The murals in restaurants are on par with the food in museums.

De Vries’s epigram hinges on a neat reversal: restaurants are expected to excel at food, museums at art. By claiming that restaurant murals match museum food, he implies both are typically mediocre when they stray outside their core mission. The joke also skewers a certain kind of cultural pretension—restaurants that try to seem “artistic” via décor, and museums that offer “refined” dining that rarely satisfies as cuisine. Beneath the wit is a broader observation about specialization and misplaced ambition: institutions often add secondary attractions to appear well-rounded, but these add-ons can feel like pale imitations of what specialists do best.