Paintings about Bread & Butter Cafe prove popular among the restaurant's patrons.

Sandy Branam's Bread & Butter Cafe exhibit opened June 2 with little fanfare and no advance publicity. But word of mouth travels fast.

Six of the fourteen works -- in various media, but all themed around the nonprofit cafe's activities -- sold before the artist could get the exhibit hung May 31. Patrons and workers at the cafe had seen the artist at work, and other viewers walked in from the opening of the Growing Hope Community Market across the street.

Sold or not, the works will remain on display through July. The Bread & Butter Cafe, located at Gwinnett and East Broad streets, trains disadvantaged people to be gourmet chefs. The cafe is open for a scrumptious but modestly priced lunch from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Part of the proceeds from the exhibit will support the work of the cafe.

The majority of the exhibit's works are acrylic paintings on canvas, ranging in size from 11"x14" to 36"x40". Some depict individual student chefs preparing dishes or grocery lists, while three of the larger paintings (one called "Hustle Bustle," another "Fifteen Minutes 'Til Plating") show a kitchen full of student chefs working away furiously.

These works, done in Sandy Branam's loose style and rich colors, succeed marvelously in capturing the frenetic but synchronized movements of eight or nine chefs working together to prepare a meal in a large kitchen. They give a sense of the discipline as well as the knowledge required to become a chef and suggest why the cafe's graduates are so successful.

Discipline and knowledge have to be supported by a dream, as indicated by one 20"x30" acrylic painting titled "Joey's Dream." In an even looser style reminiscent of Marc Chagall, showing tigers, aerialists, and scantily dressed ladies on horseback floating around the student chef stirring a pot, the painting depicts Joey's dream of joining a circus. (Lo and behold, shortly after the work was painted, managers from Ringling Brothers showed up at the cafe and offered him a job upon graduation.)

The largest acrylic painting, titled "Chef Bob Forgot His Tea," is a portrait of the three teacher-directors of the cafe: Chefs Bob Hanne, Shelly Rubitsky, and Father Mike Wilson. In a rare moment, they are relaxing at one of their tables and being served by a student chef. The painting's atmosphere is light and cheery, but a sign in the background, on an abandoned building across the street, might symbolize whom they are serving: "Hungry World."

A couple of collages link the cafe to gardening and the community market across the other street. An 18"x24" watercolor collage, "Backyard Gardener's Fantasy," shows a farmer with colorful vegetables almost as big as his head (the model for the farmer was the artist's husband). Equally colorful is a Thai paper collage, "Gathering Produce for the B & B Cafe," showing an attractive blonde collecting vegetables in an equally abundant garden.

Finally, don't miss an 18-inch polychrome ceramic sculpture, obviously satirical, of a chef's head set in a wreath formed from dried bay leaves and a grape vine (both real). The sculpture might poke fun at the culinary arts in general, but more likely, judging from the piece's title ("Taste, Stir, Taste") and the fussy, pompous look on the chef's face, it merely deplores an elitist approach towards those arts. The artist apparently prefers the more laid-back approach of the friendly Bread & Butter Cafe.

In fact, she said as much. She enjoyed the company - students, teachers, and patrons -- and the good food while working at the cafe. She even picked up a few recipes and cooking tips. "I couldn't," she said, "think of better working conditions. I wholeheartedly support the mission of the Bread and Butter Cafe, and I thank them for sharing their fine work with me and letting me try to put it into art."