Tempest in a Coffee Cup : Neighborhoods: A rabbi is seeking to have paintings of nude women removed from a cafe near his synagogue.

The espresso and the cappuccino weren’t the only things steaming Tuesday at the newly opened Insomnia coffeehouse in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles.

Artist Tommy Dougherty was, too.

Two dozen of his expressionistic paintings--including some depicting bare-breasted women--may face banishment because of complaints from the leader of a synagogue across the street.

The artwork is offensive to neighborhood children who pass by and peek through windows at the coffeehouse walls, according to Rabbi J. Simcha Cohen of the orthodox Congregation Saarei Tefila.

“They are totally nude, lewd women,” Cohen said. “They don’t have to blatantly push that onto the street.”

The reaction is an unwarranted attack on artistic freedom, according to Dougherty of Costa Mesa.

“Coming out of Orange County, I thought L.A. would be the last place I’d get censored,” he said.

The dispute has overshadowed the debut of the Insomnia, which opened last week at 7286 Beverly Blvd. at the site of another longtime coffeehouse, Java. It’s causing an unexpected dilemma for its co-owners--who also operate an Insomnia coffeehouse in Sherman Oaks.

Mike Pulwer wants to yank Dougherty’s pictures down. John Dunn would prefer that they stay up.

“If it’s a sincere request, I respect it,” Pulwer said Tuesday. “I don’t know what we’re going to do yet,” Dunn said, shrugging.

Neither Pulwer nor Dunn wants a repeat of the headaches they’ve had with homeowners over the operation of their 8-month-old Sherman Oaks night spot, however. Some neighbors have complained to city officials that the Insomnia there has caused noise and parking problems.

The San Fernando Valley gripes apparently have not been lost on Fairfax residents.

“The rabbi was very polite and nice,” said Dunn. “He said, ‘You guys are under a close eye. . . . You don’t need more problems now. We’re just going to tell you there are people who don’t want you there. If you take down the art, we’ll be very happy.’ ”

Pulwer says Cohen is right in stating that the new Insomnia doesn’t want any more problems.

“I want to have a nice relationship with the neighborhood,” Pulwer said. “If it were up to me, art is art. However, the person asked us to remove it. Being new to the neighborhood, I saw no reason to make a stink of it.”

Others also are divided over the moody paintings, which show women--many unclothed--in a variety of poses

“I think they’re very tastefully done and not exploitative,” said college student Misha Anderson as she sat on an overstuffed couch in the coffeehouse, sipping cafe latte and nibbling on cheesecake.

Said another customer, literary agent John Soster: “This is the perfect place for art like this.”

Carry Kim, who works as a clerk in a nearby clothing store, termed the dispute ludicrous.

There’s a different view at Congregation Saarei Tefila. “It’s not nice, right across the street from a temple,” said synagogue member William Skore.

Alexander Munitz said he did not want his 12-year-old son, Israel, to view the paintings. “It’s not good for the eyes. I walk past and don’t look,” the boy said.

On the sidewalk outside the coffeehouse, neighbor Batsheva Backman tried to quickly shoo her four young children, ages 4, 3, 2 and 9 months, away from the Insomnia windows as they walked by. “These are disgusting,” she said of the paintings visible through the glass.

Back inside, Dougherty, 30, sat in an overstuffed chair and glumly sized up his predicament.

He said he spent 15 hours hanging his paintings for the exhibit, which was scheduled to run through Jan. 10. And he spent $600 to have postcards and posters printed to advertise the exhibition and an artist’s reception planned for Nov. 21.

“I’m broke,” he said. “I’ve got 4,000 postcards and 1,000 posters on my hands.” Not to mention 24 paintings.

He predicted insomnia Tuesday night.