Wall of taxi names is artwork at Elsa’s
Some 25 years ago, Karl Kopp got into a habit and just couldn’t stop. He began writing down the names and operator license numbers for every cab driver he encountered in New York City.
“A little crazy,” he admits. “I started on that for no particular good reason.”
Known here in Milwaukee as the owner of Kopp’s Frozen Custard and Elsa’s on the Park restaurant, Kopp spent a lot of time in Manhattan opening a restaurant called Bar 89. It was in business for 17 years, closing in 2013.
In a pre-Uber era, he took many cab rides back and forth between his hotel and the SoHo bar, which was famous for its unisex bathroom stalls with alarmingly clear glass doors that turn opaque when in use.
Anyway, all that name collecting has turned into eye-catching and perplexing art on the wall at Elsa’s on Cathedral Square at 833 N. Jefferson St.
By my estimate, there are more than 1,000 cabbie names and numbers covering 40 feet of wall space. Each one is listed in bold black inch-and-a-half-tall letters against a yellow background — taxi colors.
You won’t find many Bob Smiths on the wall. Many of the names from across the world are as difficult to pronounce as Oconomowoc for newcomers to southeastern Wisconsin: 496121 Obarima Obiri-Yeboah, 494773 Abdelmoniem Elzein, 491649 Suleyman Shamuilov, 501710 Afolabi Ogunrinde.
Customers have enjoyed the display, said Kayla Fettig, a manager at Elsa’s. Some have guessed incorrectly that the names were related to the 9/11 attacks or were Nazi death camp victims, definitely not good decorating ideas for a restaurant.
“Some people think there’s a hidden message in it. There’s not. It’s just a bunch of names,” Fettig said.
Someone noticed with amusement that one name on the wall, Manuel Morales, is the same as an Elsa’s employee. “Not the same guy,” Fettig said.
Doors from an actual New York City taxi, a tire and other parts hang from the ceiling to complete the artwork, which is titled 5000 Rides, a number that Kopp calls a guess.
He said drivers often expressed worry when they saw him writing down their names from the back seat. He would reassure them their service was fine.
“I’d always have scrap paper. So at the end of the night, I’d empty out my pockets and there they were. I put them in a file folder and kept them. For a long time they were just there, and I didn’t know what I was going to do with them,” he said.
In the entranceway is a list of names of people who get credit for the exhibit: Reinhard (which is Kopp’s middle name), Leonard (that would be Janis Leonard, who helped Kopp design restaurants), Candamil (as in Cristian, a New York artist) and Collins (that’s Chris, Kopp’s nephew and Elsa’s general
manager).
The names, as many as they could fit, were printed on vinyl sheets at FastSigns in Glendale and glued to the walls. Before Milwaukee, the same art installation appeared at a bar that Kopp owns in Phoenix.
Elsa’s has long displayed art on a rotating basis, and Chris Collins said Kopp likes stuff that gets people talking.
“We don’t have any TVs or CNN blaring or anything like that. This is our conversation booster,” Collins said.
I asked Kopp if he was trying for a deeper “we are the world” message with the sea of cabbie names on the wall. Not really, he said.
“I just want people to scratch their head and say why would you do that,” he said.
If you want to know more, just hail the passing wait staff.