A Place to Be Seen
The Fabulous Fior: Over 100 Years in an Italian Kitchen*
An Excerpt from Chapter 11, A Place to Be Seen
During the 1950s and 1960s, the Fior was political flypaper. Local, national and foreign politicos patronized the establishment with regularity. When Richard M. Nixon visited San Francisco during his vice presidency (1953-61), a member of the DiGiorgio family (of the DiGiorgio Fruit Company) recommended the Fior d’Italia to the vice president, who was staying at the Fairmont Hotel. Fairmont’s owners at the time escorted the vice president to the restaurant along with about half a dozen FBI personnel and security people, some of whom Frank (Marianetti, co-owner at the time) knew. Word of Nixon’s arrival got around and a healthy-sized crowd greeted him at the restaurant when he arrived and gave him a standing ovation.
In the Fior, Nixon demanded of the waiter, “I want some good pasta.”
Someone in his group suggested, “Spaghetti and meatballs.”
“No. No. I was in Italy. I didn’t have any spaghetti and meatballs,” Nixon insisted, adding that what he wanted probably wasn’t even on the menu.
However the cook was able to prepare a dish quickly and invented a sauce made of ground filet mignon and imported dried mushrooms just for the vice president and his party. Nixon “cleaned it,” in Frank’s words and he made a special point of raving about it to his group.
“This is the best sauce I’ve had outside of Italy. The last time I had anything (Italian) it was not quite is good,” he said.
*by Francine Brevetti
