Murals are popping up all over restaurants, transforming them into ad hoc art galleries. The large-scale installations act as Instagram thirst traps, statement pieces, and conversation starters.
Cielo Rojo
7211 Carroll Ave., Takoma Park
Dallas illustrator Paloma Nicole Diaz created an image of two Mexican women dressed in traditional delantales (aprons) and holding baskets of maize, an agave plant sprouting between them. Then mega-muralist Patrick Owens—whose 100-plus works can be seen at DC Brau, Zeppelin, La Bonne Vache, and elsewhere—spent six days hand-painting it on the garage door of this vibey Mexican restaurant’s new location in Takoma Park.
Causa
920 Blagden Alley, NW
Before Rose Jaffe was a full-time artist specializing in murals, she worked as a host at the upscale U Street steakhouse Lost Society, where she met rising bar star Glendon Hartley. Years later, Hartley and his business partner, Chad Spangler, opened the celebrated Peruvian restaurant Causa and tapped Jaffe to festoon its two-story Shaw facade with black-and-white renditions of rainforest creatures: a parrot, snake, and butterfly.
Right Proper Brewpub & Kitchen
624 T St., NW
When Colombian American artist Nico Amortegui got the call to paint a mural inside this Shaw brewpub, he couldn’t say no: His sister-in-law, Leah Cheston, is Right Proper’s co-owner. His “Homage to Duke Ellington,” a colorful tableau of primitive figures and musical instruments, pulls inspiration from African art and the location’s history. In the early 20th century, the space was home to Frank Holliday’s Pool Room, a speakeasy where Ellington, then an aspiring pianist, hung around jazz greats before their gigs at the Howard Theatre across the alley.
Jackie
79 Potomac Ave., SE
Jackie Kennedy, this Navy Yard bistro’s namesake, stars in a glam outdoor mural adjacent to the patio. But it’s worth seeking out the striking floor-to-ceiling painting of JFK hidden in the private dining room. There, his tortoiseshell sunglasses reflect three Soviet-centric challenges of his presidency: Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the Berlin Wall, and the space race. Both portraits are by Russian-born caricaturist/painter Igor Ponochevnyi, whose provocative works often skewer the Kremlin.
This article appears in the March 2024 issue of Washingtonian.
Nevin Martell is a parenting, food, and travel writer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Saveur, Men’s Journal, Fortune, Travel + Leisure, Runner’s World, and many other publications. He is author of eight books, including It’s So Good: 100 Real Food Recipes for Kids, Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from America’s Favorite Rural Bakery, and the small-press smash Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip. When he isn’t working, he loves spending time with his wife and their six-year-old son, who already runs faster than he does.
