Papŕ Gianni and Cafč Trieste
Hrvatski
Saturday 17 May 2003 was promising to be a really interesting day. The
week before, on Istria on the Internet, I read all about
Café Trieste
[in North Beech, California] and Papa
Giovanni
(Gianni) Giotta from Rovigno, the proprietor. I wanted to meet him and hear them sing, so I
called to find out when the show starts. The answer was that the show is from
2:00 p.m. to 6 p.m. every Saturday.
I told my wife Cheryl all about it and she was also excited about going. We
had the morning to ourselves so we started our weekend morning routine. I
normally take Anja, my golden retriever, for a brisk walk to downtown
Petaluma for my "caffé mocha grande" and then we come back home, which makes
for a five-mile roundtrip. She is a great dog that walks in lock step with
me without the leash. One morning a guy in the crowd of people looking for
work on the street corner said ”perro mui intelijente”.
During that time Cheryl goes for a six-mile run to a local park/bird
sanctuary. She came home and decided to make "chicken cacciatore" with the rest
of the chicken that was left over from last night’s "veal parmigiana" (except
I used chicken beast instead of veal). While the chicken was simmering, I
decided to re-cut the grass in front of the house, so I jumped on my riding
lawnmower and spent about one hour cutting the grass that I trampled with
the mower the weekend before, because the grass was too tall. After that it
was time to clean up and get ready to go to San Francisco's North Beech and listen to some
real singing.
San Francisco Bay. (These and other
photographs on this page are © copyrighted by Pino Golja)
It was a beautiful day and while crossing the Golden Gate Bridge we could
see the beautiful San Francisco skyline instead of the usual fog. The
eastern side of the bridge overlooking San Francisco and Alcatraz was full
of tourists and runners, and the western or ocean side was full of bikers.
We took the scenic drive along Marina where there were more runners and a lot
of kite fliers. The runners were practicing for the next day’s spectacular
Bay-to-Breakers run, I guess.
Finally we got to North Beech, parked the car and
went to have lunch in a nearby Italian restaurant. We decided to have
coffee and desert at Café Trieste.
Café Trieste is located on Vallejo St. next to Columbus Ave. in the heart
of North Beech.
The place was full of people in anticipation of the show. We were able to
find a table for two near the entrance next to a German couple. As you
enter, you immediately notice a large mural on the far wall of the café
depicting Rovigno (Rovinj) in the background and two barcas with fishermen
in the foreground. There are two bare-chested fishermen, one in the barca
and the other mending fishing nets. On the right of the fishermen, there
are three women dressed in black and a little naked boy. One of the women
had a basket full of fish on her head. I was trying to interpret the mural
and assumed that the father was the guy in the barca, the mothers was
holding the little naked boy by the hand and nonna was carrying the fish in
the basket. I tried later to force papa Gianni to admit that he was the
little naked boy in the picture, but he did not admit it.
As we came in, Fabio, the son, was being interviewed by two young people
with camera and professional looking microphones. The musicians were
setting up the instruments, but I did not seen anyone whom I would have thought would be
papa Gianni. There was a long line of people along the counter ordering
various coffees and deserts. I finally realized that I should get up and
order some coffee. I ordered a Café Latte and Café Mocha with two cannoli.
Finally papa Gianni showed up and I went over to introduce myself
explaining that I am from San Martino d’Albona and that I read about him on Istria on the Internet and wanted to meet him. We talked a bit in
Istro-Venetian (Istroveneto) and then it was time
for him to sing and meet his usual guests. He is very light on his feet and looks a
dozen years younger than his chronological age. He sang a couple of Italian
and a Spanish song and then Ida, his wife, took over. The couple that
interviewed Fabio were leaving so I stopped them and told them about the
Istrianet.org website where they could find more information on papa Gianni and
Istria the place where he comes from (what and where was Istria, they
asked). They were students at San Francisco State University and were doing
research on history and ethnic makeup of North Beech. Papa Gianni saw us
talking and decided to join us. Ida’s voice was exquisite and very
voluminous so we had to go outside to talk to these young people. Papa
Gianni was very proud of Ida’s singing and made sure that we all knew that
this is his wife singing.
The show went on with Fabio, papa Gianni, Ida and an opera singer, taking
turns. I had more coffee. Papa Gianni, being a gracious host, brought me a
glass of Pinot Grigio. He asked me if I was planning to have dinner at
Ristorante Albona, four blocks away, but we had a late lunch and with all
this coffee and canoli, we will probably not be hungry and will have to
come an other day to have dinner at Ristorante Albona and visit Café
Trieste again.
Before I left I bought a pound of Italian roast, we exchanged business
cards and he expressed interest in coming to Petaluma and maybe opening a
coffee shop there. I couldn’t help but notice his title on the card
where it
said “Chairman of the Board of Directors”, which he obviously is. I still
have to visit the Cafe he opened in Sausalito. We drove back the same way
we came through Marina over the Golden Gate Bridge through Marin and Sonoma
Counties while the sun was setting in the west. Got home to the delight of
Anja, who was laying on her lounge chair on the porch. Then we settled
down for the evening savoring the beauty of the day we just experienced.
Postscript (December 21, 2003):
Yesterday I was in San Francisco and again visited Café Trieste and Papa Gianni. We had a lovely time. He found me a front row seat with his wife, who was very sad remembering their oldest son that passed away 3 years ago. Besides the family singers, there were five of six local San Francisco singers that had superb voices. One of them was the lady you see in the
picture. Note the mural in the background. That is a picture of Rovigno with boats and ladies with fish baskets on their head. A little naked boy was probably papa Gianni as a child. All the singers sang Christmas carols and Christmas related melodies. The coffee house was packed
and everyone enjoyed themselves. We left after two hours of sheer
pleasure.
Pino Golja
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