In my Post Arte Mexicano : Mi Colección I wrote briefly about Luis Amendollas art “on public display”
To recap
Amendollas art on public display.
The Spirit of La Fonda.
This book describes the 50-year history and culture of the venerable La Fonda Restaurant in Lafayette, La. (1) one of the state’s most popular eating establishments. The book is also an autobiography of the restaurant’s founder and owner, Leebob Cox (2), and a showplace for the art of Luis Amendolla and Phyllis Malzyk Giardano.
- Lafayette is a city in southern Louisiana in the United States of America located in the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun & Creole Country. Lafayette is named after Marquis de Lafayette. Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834) was a French aristocrat, freemason, and military officer who volunteered to join the Continental Army, led by General George Washington, in the American Revolutionary War. He was wounded during the Battle of Brandywine but still managed to organize an orderly retreat, and he served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he sailed for home to lobby for an increase in French support. He returned to America in 1780 and was given senior positions in the Continental Army. Lafayette returned to France in 1787 and was appointed to the Assembly of Notables. In 1824, President James Monroe invited him to the United States as the nation’s guest, where he visited all 24 states in the union and met a rapturous reception. During France’s July Revolution of 1830, he declined an offer to become the French dictator. Instead, he supported Louis-Philippe as king, but turned against him when the monarch became autocratic. He died on 20 May 1834 and is buried in Picpus Cemetery in Paris, under soil from Bunker Hill. He is sometimes known as “The Hero of the Two Worlds” for his accomplishments in the service of both France and the United States.
- Leebob died in February 2008.
The restaurant La Fonda opened its doors on December 10, 1957, in a nondescript building on Johnston Street (and as far as anyone can remember was the first Tex-Mex restaurant to be opened in Lafayette)
La Fondas menu is quite Texmexican (the Tequila selection is a little poor though)
Its founder, Leebob Cox, was hoping to be able to make a living selling Tex-Mex food and charcoal-broiled steaks. At first, he struggled, and wasn’t sure he was going to make it but 62 years later it is still running (as of 2019) and the restaurant is still being run by a Cox (his daughter Stephanie).
In August of 2008, more than four decades after the late Leebob Cox travelled to Mexico City to track down itinerant painter Luis Amendolla (and eight years after Amendolla’s death) the accomplished portrait painter, 62-year-old Lafayette native Rocky Perkins, worked in the restaurant to paint 90 caricatures as a fund-raiser for Hospice of Acadiana and HonorAir, a volunteer organization that flies WWII vets to the WWII Memorial in D.C. “I’m here because I can match Mr. Amendolla’s style,” Perkins says.
The owners still wish to continue with style of the artist whos art Leebob was so enamoured of.
In this previous Post, which is part of an ongoing series on the artist Luis Amendolla and his artwork (and life), I noted that La Fonda displayed Amendollas artwork and used it on their menus and even for the cover art of a book celebrating 50 years of the history of the restaurant.
Luis’s art can be found (and other works very much in his style) scattered thoughout the restaurant. This art can also be found on the cover of “The Spirit of La Fonda”, an autobiographical book of Leebob describing the 50-year history and culture of the venerable La Fonda Restaurant in Lafayette and which is also noted as a being showplace for the art of Luis Amendolla and another artist Phyllis Malzyk Giordano. (Phyllis’s art depicting La Fondas employees at work are featured in this book)
Now, aside from the cover of the abovementioned book, I did not have any examples of Amendollas menu art. I have since come into contact with some of this art and would like to share it with you.
First I would like to look at the book cover in more detail
Showing (although a little blurry here) Amendollas distinctive signature
See Post Amendollas signature.
The Menu illustrated by Amendolla
Some of Amendollas menu artwork
I have not been able to ascertain a date for the publishing of this menu
A copy of the 1965 menu
This menu does not differ in any great detail to that illustrated by Luis Amendolla
Other artwork by Amendolla displayed in the restaurant
Amendollas art also appears on the restaurants gift cards.
La Fonda Restaurant was proclaimed an Historic Cultural Resource by Lafayette Parish Mayor-President Joel Robideaux on Friday, July 26, 2019. Owner, Stephanie Cox Gagnard, received a historic plaque, honouring the restaurant’s listing on the Lafayette Historic Register.
For further information on this artist see my previous Posts….
Masa Americana 