In a letter to his art-dealing brother, Theo, Van Gogh described the interior of the nearby restaurant by likening it to The Spinners by Diego Velázquez:
"So it already has a Velázquez gray - like in the Spinners - and even the very narrow, very fierce ray of sunlight through a blind, like the core that slands across Velázquez's picture, is not wanting. Little tables of course, with white cloths...I don't know if I describe it clearly enough for you, but it's here, and it's pure Velázquez."
