A large crowd of well-wishers flooded the celebrated Pierrot French restaurant in  Guadalajara’s Colonia Ladrón de Guevara last week to help owner Pierre Dhainaut celebrate the 35th anniversary of its founding.

To mark the event, Pierrot inaugurated “Muestra Pictórica,” an art exhibit consisting of 45 paintings and drawings by the following well-known local artists: Luz Elena Arellano, Germán Cueva Martínez, Ezequiel Garibay, Luis Eduardo González, Jorge Monroy, Cristina Partida, Martha Orozco, Mónica Romero and Ilse Taylor Hable.

All the painters are members of a workshop called Trazos Libres, which has been meeting on Fridays for the last 20 years. 

“For three hours, we hold life-drawing sessions,” said organizer Taylor Hable.

“A model poses for one minute for the first five or six poses and that’s all the time we have to make a sketch. Then the modeling and drawing time is increased to two, five, ten and sometimes 15 minutes. Drawing short poses benefits us by sharpening our observation skills, improving our hand-eye coordination and increasing our artistic fluidity.”

Taylor added that this was the first time all the members of Trazos Libres – translated as “free brushstrokes”– have participated in a joint exhibit. 

“Many of us were surprised to discover what the others do when they work on their own,” she said.

The public will no doubt also be surprised at the rich variety of styles and subject matter they’ll find on the second floor of Pierrot.

The restaurant was started in 1981 by a group of associates as Le Restaurant de Pierre and later changed its name to Pierrot Restaurant. Today it is owned solely by Dhainaut.

Dhainaut was born in Paris, France, but his “Guadalajara connection” began with a Tapatio, Gerardo Albarrán, one of 15 musicians, painters, dancers and other artists with whom Dhainaut used to get together in the Paris of the 1960’s. Albarrán invited Dhainaut to Guadalajara in 1967. Like many other foreigners, he had planned to continue on through Latin America, but just couldn’t bring himself to leave and ended up putting down roots in the City of Roses.

Pierrot specializes in traditional French food. 

“I don’t do haute-cuisine,” Dhainaut says. 

This is born out by the huge number of comments you can find on the Internet about Pierrot’s menu of basic, but extremely popular French food.

“I totally recommend the Escargot.”

“I love the Camarones Pierrot.”

“The escargots, the onion soup, the three-cheese shrimp: all delicious.”

“Forget what everyone else says. You absolutely have to try the escargots, the Filete de Res de Tres Pimientas and for dessert the Profiterole de Chocolate.”

Judging from so many similar remarks, it would appear the onion soup, escargots and profiterole are simply not to be missed. And as for enjoying a bottle of fine wine with your meal, don’t worry: Pierrot has a “cave” filled with 7,000 bottles.

Pierrot Restaurant is located at Justo Sierra 2355, two blocks west of Avenida Americas. It’s open Monday to Saturday from 1:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. and has valet parking. Telephone: (33) 3630-2087 and (33) 3615-4758. 

The paintings and drawings in the Muestra Pictorica art exhibit will be on display until the end of August. Many are for sale. To see them, just stop by the restaurant and ask to see “la muestra de pinturas en la planta alta.”