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It has been said that all pizza is good pizza, but in this case, many would disagree. On April 12, artist about her experience painting a mural on the exterior wall of Brick & Dough, a pizzeria in Montclair, New Jersey. The video, which has garnered over 25 million views, shows the range of reactions she received as she worked on the — including, pointedly, one dissatisfied neighborhood dweller.
“You painted over those murals? Why did they do that?” the person asks Flaum as she paints slices over brick. “What’s going up there?” “Pizzas,” Flaum replies. “OK, thank you,” the person says with a chuckle.
Claim writes in the caption that as she started painting, that person “was upset about the restaurant updating their mural” and that her nervousness didn’t help the interaction. The rest of the video is filled with positive feedback, though: Passersby tell her she’s doing a “great job” as she paints Neapolitan-style pizza. “I’m sure you’ll be famous soon,” one says before asking to take Flaum’s picture.
But that one negative interaction was enough to send people searching for what exactly was “painted over” — and it didn’t take long for them to . “I just had to see this for myself,” one TikToker, who found the original mural via Google Street View. Social media sleuths discovered that, originally, the wall had a work by artist called “ ,” which featured two elderly women with prominent wrinkles and hopeful faces and was commissioned by Brick & Dough owner Jason Rosenthal in 2021.
“That wall was blank forever, so we really wanted to put something cool up,” Rosenthal tells TODAY.com. “We started talking, and I commissioned him to paint what was up there.
” Jayemaich did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment. The artist told in 2021 that his piece was inspired by Socrates’ main philosophy of teaching morality, over which he was later executed.
“Being worn down by the system is really what it’s about,” Jayemaich said after completing the mural, adding that it was about the “wear of time being oppressed.” It’s the juxtaposition of these two murals — the old and the new — that has people talking. “once I saw the original mural I understood the first lady’s reaction,” one TikTok user.
“Missed opportunity of painting the two old ladies sharing a piece of pizza,” another. “I feel like this is active gentrification,” a user on Threads. “I’m not familiar with the area but any time you’re taking something that is culturally significant to the community it exists in and downgrading it as part of your business ‘perogative.
’” Montclair resident says she wants people to consider the history of the previous mural, which honored those standing the test of time and oppression. “This is an act of cultural erasure,” she tells TODAY.com, adding that she thinks the previous mural held “significant meaning to the community it was in.
” “It was a really cool mural,” Rosenthal says. “We approved and still approve the message — that has nothing to do with it. I think that art is always subjective, but the people who seem to have loved it, they’re not seeing it all the time, and we were.
So for almost five years, we’re seeing it every day and I think that after a little while, we just wanted some change.” Rosenthal says because of the mural switchup, people have been review-bombing his business on Yelp and Google with . But there are plenty of others who are and Rosenthal’s decision to commission it.
“i think we can miss the old mural without being rude to the new mural’s artist!” one TikTok user on a video that described the mural as “bland.” “is it rly that crazy to yall that a pizza place maybe just wanted to have pizzas on it..
.,” another user on one of Staum’s videos. “I always wanted to make a video of all the nice comments I got, because that was one of the highlights, interacting with people, and everyone was so nice,” Staum tells TODAY.
com. “I finally got around to it, and posted it, and did not expect it to go viral. I had, like, 600 followers before I posted.
” Now she has over 40,000 followers and says she’s been trying not to let the hate get to her. “Obviously I don’t love that they’re comparing my art to another artist, but I think the other mural is absolutely beautiful,” she says. “I wish both could be preserved but, you know, Jason wanted a change.
” Joseph Lamour is the food reporter at TODAY.com and is based in Washington D.C.
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