“Restaurant owners add mural”

Posted: 01 Dec 2010 10:47 AM PST

A Grove City diner has gotten a makeover, courtesy of its new owners and a well-known local artist.

Tracey Cope, a longtime waitress at Lilly's Kitchen Table, 4008 Broadway, and her husband, Todd, purchased the restaurant and revamped the interior this fall.

A colorful mural, painted by Grove City artist David Maple, depicts the storefronts along Broadway, as well as Cope's grandchildren, Kenna, 3, and Kaylee, 2.

"I've worked here for nine years, and when the opportunity came up, I jumped on it," Tracey Cope said. "It's a nice little diner and a lot of my family worked here."

Wanting to brighten up the inside of the diner, the Copes approached Maple, who has painted murals all over town.

"The back wall needed something," Cope said. "My husband met (Maple) down at Arts in the Alley and it kind of took off from there."

Maple, who has been painting murals in Grove City since 2001, said he and the Copes came up with the mural idea together.

"They wanted something to put in there that would kind of keep the same feeling of the town center and the other murals," Maple said.

"We talked about using her storefront on it and adding a couple of other side buildings and a gaslight. It's all a part of downtown, and that's advertising for you."

The painting, which covers half of the back wall, is basically a reflection of what you'd see in the large window at the front of Lilly's, Cope said.

"The colors all worked very well with the room that they repainted. It's gotten a lot of very good comments," Maple said. "It's the first thing you see when you open that door. It's a real kick."

The mural took Maple a couple weeks of working from 7 a.m. to noon or 1 p.m., when Lilly's was open.

Maple painted the mural in acrylics.

"I use the same materials I used on the other murals in town. I coat them with a UV clearcoat," which protects it, from light, fingerprints and spills, Maple said.

"Even if it gets dirty, it wipes off. It protects them so the colors should probably never fade. It should still be there long after I'm gone."

In addition to the grandchildren, who are perched on a painted bench, Maple painted a teddy bear to represent Cope's grandson, who will be born in April.

"I thought it'd be cute," Cope said. "People are loving it. I've had people coming from all parts of town to see it. It looks really good."

The likenesses are so good that Kenna and Kaylee, young as they are, can recognize themselves.

"They say, 'That's me sitting there,' and I said, 'Yes, that's you,'" Cope said. "It's really cute."

Lilly's Kitchen Table is open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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