Chalkboard art informs, entertains restaurant customers

Need a quick, easy, low-tech way of getting a message across? Try a chalkboard.

It’s worked for generations of teachers, and it’s caught on in a big way in the restaurant industry, too.

Chalkboards are a great medium for making fast menu changes, for adding some color to a room and even providing a laugh or an inspirational message.

Some even approach the level of fine art.

Did you ever wonder who creates them?

Dom Ciossi puts down his tattoo tools and picks up the chalk for boards at Evolution Grille in Freeport. Ciossi, who owns Blue Hermit Tattoo in Lower Burrell, does the decorative work on the restaurant’s large-scale seasonal menu board and also on a smaller dessert board.

At Oliver’s Pourhouse in Greensburg, it’s bartender Jackie Kabzinski doing the seasonal specialty drink board, monthly band list, beer list and other specials.

“When I started (about 5 years ago), my boss asked if I was good with art and I said I’d give it a try, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” says the Latrobe resident who says she has no art background and is actually studying at Westmoreland County Community College to be a medical diagnostic ultrasound technician.

“I look on websites and mimic what I see,” she says.

Staff members also are called into service at Ladles in Springdale.

“Some of the waitresses or bartenders who have neat handwriting and a flair for art will do them,” says co-owner Phil Corso.” If I did it, you’d have to call in a specialist to decipher it.”

Seton Hill University art students sometimes help out at Primanti Bros. in Greensburg, says server Sherry Knight. Otherwise, servers take care of the task.

Tommy Medley, owner of White Rabbit Cafe and Patisserie in Greensburg, enlists artist friend Angie Shaw to manage his vast wall of chalkboard menus. Graphic designer Rosslyn Kemerer does the job at The Green Berry in Irwin.

Walk past Hugo’s Taproom in Greensburg, and you’ll probably get a chuckle or two from the sidewalk chalkboard.

Owners Dan and Stephanie Victor scan the internet for funny sayings, and bartender Emily Porter puts her artistic skills to work on the signs.