A
San Francisco restaurant’s food isn’t the only reason for its
popularity. Its walls are making waves.
Fiorellas
has become an Instagram sensation after a group of artists, “Lonely
Island” asked Matt Ritchie, an illustrator from Castro Valley, if
he would draw four Bay Are characters and landmarks so they could be
made into a wallpaper.
It
was Fiorellas who was the first business to purchase this wallpaper.
Brandon
Gillis, Fiorellas managing partner, said the moment they saw the
wallpaper, they knew it was a representation of the business. He said
this is what they wanted to do for the neighborhood restaurant. He
said there’s no other place a person can go to find Joe Montana,
Too Short, Alice Water or Mac Dre.
Ritchie said he took time and researched each person he drew. For example, he looked into Joe Montana’s career, looking at various photos for reference and then pieced them together. According to Ritchie, each character drawing took him 30 hours, with over a year to complete the entire wallpaper.
Ritchie
said he never felt like a historian when he was drawing the
characters. He said it was never my intention, but that he notices
people are responding to the artwork and it’s creating some
nostalgia.
A
second Fiorellas location has opened up, and Ritchie is already
getting requests to add characters to the history wall.
Ritchie said he’s already got a few characters in mind that he likes.
