Porcini  1993
GALLERY 1

A small Italian restaurant on Halsted near Diversey. Porcini is a type of mushroom and the specialty here was northern Italian cuisine.

The storefront is hard finish stucco. The window upper is eliptical and fixed, the lower section is operable. and counter-balanced with weights made from pvc pipe filled with lead shot. Those pipes are hidden in the wall.

A casualty of the restaurant wars, Porcini closed and became a bar. The storefront survived. To this day the window still functions and is opend on warm summer nights. I want to know what happened to the mushroom.

The original owner, Tony Fracano, lived above the store. The door to the flat is on the left.

The building as it looks today. Note the new building to the right. Chicago has gone through a tear-down where many city blocks have changed dramatically.

The bar to the left was made in the 1930's and brought in by the owner for this project. It provided the visual clues to the trim work. You can see that on the vestibule.

The door to the right went up to the the flat above the restaurant. The steel door was unconvicingly painted a wood grain color. Above the door is the start or mural that coved most of the walls.

This is looking from the front window to the wall on the left. It was laid out this way to provide canvas area for the mural to be painted.

I'd say that the artist is a combination of Miro and Dali.

That same wall today. It makes you realize how little thought goes into the decorating of a Craker Barrel.