Vive la Difference!

Over Labor Day weekend, Joe and I traveled with our friend, Melissa, to a new destination… Bristol, R.I. Joe had actually been there for a business trip years ago and immediately said yes when I suggested it might be a nice place for a weekend visit. Let me tell you: What a wonderful seaside town Bristol is. Our Airbnb's back yard overlooked Narragansett Bay and lots of moored boats. Many were sailboats and it was fascinating watching all the activity in the water. The whole process of using a rowboat or kayak to get out to your bigger boat that's tethered to a buoy and then going through the process in reverse at the end of the day was interesting to observe. A historic town, there's both grand old houses probably owned by sea captains and more modest yet still striking antique homes working people might have lived in. Self-described as the most patriotic place in the country, the town holds a huge 4th of July parade and celebration. Even the center stripes on Main Street are red, white and blue while huge hanging planters of begonias are suspended from lampposts the entire stretch. I'd already looked up restaurants before we got there and there's a ton of good ones. The one I was focused on was only a few doors down from our rental on Hope Street. A French restaurant, Le Central was just as enchanting as I'd imagined. We went for lunch and I ordered Croque Monsieur which was ham and gruyere on a toasted brioche with a side of hand-cut fries (frites). Delicious. I flipped over a plate to see they were, of course, from France. The whole space had a comfortable European vibe. Not at all fussy but breezy and elegant. On my way back from the restroom, I was struck by an oversized hanging canvas at one end of the dining room. I couldn't decide if it felt French or Italian but definitely European and had a fantastical feel to it. For some reason it reminded me of an old foreign short film, "The Red Balloon". Depicting a man in striped shirt and beanie sitting on a chair with wheels on what appeared to be a tightrope, he was being approached by a boy on rollerblades with a dog on a leash riding a skateboard. With almost a dreamlike quality to it and on such a massive scale (maybe 6 feet wide and 5 feet tall), I thought it was incredibly cool. I snapped a pic and finished lunch. After I returned to New Hampshire, I pulled up good old Google Lens on my phone and was thrilled to find that you could pull up photos stored on your phone for identification purposes. I'd only tried the app with live shots previously. Google immediately identified the painting. The AI overview said the image was a painting by Inez Storer titled "Le Central Art." It identified that it was displayed at Le Central, a restaurant in Bristol, R.I. The painting depicts the chef/proprietor Jesse James' son Sam and his dog Skye. It also said the identity of the man in the chair is unknown. I did a search for the artist, Inez Storer, and found that she is a named American artist born in 1933 and has lived her life in California and also spent a couple years as an artist-in-residence in Rome. A mixed-media artist, she creates work in the magical realism genre. Her story is fascinating in and of itself; look her up if you have a moment. I called the restaurant and left a voicemail. Several hours later, I got a voicemail in return from "Sam", the general manager of Le Central. He thought the easiest way to communicate with him would be through email, so I sent him a list of questions. With a deadline fast approaching, I've fashioned what I think might be the larger story around this remarkable canvas. Jesse James might be foreign born and obviously learned to cook. He opened Le Central 20 years ago (our way-hip server told me) and he just so happened to be friends with Inez Storer who created the oversized painting as a gift to her friend to celebrate the opening of the restaurant. This would have been around 2004 and Jesse James' son, Sam, was probably around eight. Now in his late 20s, Sam now manages his dad's restaurant. That might be Jesse James himself seated in the chair on the tightrope. But why wouldn't Google have known that given all the other details it came up with? I look forward to visiting Bristol, R.I. again and definitely dining at Le Central right next to this fantastic piece. It's giving me an itch to dig out my old sets of paints and try something large scale and whimsical!