‘Here’s looking at you, shed’ – humble hut takes Kent man to Italy

Not everyone can say they drink their wine with movie stars. But Kent resident Mike Webby does, every time he visits his backyard, where painted caricatures of film legends Humphrey Bogart and Jack Nicholson sit together in what looks like the courtyard of a little Italian café.

The café is actually Webby’s tool shed.

Webby hired friend and artist Rick Marino to transform the side of the shed and the cracked concrete pad next to it into Gorby’s Italian Café three years ago.

Marino painted the wooden shed to look like a little brick building, with a red awning emblazoned with the café’s name over the courtyard-facing window. Red-and-white-checkered curtains peek out from inside, and painted on the window itself is the likeness of a huge, fluffy white cat — Gorby.

Gorby, who died last spring, was the white Persian cat Webby had taken in several years ago when the cat’s elderly owner couldn’t take care of it any longer.

“He moved in with me, and before he went, he had a café,” Webby said. He added that the back yard had been one of Gorby’s favorite places to hang out.

Now the area is a favorite place for Webby and his visitors to sit and enjoy the few remaining warm, sunny afternoons of autumn.

The shed-ala-café forms one wall of a little courtyard area; trellises and a row of potted bamboo enclose chairs and two small tables in the center of the square. Sitting at one of them, it would be easy to imagine one was at a little outdoor bistro somewhere in Europe.

Especially once Webby served the wine.

“I drink Merlot, so Rick painted a bottle of Merlot on there,” Webby said, pointing to the cut-out scene of Bogart and Nicholson at a table in front of the “café.”

Neighbors in the quiet East Hill cul-de-sac have enjoyed the “café,” too.

“It’s a beautiful little place. We just had our neighborhood meeting there last Sunday,” said Bill Schell, who lives across the street from Webby.

Lee Wilson, whose house is a block away, is also a big fan — especially of Bogart and Nicholson.

“I was walking around this neighborhood, and when I saw Bogey and Jack there, I just collapsed,” Wilson said.

Webby said that he picked the two movie stars to frequent his café because “I like ’em both…. I think that, if they had been contemporaries, they probably would’ve palled around together.”