Dining out in Big Sur, California, requires intentionality. There’s nothing casual about visiting a restaurant off the cliff-hugging stretch of Highway 1, a place once described to me as “California’s Delphi.” The coastal community has long been a place of artistic and culinary pilgrimage, for folks in search of Big Sur Bakery scones (here’s hoping for a return), a golden hour drink at Nepenthe, and, of course, a meal at the storybook restaurant at Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn. For almost 80 years, Deetjen’s has been serving diners heaps of charm alongside its famous buttermilk pancakes and beef ragu; the redwood building feels like a rustic tchotchke- and art-filled English tavern, where each ceramic jester, rabbit, or antique teapot has a heartbeat. So when a painting was allegedly stolen from the restaurant last fall, it hit a central nerve for not just the restaurant, but an even broader community of Deetjen’s lovers. Immediately, an informal, grassroots search and rescue campaign began on Instagram, as users shared their own photos of the painting in a quest to help track it down. View this post on Instagram The painting in question was gifted to the Inn’s late founder Helmuth Deetjen by the late, celebrated local artist George Choley. As Deetjen’s archivist and historian Michelle Provost tells Eater, “This particular Choley [painting] had been in the same place [since the 1980s], undisturbed, and a symbol of continued historic preservation.” It wasn’t just decor. It was a part of what she says gives repeat guests…
