The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-25
ITS GLORY IS DEPARTED,
Sacrifice of the Picturesque to
the StarChineSS of the
Period.
Inartlstic Immolation Of Once
Popular Resort on the
Front.

The artists are sad and bemoan the ex-
tinction of little waterside place, where
the wine was abundant and the garlic
seasoned dishes took possession of the at
mosphere. This unpretentious rendezvous
had been for years one of the show-places of
Davis street. 1t bore the same relation to
that thoroughfare that Warmers in days of
old did to Meiggs wharf. 1t was pic
turesquely unclean and draped with cob
webs.
The cockroach climbed its dingy walls
unmolested and the red-shirted fisherman
dispensed with the ceremony of coat when
consuming his toothsome dish of mac
| aroni. There was careless ease about
the tablecloths, and the chairs, from fire.
| quent fitting, groaned under their burden.
| The geography of the world was expressed
on these tables in wine stains and grease.
But no one grumbled. The regular Gus
toners were used to 1T and the casuals
called it artistic.
Society ladies with their escorts trudged
to Davis street to battle their delicate lips
in garlic gravy and came forth pelfumed
with this unetuous bulb. They declared
the surroundings too nice for anything
and gazed at the restless and ever-present
cockroach with indifference. The fare was
good, the patron wore red feZ, the waiter
did not disdain to immerse his thumb in
the soup, and the wine though a trife
stalky, was potent and abundant Every
patois of Southern Europe was heard in this
quaint resort. Greek, Maltese, Genoese
and Albanian chatted together, and when
the catch had been unusually good, and
the wine was consequently more abundant,
trolled forth songs which had their pattern
ity on the shores of the blue Mediter-
ranean.
Tbera was an iupooaDt Aaror of Poba,,,;,
about the entire OUTFIT and it was the true
business, not the Bohemianism that can
be put on or off like a garment. There was
a charm IN the very slovenliness of the
place, more winning than the prim regu-
larity of the well-ordered eating house
The cooking was excellent of its kind, and
the walters were condescending and cor
dial. There was no .servility about them.
They looked upon the green guest with
compassion, and when he ordered flash
OF chianti, and bid them I'LL an extra glass
and drink with him, they pledged him
with the air of one who was comforting q
compliment.
In an evil hour the spirit of change and
unrest invaded and took possession of the
soul of the proprietor. He moved into a
new building, and left the rats and reaches
to mourn his departure He became the
victim of paint and whitewash, and mural
decorations of a tawdry sort. True, he
took his statf with him, but the paunch of
the smiling chef has perceptibly lost in
circumference, and the walters have shrunk
and the chairs are too straight, the knives
too sharp, the forks and spoons too
bright, and the plague of starch
has invaded the napkins. The garlic
is not so literally used as of yore, the flies
are kept out of the mustard pot, and dol
lars would not purchase single cobweb.
The fishermen wear their boots and con-
verse under their breath, and to Tilt song
of the Adriatic would be sacrilege; to pour
a heeltap on the neatly swept -four in
memory of a departed friend, as was the
wont of the erstwhile merry company,
would be regarded as an unwarrantable
liberty. All the kings horses, and all the
kings men, cannot restore the ancient
charm of this once cherished rendezvous
1t stands a melancholy monument to
primness victim to misguided progress,
Greek statue, as it were, draped in fin
de steele frock and crowned with an Easter
bonnet.