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

Around Little Italy
San Francisco holds no more interesting district than that lying around the
base of Telegraph Hill, and extending over toward North Beach, even as far
as Fisherman’s Wharf. Here is the part of San Francisco that first felt the
restoration impulse, and this was the first part of San Francisco rebuilt after the
great fire, and in its rebuilding it recovered all of its former characteristics, which
is more than can be said of any other part of the rebuilt city.
Here, extending north from Jackson street to the Bay, are congregated
Italians, French, Portuguese and Mexicans, each in a distinct colony, and each
maintaining the life, manners and customs, and in some instances the costumes,
of the parent countries, as fully as if they were in their native lands. Here
are stores, markets, fish and vegetable stalls, bakeries, paste factories, sausage
factories, cheese factories, wine presses, tortilla bakeries, hotels, pensions, and
restaurants; each distinctive and full of foreign life and animation, and each
breathing an atmosphere characteristic of the country from which the parent
stock came.
Walk along the streets on the side of Telegraph Hill and one can well imagine
himself transported to a sunny hillside in Italy, for here he hears no other
language than that which came from the shores of the Mediterranean. Here are
Italians of all ages, sexes and conditions of servitude, from the padrone to the
bootblack who works for a pittance until he obtains enough to start himself in
business. If one investigate closely it will be found that many of the people of
this part of San Francisco have been here for years and still understand no other
language than that of their native home. Why should they learn anything else,
they say. Everybody around them, and with whom they come in contact speaks
Italian. Here are the Corsicans, with their peculiar ideas of the vendetta and the
cheapness of life in general, and the Sicilians and Genoese and Milanese. Here
are some from the slopes of Vesuvius or Aetna, with inborn knowledge of the
grape and of wine making. All have brought with them recipes and traditions,
some dating back for hundreds of years, or even thousands, to the days before
the Christian Era was born. It is just the same to them as it was across the ocean,
for they hear the same dialect and have the same customs. Do they desire any
special delicacy from their home district, they need but go to the nearest Italian
grocery store and get it, for these stores are supplied direct from Genoa or
Naples. This is the reason that many of the older men and women still speak the
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