Feral cats at posh restaurant cartoon.

2 feral cats discuss types of fish

Feral cats want fresh fish

You can find this in my weekly restaurant cartoon feature, Daily Special. Daily Special which started in the Los Angeles Times several years ago. I was fortunate to find many other newspapers across the country who wanted a cartoon instead of a drab photo of an empty table. 🙂 Some papers include Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Salt Lake Tribune, Philadelphia Daily News, Nashville Scene, Dayton City Paper.

This was one of my first cartoons, inspired by a 4 star and very expensive restaurant someone invited me to in downtown LA… and by our conversations with the chef!

Why I started a Restaurant Feature of Cartoons

I LOVE going to restaurants. But the person who really inspired me to do cartoons on food was the former Los Angeles Times restaurant critic, Ruth Reichl. She wrote about food with such a sense of adventure, and even humor! She got me thinking about food as an experience, not objects. It is similar to how some think about travel or concerts or jewelry (but don’t get me wrong, I love a good bauble.) There is joy in tasting!

Reichl went on to become the (last) editor of Gourmet, a writer for the NY Times and the author of a passel of books, including The Gourmet Cookbook: More Than 1000 Recipes, Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way. Her latest is My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life, which I really want to read!

So I learned that being a foodie is an adventure. Here’s how to get new restaurant cartoons delivered to you each week! And how to buy restaurant and food cartoons for restaurant newsletters, websites, hospitality magazines, and restaurant trade journals.

I actually ate at a high-end restaurant and overheard this exact quote, although not said by a cat.

This is a good place to buy a cartoon!

ID#121821      Caption: “I guess blackened red snapper is out and Chilean bass is in.” Two cats in alley discuss fish on the menu.

Donna Barstow

Donna Barstow

Syndicated cartoonist in the New Yorker, LA Times, Harvard Business Review, Slate, textbooks, papers. Columnist for 10 years in Psychology Today. Set painter in studio Art Depts. Member Scriptwriters Network, script analyst. Author, 2 hardcopy books, Barnes & Noble Calendar.

One Reply to “Feral cats at posh restaurant cartoon.”

  1. Hi Donnabarstow,
    Thanks you for your post, A feral cat what I’ve been caring for recently suddenly attacked me when I tried to separate it from my brother’s other cat. The feral cat has always been very nice to me but for that split second apparently forgot I was a friend and took out it’s anger on my left hand (causing four serious puncture wounds which bled a lot) and required a visit to Urgent Care, a Tetanus shot and 10 days worth of double antibiotics (3 times day, which is 30 pills in total).

    I discussed my concern about rabies infection with the doctor, but he said that rabies in cats are “exceedingly rare.” The nurse said that the Tetnus shot would “cover all the bases.”

    The wounds are four fairly deep puncture wounds on my left hand (no veins appeared to have been cut, but the hand is very swollen and sore and took a few hours to fully coagulate).

    What infections should I be worried about specific to feral cat bites, and should I keep the hand bandaged or leave it open to the air — while cleaning it daily?
    Keep up the good work

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