if I do say so myself. One of my favorite parts about this one is King Neptune himself. Usually people draw him with a human head and a fish tail, but I thought it would be interesting to reverse this and give him a nice, freaky fish head. There are a lot of extremely scary fish in the sea. Luckily for us, as humans, we can't descend to the depths that these really scary looking fish live. We could come in contact with some real horrible things though; sharks, Orcas, and poisonous jellyfish are all pretty freaky. I personally have come in contact with some creepy things in my day. For instance, I saw a bunch of Barracudas down in the Caribbean. Even little fish can scare you if you are swimming and they sneak up on you, or you catch a glimpse of them out of the corner of your eye while submerged in the ocean. I think that is because the ocean is a very claustrophobic place, despite it's enormity. When you are submerged in the ocean, you can't see very well, you can't hear much of anything, and you can't breathe. All of these things combine for a borderline terrifying experience if you really think about it. People have been to the moon but they haven't explored the depths of the oceans yet. The first photographs of the Giant Squid weren't taken until 2004. The ocean is an alien world and it is right smack dab on this planet; it is the majority of the planet. And we know practically nothing about it.  I personally like to swim in the ocean, and I also enjoy diving deep out in the middle of the ocean. It is very scary though, but I feel like maybe that is why I enjoy doing it; I like to scare myself. Up to a limit of course. Anyway, when I first posted this on Bookface, only two people liked it! This was one of my favorite ones to date, and yet it got no love. Not that Tim and I do these for the accolades. We do these as an escape from work, first and foremost. However, I am always amused that a picture of a taco can get 100 likes and something like this only gets 2. Although, you haven't yet seen the color version yet, so maybe it's not good and only deserved 2 likes.