New York is a city of signs and symbols… and restaurants. To attract customers, the enterprising restauranteur needs to distinguish his or her restaurant by a symbol to attract the walk in trade and of course, by the food. What is the essence of good eating? Taste? Aroma?  The person responsible for the display at Trattoria Dell’Arte had the right idea. The designer prudently resisted the impulse to choose a tongue as the icon for the trattoria and opted for the nose. A wise decision. The nose is intimately involved in the enjoyment of food and a more pleasing part of the anatomy to display in a window.

Today’s watercolor experiment:

As I walked south on 7th Avenue, not too far from Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, The Nose caught my eye. I was fascinated by the storefront I saw on the other side of the street.

This snapshot fits right in with my series of bookstores (Fine Books) and other interesting New York buildings (Studio School Building, Central Park News, The Beer and Soda Building). In fact, from my vantage point across the street, my first impression was, this storefront was another bookstore. “How clever,” I thought, “that must be someone’s nose in a book.” Alas, it was a restaurant.

My ink sketch is below:

It was so much easier continuing with the watercolor with a color photograph to work from.

I’m glad I took a photograph of the Trattoria Dell’Arte. Who would believe that a restaurant (and not a bookstore) would have a giant nose in its window.