The Fagiani bar in Napa will reopen and it will retain the ugly blue and burgundy tiles that were applied in the 40s, to a 1910 building.
My whole life is about preservation of that which has come before...I like today and tomorrow just fine...but I have spent my entire existence acquiring bits of this and that, and vast knowledge of old tomatoes, old furniture, old buildings, old paint, old wallpaper, old crap ...good and bad, and of course.... old clothes...old memories
Wow, what an incredible soap opera has happened over this.....
Bought by Steve Hasty a few years ago, he has lost the money and found the money to remodel and open it as a bar and restaurant again...(the economy is such a dream-killer).
This bar is 2 doors down from the
Asia Cafe, where my parents and I went to dinner many many many nights of my childhood. Sick green walls, musty old varnished wood, each booth had a chrome hat rack standing ready. Great Chinese/American/Chinesey food, hot tea, and Eddie's mom, Mary Berengue was the waitress. Dum Dum candy pops after dinner served in the same little monkey bowl as the stale fortune cookies, with fortunes that never really told me which path was my real destiny.
Yes it was paradise. See the pic of the sign at the bottom.
The Fagiani family were politicians and friends with my mom and dad. My parents also were politicians and they were also bar and restaurant owners. My mom's bar , Lomita's Red Front, is now
Bouchon Restaurant.
yes...this bar....tattooed on my arm..
Fagiani’s bar was closed in 1976 by Muriel Fagiani after her sister’s homicide in the bar, and it became a time capsule.
The beer stayed in the cooler.....the electricity stayed on...telephone bill was paid for 3+ decades and still rang when Hasty bought it. After he bought the bar, the sister's murderer was found, and is in a trial right now.
Clicky here for that story.
You can't make this shit up.
Well, you can, But I didn't. It happened when I was pregnant with Shayne and it haunted me too. A murder. In a place I knew intimately with the gossamer of time.
Over the years since I lived there, Napa has licked the boot heels of the rich, trading on its proximity to wine.
This makes me roll my eyes since Napa (like Tacoma) has always been working class. Why be ashamed of working? It seems that every city in America can't figure out that
is the heart and soul of a city...that which gives it Authenticity.
Hasty plans to reopen the bar and create a restaurant for the second and third floors. First the Napa Planning Commission rejected Hasty’s plan to keep the tiles because fancy-pants experts said it was wrong wrong and wrong. And they were right. Those tiles are uggggly.
So What.
Here's the quote from the Napa Register,"Addressing the city council Tuesday, architectural historian Caitlin Harvey — who submitted a report about the project to the council — said Hasty’s varying design elements are integrated properly in the design plans. The building’s blend of styles is unique, she said. "
Ms. Harvey is channeling my soul.....as does..."Cindy Heitzman, a former Napa County Landmarks president who has served on several preservation boards, said Hasty’s project — keeping the building largely as is — retains the building’s historical value. The Fagiani tiles, she said, “tell a story of a period in time” and contribute to the building’s character, and reflect part of Napa’s history.“It’s not a beauty contest. ... this building tells a story,” she told councilmembers."
"Councilmember Peter Mott said the Fagiani building reflects Napa’s past as a blue collar, post-war town. "
another quote , "Page & Turnbull, a San Francisco architectural firm, also asserted that overall, the building’s design elements complement each other. "
This, folks, is how it's done. So what ...ugly is as ugly does. It tells a story. Here in Tacoma, at breakneck speed, so many old buildings and neighborhoods are disrespected and disrupted for the Flavor Of The Decade.
Copycat towns and cities are the Real ugly. Character people !! Reality !! Get Me Real.
So happy that the bar my parents would secret me in when I was a youngin' so they could have a belt for the road, after dinner at the Asia Cafe.....is gonna live again.
A tiny piece of my childhood is saved from stupid capitalists.....
photos stolen from The Napa Register. so sue me.
photo of Asia Cafe sign from athena glow on flickr
