Pizza Brain Update

YES, Pizza Brain, the Worlds First Pizza Museum and Restaurant is open for business. And NO, the Pizzalebrity Wall Of Fame Mural I'm working on in the backyard - featuring something like 150 famous / infamous / not really famous at all Philadelphians devouring pizza together - is not finished, but if the backyard is open you can come check it out in progress, or just go there to check out the amazing museum and pizza.

This massive mural, including everyone from Cosby and Ben Franklin to the Broad Street Bullies, Mikey Wild and most of the Pizza Brain family - probably the biggest project I have ever (attempted) to do in my life - should be done in about two weeks. If you want to follow the progress check out pizza brain and myself on twitter or better yet instragram where there's tons of progress shots from the last few months.

Pizza Brain
2312 Frankford Ave
Philadelphia, PA

Paintings for The Wurst Bar in Ypsilanti, Michigan

Recently finished these 4 paintings for The Wurst Bar in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Really cool place with a menu of all house-made sausages including a bunch of veggie stuff. Yet another place I've worked for that I really wish was closer so I could eat the food.

Stuff looks awesome, right? I'm a big fan of anything Pimento Cheese and those Nacho Tots look crazy. All the pictures I've seen the food looks really tight and well executed, they aren't just slopping this stuff together, and looks like a great beer list going on too. 

These dudes were also great clients to work with and very patient with me juggling this along with a massive mural and about 100 other projects this summer. Go check them out if you're in the area. Oh and check out some process pics below. 

The Wurst Bar

705 West Cross Street  Ypsilanti, MI 48197
(734) 485-6720

Food Network Magazine

Nice feature on my hot dog paintings alongside some "money" grill recipes by Guy Fieri , lobster rolls,  Jose Garces's top 5 Philly eats, plus a cool LA Taco Tour map illustrated by Michael A. Hill. 

Seattle Dog - Seattle Weekly

Seattle dog illustration (originally done for Serious Eats) featured in a recent Seattle Weekly cover story on the origins of the "Seattle Style" cream cheese hot dog. 

I'm quoted along with my buddy Garrett Morlan (also an awesome illustrator  ) who tipped me off to these things when he moved out there a few years ago.

Also interviewed for the article was Keith over at Hot Diggity about his version, which I also did the artwork for. Diggity's version takes it more in a "bagel" direction, which i always thought was sort of wrong, until I read this awesome article and realized the first guy to do this in Seattle was a bagel guy.

The funniest part is that everyone in Seattle thinks the style came from Philadelphia, assuming that we slather everything in cream cheese. Anyway the article is fantastic - and follows the history of the Seattle cream cheese dog WAY further back than I had any idea it went - to hot dog carts in the park during the grunge era - supposedly someone was hit in the face with a cream cheese dog at a Pearl Jam concert in the early 90's - and a bagel place that made hot dog roll sized "bialy sticks" and filled them with hot dogs.

From the grunge carts and bagel dudes the trend spread to vendors outside Mariners stadium - where i had assumed it started - like Joe Bernstein at Joe's Grilled Gourmet Dogs, who's been slinging them for something like 15 years. Joe may not have invented the cream cheese thing, but he's probably the first person to call them "Seattle Style".

From then it spread across the country, in waves - the most famous cream cheese slingers outside of Seattle being Biker Jim in Denver (who bought his first cart - cream cheese caulk gun and all - from a guy in Seattle) and M.A. in Alaska, who added their coca-cola onions to the mix, served on reindeer dogs and game sausages rather than standard dogs.

They've both been at it for 10-15 years, Biker Jim famously serving one to Bourdain on No Reservations a few years ago. Anyway don't take it from me, go check out the article,
probably the most exhaustive history of this newer regional hot dog style to date.

Seattle Weekly: The Seattle Dog - An Oral History

Michigans Illo for Adirondack Life Magazine

For Adirondack Life Magazine, illustration for an article about "Michigans", a peculiar hot dog found in the North Country and Adirondack region of New York State. Great, thorough article on the subject that you can check out at adirondacklife.com. Also, T-Shirts!

Space 1026 Show Photos

Massive thanks to everyone who came out to the show even though it was 110 degrees & especially Kris Chau and everyone at Space 1026.

There's a ton of photos on flickr if you want to see more. 

There's also a handful of 30"x20"-ish screenprints (thanks Awesome Dudes Printing) of this South Philly Times Square piece left, $40 plus shipping if you're outside of Philadelphia, email me if you're interested.... Show is up 'til July 28th at 1026 Arch St!

Marc Maron & Lucky Peach

In other words the best illustration job of all time. When Lucky Peach called me up I was thrilled and assumed I would be drawing hot dogs. When I found out they wanted something for a Marc Maron story - who I has just started listening to - I was amazed. 

The story is about an iron skillet Maron bought from an ex-squatter during a time in his life where he was looking for an escape from self-loathing and marijuana, the ritual of scrubbing and seasoning cast iron doing the trick. Sort of. It's a great story and hopefully my illustration does it justice.

I listened to Marc Maron's WTF podcast non-stop while working on this, and haven 't really stopped. I've been hearing about his podcast for years and just thought it was one of those things everybody talks about but it's basically the best/funniest thing in the world. Go listen to the podcast, sign up for the premium app and buy awesome things like WTF t-shirts designed by Coop at wtfpod.com.

Also, TONS of illustration in this issue - Tony Millionaire, Lauren Weinstein and an awesome piece by Tim Lane. And a great story about The Schmitter by Tom Lax of Philadelphia's Siltbreeze records. Pick it up at mcsweeneys.net.