The Fabulous Fior

Publisher's Comments:

Monuments, libraries, museums, catacombs. These are the repositories of history in the public's mind. But a restaurant? So few survive even a decade.

"The Fior" is an exception as it has survived and is going strong for over 118 years at this printing. The restaurant has been and continues to be an integral part of the life of San Francisco and is a repository of stories and experiences that cover customers, staff and owners. The Fior d' Italia opened for business in San Francisco at one of the most tumultuous periods of California's infancy. The restaurant itself is a historical document because it's a place where real people trudged in after a day's work to talk about the mundane and the important in their lives. Where they sought relief from the pressures that would be described in the history books. The people who came to the Fior d' Italia were begging for soup after the 1906 calamity, were living through Prohibition. They were surviving World War II. They continue to come in seek shelter from the pressures of life at "The Fior" today.

Their experience is on the very walls of the restaurant. Besides tracing the families and clientele throughout the decades that are intertwined with the restaurant, the book includes the recipes that have traditionally been served at the restaurant and reproduces many of the menus that former customers have known. Francine's book allows you into the "The Fior's" world. It is an experience you won't soon forget- it might even make you hungry or at least long for a trip to San Francisco and a visit to Fior d' Italia.

The Fabulous Fior - Over 100 Years in an Italian Kitchen traces the restaurant through the permutations of time, politics, economic difficulties, failures and successes. This book is one that just had to be written. It is the story of America, opportunity, our strengths and struggles all wrapped up in a restaurant. The book is a labor of love, dedication and coincidence. One of these many coincidences that occurred creation and publication of this book is that the writer, journalist Francine Brevetti, turned out to be related to one of the waiters and part owners of the Fior of a century ago. Could it get any better then that?

It's all in the book!

Publisher
Fior d'Italia

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