#InstaWall: San Francisco restaurant's wallpaper has many posing for selfies

Luz Pena Image
Sunday, April 14, 2019
#InstaWall: San Francisco restaurant's wallpaper has many posing for selfies
A local San Francisco restaurant is not only gaining popularity for its great food, but also for what's on the walls.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A local San Francisco restaurant is not only gaining popularity for its great food, but also for what's on the walls. The wallpaper of Fiorellas a restaurant on Clement Street is becoming an Instagram sensation.

In 2015 a group of artist known as Lonely Island asked Castro Valley illustrator Matt Ritchie to draw four Bay Area characters and Landmarks to make a wallpaper out of it, the rest is history.

The first business to buy the wallpaper was Fiorellas.

Managing Partner Brandon Gillis said, "From the moment we saw it we said this is perfect. This totally represents Fiorella. This is what we want to do with our neighborhood restaurant and where else are you going to find Mac Dre, Too short, Alice Water, Joe Montana."

From him Castro Valley studio, Ritchie showed us the original drawings.

"Trying to get involved in researching that individual. It really made me look into the career of Joe Montana. I was looking at photos and reference and piecing it together," said Ritchie.

Ritchie says it took him around 30 hours to draw each character and more than a year to finish the wallpaper.

We asked Ritchie is he felt like a historian while doing this project.

"I didn't at the time, that was never my intention. Now I feel like people are really responding to it and generating a lot of nostalgia for them," he responded.

Fiorellas opened a second location and Ritchie has already gotten requests to add more characters to the history wall.

"I already know I would like Steph Curry, Tom Waits, and other East Bay bands that I like," said Ritchie.