Unless you were there on a commercial shoot or to campaign for Bernie Sanders, you haven’t really been able to linger in Johnie’s Coffee Shop since the Space Age restaurant shuttered in 2000. But now—just in time for the debut of a new Metro D Line stop across the street—this iconic Googie structure along Wilshire Boulevard is open to the public again thanks to one of L.A.’s most recognizable artists.
Gary Baseman has filled the historic Fairfax Avenue space with his mischievous illustrated characters, in plush form filling booths and, most uniquely, as drawings on top of local restaurant menus. Dubbed “Off the Menu,” the show—which officially opened Friday afternoon—is just bursting with love for both Fairfax and L.A.’s restaurant scene.
“I’m able to bring all these different dining establishments together [through these drawings],” Baseman tells us. “From Musso & Frank to Nancy Silverton’s Mozza to Tommy Brockert’s LaSorted’s in Downtown (the best pizza in L.A.) to Jurassic Magic (who makes great coffee) to Canter’s (which my mom was the head bakery sales lady for 35 years) to Genghis Cohen.”
Walk inside of the Armet & Davis–designed coffeehouse and you’ll spy some of Baseman’s three-dimensional creations sidled up to the bar or occupying seats in the corner. And in between them, placed on tabletops and lining the counter, dozens of menus from L.A. restaurants have been doodled over with those same whimsical characters.
Expect them to potentially work their way into food, too: Though nothing’s being served at the show quite yet, Baseman says he’s working with Sad Girl Creamery on some pops inspired by the feline-ish Toby, as well as a treat from Kettle Glazed Doughnuts based on Bosko, Baseman’s late black cat who “loved Kettle Glazed Doughnuts more than anything.”
Baseman set out to create a show that celebrated the playfulness of L.A.’s dining culture, and his longtime home turf in the Fairfax District felt like the perfect place (“even though every place seems to be open for lease in the city, which is breaking my heart”). So he reached out to his high school classmate Howard Gold, heir of the now-defunct 99 Cents Only Stores and owner of the Johnie’s building, and—with the opening of the Wilshire/Fairfax subway stop across the street as well as LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries down the block—couldn’t have found better timing.
“We want to find a way to bring life and have people come here and get them excited about dining culture—and about art, of course—and celebrate Fairfax,” Baseman says.
So from now into June, you can see art-emblazoned menus from some of L.A.’s most beloved culinary institutions inside of one of its most iconic coffeehouses (though Baseman points out that, ironically, “Johnie’s actually was never remembered as having good food”).
“Off the Menu” is open on Friday, May 8 from 3 to 7pm; on Saturday, May 9 from noon to 6pm, with an evening reception from 6 to 9pm; and Sunday, May 10 from noon to 7pm. After that, the free show runs Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 7pm through June 14. Find it at 6101 Wilshire Boulevard.