How John Donohue Draws All the Restaurants in New York, Paris, London, and Beyond
John Donohue has stood outside more than 600 restaurants and drawn them. Photo by Gus Powell.
Growing up, John Donohue always carried a pen in his pocket because he thought he was going to be a writer. And, for over 20 years, he did work as a journalist, primarily as an editor at The New Yorker. But it turns out he had that pen in his pocket because he needed to draw. It’s like the children’s book, Harold and the Purple Crayon. Donohue created his own adventure later in life, making a mid-career pivot from magazine editor to artist.
His speciality is drawing restaurant facades. Why restaurants? Because, as Donohue said, no one gets engaged in a hallway. To date, he has drawn more than 600 of them in New York, Paris, London, and beyond. Along the way he has published three books featuring each city; his newest, A Taste of London, was published this month.
Donohue launched his restaurant project in New York City on January 1, 2017, inspired by the late Jason Polan’s Every Person in New York and James Gulliver Hancock’s All the Buildings in New York. He started by focusing on such iconic places as The Odeon (his first restaurant drawing), Balthazar, and Corner Bistro. What began as a personal project caught on and has turned into Donohue’s full-time business, including selling original prints. (He has drawings from New York, Paris, London, and Napa Valley. You can view his full collection here on his website, All the Restaurants.)
Below, Donohue shares how he evolved his creative career into this exciting new chapter, what it’s like to draw these establishments in 20 minutes while standing on the sidewalk, and, of course, a few of his favorite places to eat in these great food cities.
Moro and Nopi are two of London’s top restaurants.
Where and when did this chapter of your career start to take shape?
When I was at The New Yorker, I wanted to be an illustrator. I tried cartooning, and I had five or six published in the period of about three years. The best cartoonists would sell about 10 percent of their work to The New Yorker; I was selling one percent, which was sort of good for the ego and bad for the pocketbook. I knew I needed to do something else with my career. I put a pause on cartooning and put together a book called Man with a Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who Cook for their Families. It was published in 2011. Stephen King, Jim Harrison, Mark Kurlansky, Mark Bittman, among others, are featured. I put cartoons in there and I did my spot drawings; actually I think I did the whole book just so I could have spot drawings.
You were already a successful editor. Why pursue drawing?
Drawing put me in a good mood and made me feel good. I would draw on the subway on the way to work, mostly working in pencil and trying to master the human figure. This was before cell phones, so I’d draw people sleeping on the train. At some point, an artist friend of my wife suggested that I switch to ink to learn how to draw, which made no sense to me because you can’t erase it. I asked, how do you learn to draw that way? He said that I would learn faster, so I started drawing in ink.
By 2015, the magazine business had changed quite a bit and you left The New Yorker. What was your next move?
I took care of my kids because my wife was working at the time. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen, and I started drawing my dish rack, which I still do every day. Thousands of renditions of my dish rack.
Why the dish rack?
Partly because it was right there and also because it’s an automatic still life. It sets its own composition and changes all the time. And to me it’s sort of a metaphor for your kids: They look the same, but they’re never the same.
I put the dish rack drawings on Facebook, and I don’t think they got any engagement because people think they’re the same thing over and over and over. They don't understand that each of them are actually a little bit different. Or dish racks are just not as interesting to other people as they are to me.
Yet the dish rack has become a central part of your daily creative routine.
Now I think of it like, if I’m a musician, I’m doing my scales. Or, if I’m an athlete, it’s basic training to stay in shape.
A Taste of London is a visual exploration of the city’s food scene.
During this period of change, how did drawing make you feel?
It calmed me down. For example, when I waited for my kids to get them out the door to school, I would draw their backpacks or shoes, and it put me in a better headspace.
How did you turn this hobby into a new career?
Man with a Pan dipped into the bestseller list for a week, and I thought it might be interesting to see what happens if I do some drawings of restaurants. I opened up a website and e-commerce site and started selling prints. I put the first one, The Odeon, up on January 1, 2017.
Did it take off immediately, or was it more of a steady growth phase?
That process of drawing led to a whole second career in grant writing. I ended up working for a large human service nonprofit doing grant writing for about three years while I had this business on the side. I really didn’t expect it to take off, but it did and I did. Early on, I pitched a book deal for a New York book. My publisher Abrams came back with a three-book offer for New York, London, and Paris. Suddenly things got big. The New York book came out in 2019, the Paris book in 2021, and London came out this month. That’s the career pivot. Basically I was out of work, pushing 50, and needed to figure out what to do.
Not a London restaurant, but The Odeon was Donohue’s first restaurant drawing.
How did you decide which restaurants to feature?
The project started as a side gig. While I was out interviewing for real jobs, there was always a restaurant nearby that I could draw. So the first were somewhat random, and then I started adding the iconic places, everything from Junior’s to Per Se.
I have a personal connection to the Grand Central Oyster Bar. My dad used to take me there when I was younger, and I had my first date with my wife there. It was fun to draw with the tiles and arch.
You’ve written that you “work in ink on paper and from life, without corrections.” Can you share more about your process there on the street?
I generally stand. It’s rare that I get to sit unless there is a piece of street furniture. It seems to take me about 20 minutes to do a place almost without fail. My position is determined to a large extent by what’s happening in the moment. If the sun is shining, can I stand in the shade? Or can I stand next to the street furniture so I don’t get jostled? When I’m concentrating I’m not really aware of anything around me. That's a vulnerable position to be in.
How do you get the drawings so perfect in one pass?
Drawing in ink is liberating because almost every line is a mistake. It teaches you how to see and how we misperceive things. When I’m drawing it I’m typically not getting it perfect. And I’m not really getting it right. There might be the wrong number of windows in the restaurant, for example. But I’ve been drawing for 20 years and so it adds up.
Over the last 20 years, it feels like everyone in creative fields has had to re-invent themselves. How did you market yourself beyond your work at The New Yorker, as John the Artist?
In the beginning I had novelty. I called my project “All the restaurants in New York.” It’s an aspirational title, like I want to keep drawing forever. I picked a subject that is inexhaustible. There are always people opening new restaurants, but I'll just never catch up.
You started drawing because you loved it. Now that it's your business, has your relationship with drawing changed?
When I started out as an artist, I always thought the best friend of an artist is a day job. Because then you can have the freedom to create the art in the way that you want to (although you may be short on time because you have to put time into the day job). Now I have my own business and every day I work in this job, I become less employable in any other field. As far as a Plan B goes, it's great. There is just no plan C.
What does the breakdown of time between your creative and business work look like?
I spend 80 percent of my time or more doing administrative tasks. Over the past year, I’ve worked with a team to build out my database and stocking system. My hope is that when I get that in order, I'll get that 80 percent down to 30 percent. I never used a spreadsheet before I became an artist. Now I can't live without one.
For A Taste of London, you spent six weeks drawing and dining out there. What are some of your favorite spots?
There is this great Thai restaurant Kiln and a fantastic Basque place, BRAT. When my family was there, we had a wonderful meal at Moro, which has Turkish and Israeli food.
What about in New York?
I live in Brooklyn, so one of my favorites is Al Di La, a Venetian place in Park Slope. There is another place in Park Slope, Haenyeo, which is completely different from any Korean food you’ve had. Then we just ate at Wayan in Soho, which serves Indonesian food.
While you’ve just crossed the finish line on A Taste of London, have you thought about which city you might want to explore next?
New Orleans is the great white whale for me. It has a singular place in American culinary history and would be an interesting place, though I am terrified of drawing all of the iron work on the buildings. It will be challenging.
If you’d like to read more from Creative Factor, subscribe to our newsletter. Or looking to tell your brand story? Introducing Creative Factor’s Storytelling Studio.
Plus, more great reads right this way…
