Al's Kitchen Hosted by Connie Lewallen, in conversation with Al Ruppersberg
“The Cafe was a limited-run restaurant, staged once a week (on Thursdays from eight to eleven) in downtown Los Angeles. It was to function socially as a meeting place for friends, members of the art world, and anyone else who wanted to drop by. In direct opposition to what one might have expected from a young artist at the time, the decor was familiar to the point of strangeness. It was sumptuously filled with romantic detail, suggesting a cafe that had existed for a lifetime and was filled with Middle American memorabilia. The patterns of the tablecloths were everyday plaid, the counter and the tables and chairs were traditional. This was Al’s Cafe, the American cafe of all American cafes. The menu supplied by the beautiful waitress was on the outside perfectly normal-looking—but the ‘dishes’ were rather odd. From salad to desert, Al’s Cafe mediated nature into sculpture, brought the forest and the desert to your table.” (Allan McCollum) For this Wednesday event, Constance Lewallen discussed Al Ruppersberg’s project Al’s Cafe .