I discovered this old thing behind a cabinet in the garage......It began as a painting by Ellen Gentry....... pink camellias......the painting didn't go anywhere, so she placed it in her "reject" stack......During our tenure as waiters at an artsy restaurant, Sidney's Second Act......our manager Ron Cohen, a non-practicing attorney, decided to hire Cathy Baker, a relatively unknown singer at the time, to appear with pianist Robert Ray, hoping that the nightclubby atmosphere would bring business to the lackluster Hungarian restaurant.....so......Ellen reworked the flower painting, copying an old photo that I had taken of a total stranger who ran a second-hand clothing store in Brookhaven......she didn't look much like Cathy Baker, but, then, we had not yet met Ms. Baker.....When this act didn't really give us gang-busters business, we resorted to singing the menus, dancing in.. attired with colorful costumes, bearing flaming filets and veal paprikash......the entire staff were friends and we all encouraged our other friends to make "costumey" appearances to liven up the place......Ron even employed portions of The Atlanta Boy Choir to sing madrigals as we served our flavorful, flaming fare on rollerskates! A fashionable decorator, Penny Goldwasser, refurbished the odd little restaurant in traditional Hungarian traveling caboose decor, in primary colors; and Ron, always attired in long dashikis, continued to interview artists and hired a socialite, Timmy Silver, as our bartender.......This was all just way too much over the top for the conservative Buckhead clientele at the time, who were more accustomed to dinner at the Cherokee Country Club and, after church services, dining on turkey and dressing at Morrison's cafeteria, however.......This old, tattered painting, a bakelite 'tip tray', and an old ceramic vase are all that remain of this venture............
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