The Pita House

The owners bought 27 N Broadway, an old insurance office in Tarrytown, and turned it into a fast-casual Israeli restaurant. We made a collection of collaged, framed Israeli ephemera, a salon wall, and wayfinding signs at the entry.

2023 · At tCR · Art, curation and wayfinding ·

Found paper, on florals

Our 2023 note said the room didn’t match the food. We went for an eclectic Israeli home and gathered what a home keeps: Hebrew playing cards, Tnuva milk bags, crate and matchbox labels, stamps, postcards, an airmail letter, press photographs. Each piece went onto patterned or floral paper, into a mat, into a found frame.

Press photograph on pastel florals, in a gilt frame

Close on the frame's carved gilt corner — The frame, close

Close on the cut photograph over the pastel flowers — Cut edge over the flowers

Hebrew citrus advertisement in a gilt frame

A lemon wearing a chef's hat on a red Hebrew poster, over teal florals — An old citrus ad, and a lemon in a chef’s hat

Hebrew playing cards on a red floral

Close on four of the playing cards — Four of the nine, close

A soldier and a young woman kiss, collaged on dark florals

An airmail postcard written in red ink — A kiss, and an airmail letter in red ink

Torn grey and white paper beside a postcard of Atarim Square, Tel Aviv — Torn paper and a Tel Aviv postcard

A shawarma carver, photograph on pink paper in a gilt frame

A Dafna apple crate label on blue florals

Three musicians on a beach, on autumn florals

A boy running down an alley, on green and pink flowered paper

An old Hebrew menu and a tram on floral paper

A matchbox with a key on blue and gold Morris print

To Go, Dine In

One building had to hold a sit-down room and a busy takeout trade. Our 2023 plan: route takeout through another entrance, and make the room worth walking through. The signs are framed like the art and hang with it, so the directions read as part of the room.

At the entry, framed To Go and Dine In signs hang among the art beside a menu stand — At the entry: To Go left, Dine In right

A framed To Go & Pick up sign over the door at the end of the hall — At the end of the hall: To Go & Pick up

Laid out, then hung

Before a nail went in, we laid every wall out flat, on the studio rug and on tables, and moved frames until the arrangement held. Then we hung it, and lined the long hall by the stairs with frames close together, the way a home hangs its pictures.

The dining wall laid out on a table — On the table

The same wall hung, with the Fatima cigarette sign at the top — On the wall

A wall laid out on a board in the studio

The Dine In and To Go signs framed in the studio

Close on the Fatima, the original Turkish blend cigarette sign — Fatima, the original Turkish blend

Close on the To Go & Pick up sign over the hall door — To Go & Pick up, over the door

The hall by the stairs, frames close together down its length

The entry wall: small frames around two oval Pita House signs