Coffee shop fame

A few postings back, I shared an urban sketch of Bobby's Coffee Shop that I made. Since I had done it while there on my own, the next time Cousin Kirsten and I went there to breakfast, I remembered and pulled my sketchbook out of my purse to show her. The manager (owner? not sure) of the restaurant happened to be passing our table. He saw my drawing, and promptly solicited me to send him a .jpg because, he said, they were reprinting the menu the following day, and he would feature it in the menu! I negotiated a credit for myself with him, and sent it over. The next time we went to breakfast, there was my picture—on the front cover of the menu! Pretty cool.

I haven't said anything about it up to now (this happened a couple of weeks ago) because Kirsten and I wanted to take our friends, Kirsti and Aaron—who recommended Bobby's to us—to breakfast there and spring the menu on them as a surprise. We did that this morning. They arrived first, and it was fun, upon walking through the door, to be greeted with exclamations of "There's the celebrity!" They thought it was way cool, and I have to agree.

Although some people chided me for not charging him for its use, I felt like since I didn't do it as a commission but purely for fun, why should I? Also, it has already borne fruit—last week he sent me the email and phone number of a local florist and said "please call them, they have some work for you." From the way it was phrased, I'm hoping he didn't tell them I did the picture gratis, because if it's a commission, I will be charging. Still, what fun! opening doors to local businesses to showcase my work.