Shay wrote:

> 
> I know how I would do it, but it wouldn't be worth it. It would still 
> look fake. 


Your standards may be too high.  I would be interested in your idea.



It takes a real-life artist to accomplish something this:
> http://www.lilianbroca.com/index.php/mosaics-gallery.php
> 

No, that level could not be programmed.  But cruder result could hold 
some charm.


> Your tables look like the Ikea version, which suits a modest Bistro like 
> this one. 

Yes, it was really about the table-tops.  They drove the scene.


The whole scene reminds me of the kind of place I used to see
> around Austin: a pizza kitchen with tables left over from when it was a 
> coffee house and a lucky cat on the counter left over from when it was a 
> pho shop. These places all seem to have been taken over by corporate 
> restaurants.

There was a well-known student, cafe-type, hangout around the University 
of Toronto called "Lickin' Chicken"  Used to *be* a Lickin Chicken so 
they just left the sign there.


> 
> Houston family-owned restaurants are more resistant to corporate 
> take-over, but Houston doesn't have beautiful scenery or historic 
> architecture. There is something Romantic about eating a plate of 
> over-priced, under-portioned, glorified junk-food in a beautiful 
> setting, at least when you're immature and idealistic. The famous Oasis 
> (Garth Brooks slipped on down to it) in Austin was nothing more than a 
> burger joint with a view.
> 

Well, garden restaurants in the east village here have zero view. 
They're built in the charmless backyard/airshafts of tenement buildings, 
and shaded with weeds that grew into trees.  But we love 'em and pay 
$3000/mo for one bedroom closet apartments to be near 'em because this 
is New York and gawd knows only New York has the right to call itself 
New York.

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