…or thereabouts, asks JMcAndrew: “Trying to figure this one out. Why is it a choice between dessert and an oil painting?”
Indeed: is this just typical The New Yorker cartoon absurdism? (Is “absurdism” even a word? Is “The New Yorker cartoon absurdism” redundant?)
Comics I Don't Understand 
The owner is a frustrated painter who is using the walls of the restaurant as a gallery, but has clearly run out of space and needs to send some older works home with customers?
My mother’s doctor’s office used to have the doctor’s paintings all over the waiting room – with prices on them, – he was selling his paintings to patients. Maybe this is the same thing with a restaurant.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Next?
Cambridge Common had art for sale on the walls. It was a bit more serious – there were tons of local artists happy to use the place as a gallery.
There are upscale restaurants and country inns that feature paintings by local artists on the walls. But the paintings have price tags in the $400 to $800 range, quite a bit pricier than most desserts.
I own one piece of art. I follow a YouTube channel, where the woman occasionally does paintings. Often she would sell them on Etsy. She did one that I liked, but didn’t see it on the shop. I inquired about it, and she gave it to me. Now, it was done on “canvas panel” rather than a real canvas like many of her others, so perhaps that why she didn’t put it up for sale. So I have the unusual experience of having a painting that I saw being painted,
Enjoying that the most conspicuous paintings appear to be a cityscape, a still life of fruit in a bowl, and a clown.
In my town this would be a coffee shop. Pretty nice exposure for local artists. Every month or two they switch them out and reload the walls.
Came here to say something similar to Downpuppy and padraig. There are a number of coffee shops, funky little bars, and an ice cream parlor that I’ve been to that have art for sale on the walls … and, yeah, some of it probably wouldn’t move unless it was part of a prix fixe deal.