Bohemian San Francisco | Page 9

to the Sea Gods, you will feel that while
you have thought you had good breakfasts before this, you know that
now you are having the best of them all. Of course there are many other
good things to order if you like, but we have discovered nothing that
makes so complete a breakfast as this.

Some Italian Restaurants
"Is everybody happy? Oh, it is only nine o'clock and we've got all
night." It was a clear, fresh young voice, full of the joy of living and

came from a young woman whose carefree air seemed to say of her
existence as of the night "We've got all life before us." The voice, the
healthful face and vigorous form, the very live and joyous expression
were all significant of the time and place. It was Sunday night and the
place was Steve Sanguinetti's, with roisterers in full swing and every
table filled and dozens of patrons waiting along the walls ready to take
each seat as it was emptied. Here were young men and women just
returned from their various picnics across the Bay to their one great
event of the week--a Sunday dinner at Sanguinetti's.
Over in one corner of the stifling room, on a raised platform, sat two
oily and fat negroes, making the place hideous with their ribald songs
and the twanging of a guitar and banjo. When, a familiar air was
sounded the entire gathering joined in chorus, and when such tunes as
"There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" came, the place was
pandemonium. Yet through it all perfect order was kept by the fat
proprietor, his muscular "bouncer" and two policemen stationed at the
doors. Noise was rather invited than frowned upon, and the only line
drawn regarding conduct was the throwing of bread. Probably Steve did
not want it wasted.
It was all free and easy and nobody took offense at anything said or
done. In fact if one were squeamish about such things Sanguinetti's was
no place for him or her. One found one's self talking and laughing with
the people about as if they were old friends. It made no difference how
you were dressed, nor how dignified you tried to be, it was all one with
the crowd around the tables. If you wished to stay there in comfort you
had to be one of them, and dignity had to be left outside or it would
make you so uncomfortable that you would carry it out, to an
accompaniment of laughter and jeers of the rest of the diners.
So far as eating was concerned that was not one of the considerations
when discussing Sanguinetti's. It was a table d'hote dinner served with
a bottle of "Dago red," for fifty cents. You gave the waiter a tip of
fifteen cents or "two bits" as you felt liberal, and he was satisfied. If
you were especially pleased you gave the darkeys ten cents, not
because you enjoyed the music, but just "because."

The one merit of Sanguinetti's before the fire was the fact that all the
regular customers were unaffected and natural. They came from the
factories, canneries, shops, and drays, and after a week of
heart-breaking work this was their one relaxation and they enjoyed it to
the full. Many people from the residential part of the city, and many
visitors at the hotels, went there as a part of slumming trips, but the real
sentiment was expressed by the young girl when she sang out "Is
everybody happy?"
Sanguinetti still has his restaurant, and there is still to be found the
perspiring darkeys, playing and singing their impossible music, and a
crowd still congregates there, but it is not the old crowd for this, like all
things else in San Francisco, has changed, and instead of the old-time
assemblage of young men and women whose lack of convention came
from their natural environment, there is now a crowd of young and old
people who patronize it because they have heard it is "so Bohemian."
Thrifty hotel guides take tourists there and tell them it is "the only real
Bohemian restaurant in San Francisco," and when the outlanders see
the antics of the people and listen to the ribald jests and bad music of
the darkeys, they go back to their hotels and tell with bated breath of
one of the most wonderful things they have ever seen, and it is one of
the wonderful things of their limited experience.
Among the pre-fire restaurants of note were several Italian places
which appealed to the Bohemian spirit through their good cooking and
absence of conventionality, together with the inexpensiveness of the
dinners. Among these were the Buon Gusto, the Fior d'Italia, La
Estrella, Campi's and the Gianduja. Of these