Customers love his portrait of Tanya Tandoc. Now, he’s painted the whole restaurant staff
For five years, an oil painting of Tanya’s Soup Kitchen’s late founder Tanya Tandoc has hung in a place of honor in the restaurant at 1725 E. Douglas.
The painting, by local artist Richard Davies, shows Tandoc how her many friends and fans remember her: warmly smiling with her hair piled on top of her head, peering through her thick-framed glasses while she holds her beloved pet pug, Olive.
Now that famous portrait has company.
Owner Kelly Rae Leffel, a longtime manager who bought the restaurant after Tandoc was killed in 2015, has just turned a small hallway into a mini art gallery.
Shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she commissioned Davies to create a series of portraits featuring members of her restaurant staff, both past and present. Her goal: to show the people who work for her how important they are.
“It’s not just one face,” Leffel said. “A restaurant has many faces. It’s the face of the people who greet you at the register. It’s the people who come to your table and get to know you as a part of our family,” she said. “...I wanted to show my staff that they are just as much a part of this place as Tanya was and that I am. It’s bigger than just one person.”
The gallery, which was hung about a week ago, now features 20 square oil painting portraits of Leffel’s recognizable staff. There’s also a larger portrait of Leffel.
Tanya and Olive were moved to a more prominent spot, and customers now see that portrait right when they walk in the door. The staff portraits — which include images of longtime employees like Monte Riegel Wheeler, Jordan Patrick-Satterfield, Marty Brown and Kyle Tinius — are arranged beside it.
Davies was commissioned by Tandoc about a year before her death to create a portrait of her pug Olive, who had grown rather elderly. He said he persuaded Tandoc that she should be in the portrait, too.
Tandoc loved the finished product, he said, and he was in the process of varnishing it when she died. Davies hung on to the piece until Leffel was ready to hang it in the restaurant.
It took Davies all summer to finish the 20 portraits, and he still has four more to go. He enjoyed the project, he said, and he loves how the paintings turned out.
“This is what I love to do more than anything in the world is paint,” he said. “I don’t know how to describe it. Time goes by quickly.”
Leffel said she plans to commission portraits for employees once they hit their two-year marks at the restaurant. Her staff members have been “overwhelmed with pride” to be recognized.
She still has trouble visiting her new portrait hall without getting emotional, Leffel said.
“I just think Richard did such an incredible job capturing everyone’s essence,” she said. “I can get pretty choked up just looking at it.”
This story was originally published November 22, 2021 at 11:23 AM.
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