Local News Inspired by Anthony Bourdain's visit with Barack Obama a decade ago in Vietnam, the artwork aims to revive a landmark corner that changed after Doyle's closed in 2019. A mural featuring President Barack Obama and the late Anthony Bourdain in Jamaica Plain. Courtesy of Lee Beard

A decade after Anthony Bourdain and then-President Barack Obama shared bún chả, beers, and a conversation about the future in Hanoi, Vietnam, the moment has been immortalized on a wall in Jamaica Plain.

The new mural between the former Doyle’s Cafe and the Midway Cafe honors one of Bourdain’s most enduring television scenes while helping revive a corner reshaped by Doyle’s closure seven years ago.

It also comes as a new development is set to open by the end of the year at its former location, bringing a new restaurant and bar, a local grocery store, and 29 new residential condominiums. 

The mural in progress. Courtesy of Lee Beard

Lee Goodman, of Watermark Development, who has been behind the restoration of Doyle’s next door for the past five years, commissioned the mural to give the corner “a little bit more life.”

It was also his idea to feature the scene from the show. 

“The angle of the walls meeting felt like it should be two people cheersing,” said Goodman. “The image has stuck in my mind since I saw that clip a long time ago.”

But he credits the artist, Lee Beard, who goes by SOÉMS, for creating it. 

“I had this picture in my mind, and I sent him the link,” said Goodman. “But, he’s the one who created it, better than I could imagine.” 

During the scene where they share a traditional pork and noodle dish on Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown,” the late celebrity chef, who was a father to an 8-year-old daughter at the time, asked the president if it was all going to be OK. 

“I think progress is not a straight line,” Obama told him in response. “There are going to be moments at any given part of the world where things are terrible. But, having said all of that, I think things are going to work out.”

Then, the two cheer their beers. 

On the mural, the beers are marked with Doyle’s and Midway Cafe.

It also features Obama’s quote from the scene and another from Bourdain that is not in the segment but widely attributed to him, which reads, “I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.” 

A spray painted Anthony Bourdain. Courtesy of Lee Beard

Unbeknownst to the artist or developer, the mural was also finished only a few weeks before “Tony,” an upcoming American biographic comedy-drama film about Bourdain’s life during one summer in Provincetown, is set to hit theaters. 

For Beard, getting a call from a developer is unusual. But Goodman’s wife went to the Boston Arts Academy with Beard, and the pairing worked out. So, Beard, who has a background in graffiti art, took to spray painting it at the tail end last summer. 

“It was a match made in heaven,” Beard said. 

Beard enjoyed returning to his roots in Jamaica Plain, where he grew up. While he was finishing the mural, he got to talk to neighborhood members and see how the neighborhood has changed. 

He finished the mural only a few weeks ago. 

“I had a good time painting that mural,” he said.