The Elegant Art of Dining: Bohemian San Francisco, Its ... - iMedia

throngs gathered nightly to dance and eat until the police commissioners closed
all of these resorts, as well as Barbary Coast.
Coppa became financially injured by this venture and was forced to take a
partner in his old restaurant, and finally gave up his share and went beyond
the city limits and opened the Pompeiian Garden, on the San Mateo road, and
there with his heroic little wife tried to rebuild his shrunken fortunes, leaving
the historic restaurant with its string of black cats and its memorable pictures on
the walls to less skilled hands. He struggled against hard times and at the time
of this writing he, with his wife, their son and his wife, are giving the old-time
dinners and trying to make the venture a success.
In the old days it was considered a feat of gormandizing to go through
one of Coppa’s dinners and eat everything set before you for one dollar.
Notwithstanding the delicious dishes he prepared and the wonderful recipes, the
quantity served was so great that one would have to be possessed of enormous
capacity, indeed, to be able to say at the end of the meal that he had eaten all
that was given him.
In his Pompeiian Garden Coppa still maintains his old reputation for most
tasty viands and liberal portions, and if one desire to find the true Bohemian
restaurant of San Francisco today, one that approaches the old spirit of the days
before the fire, he need but go out to Coppa’s and while he will not have his
eyes regaled by the quaint drawings with which the old-time artists decorated
the walls, nor the hurrying footsteps along the ceiling to the famous center table
where sat some of the world’s most notable Bohemians on their visits to San
Francisco, nor the frieze of black cats around the cornice, nor the Bohemian
verse, written under inspiration of “Dago red,” he will find the same old
cooking, done by Coppa himself.
We asked Coppa what he considered his best dish and he gave us the Irishman’s
reply by asking another question:
“What do you think of it?”
There are so many to choose from that our answer was difficult but we finally
stopped at “Chicken Portola.” It was then that the old smile came back to
Coppa’s face.
“Ah! Chicken Portola. That is my own idea. It is the most delicious way chicken
was ever cooked.”
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