| San Francisco Stories | Page 5 |
| San Francisco, California | Lee Houskeeper, Press Agent | Updated: October 5, 2005 |
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Gold Mirror Reopened! From its birthplace in the early 1930s on Fillmore Street, to its reincarnation as the Sunset & Richmond district's most popular gathering place, one of San Francisco's most popular Italian restaurants, the Gold Mirror, celebrated the much-anticipated reopening of its doors a year after a huge truck accident closed them. There are so many touching stories about the Gold Mirror's owner Giuseppe DiGrande, and his family that it would be impossible to list them. Take, for example, the widow who frequented the Gold Mirror with her husband for nearly 50 years. She and her late husband always began their repast with a favorite special highball. Upon seeing the widow coming back alone for the first time, Giuseppe delivered two highballs to the table they had shared for five decades, bringing tears to her elderly eyes. Giuseppe had a special place in his heart for his longtime Sunset district patrons in the sunset of their years. According to Al Baccari, former head of the Fisherman's Wharf Merchants Association, "I witnessed on numerous occasions a customer in the twilight of their lives ask Giuseppe to wrap up their leftovers, and he always gave them a sack to take home with more than their original order inside." |
According to Nate Cohn, a famed, now-retired San Francisco trial lawyer, a hand-painted rendition of a beautiful naked girl one would see painted on a WWII B-52 adorned the back bar window at the original Gold Mirror at 935 Fillmore Street (at Webster) in 1938. At 7:30 a.m. on April 19th, 2004, one of those huge oversized delivery trucks (that San Francisco should ban) was unloading its goods at the Safeway up the street from the Gold Mirror on Taraval Street, and did not set its brakes. The behemoth careened off an L Taraval train and crashed into the famous front doors (imported from the old Fillmore Street location.) The good news is that it was so early in the morning, nobody was injured. The bad news was that the damage was so extensive that it has taken a year to replicate the Sunset's most famous bistro. In that intense process, Italian craftsmen have laid a most spectacular tile floor and kept the Gold Mirror's unique interior design and character. A couple of fun discoveries were made in the process. When workmen removed the back bar mirror, they found underneath it the original back bar mirror replete with the fetching nude painting of "Goldie" that came from the original location. An original matchbook was discovered that appropriately clothed "Goldie" with a bathing suit. |
Old-time Gold Mirror regular Gus Konstin, owner of the historic John's Grill, makes the outrageous claim that in addition to its many pasta dishes, the Gold Mirror serves the best veal in the City. The famous Sicilian and Tuscan menu is the glue and the mortar that is responsible for the Gold Mirror's solid place in the City. Over the last 55 years the Gold Mirror has hosted many regular longtime gatherings in the private upstairs room. The Elks, Lions Club, Godfather's Club, Comedy Day in The Park Committee, Floral Club, BNO (Boy's Night Out Monday media dinners) and monthly "Fight Night" that features the showing of Stan Smith's historic fight films, the largest collection west of the Mississippi.
All of these organizations have been calling Giuseppe DiGrande
and his faithful right- and left-hand sons Dominico and Roberto
almost every week for over year to find out when the Gold Mirror
doors will reopen. If you are one of over 2,000 Gold Mirror
devotees who want to sample a taste of Old San Francisco .
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Gold Mirror Restaurant
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