Workers removing red clay tiles over the front of the former Cantina Real restaurant on Pier Plaza in downtown Hermosa Beach on Tuesday, uncovered a six-foot high mural that spans the 30-foot width of the building.
The mural depicts a waiter carrying a heaping plate of pasta and meatballs to a man wearing pantaloons and suspenders who is eying a passing flower girl, while seated under an umbrella with a bottle of wine.
The mural was commissioned in 1960 by Blais “Pio” Real when he opened Pio’s Italian restaurant. Real, now 84, said the mural was painted by a young kid he met at Supreme Paint, whose name he doesn’t remember.
The mural was covered up in 1978 when Real, his son Steve and daughter Joline remodeled the restaurant and renamed it Cantina Real. The restaurant closed this past Cinco De Mayo.
A Killer Shrimp is scheduled to open at the location this summer. Real and son Steve have opened a new Cantina Real in Manhattan Beach, at 924 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
