The Matchcover Storyteller

So, first things first   —  I came across this older and colorful matchcover while sorting some Italian restaurants to add to my albums.  Older covers in particular make me want to source information and in Original Joe’s I found what can only be called an iconic San Francisco eatery.   While I only have one red cover so far, I’m now on the hunt for a variety of 20-and 30-strike covers.  And as for dining, you can still sit for an Italian meal at Original Joe’s, just not in its original location.

It was in 1937 (nearly 90 years back as I write this, that Croatian immigrant Tony Rodin opened a 14-stool counter at 144 Taylor Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.  Facing severe urban challenges today, back then The Tenderloin was a thriving arts and culture 50-square block neighborhood in downtown San Fran, rich in speakeasies and theaters.  Tony had jumped ship in 1932 and had been working at a lunch counter called New Joe’s before he tried stepping out on his own, and New Joe’s led to Original Joe’s.  The 1910 building had previously been the Beverly Hotel and then the Modern Hotel  –  figuring into the end of Original Joe’s.

Success led to an addition for a full dining room and then a full bar and all that led to what people called the Joe’s concept of the open exhibition kitchen, leather booths and strong cocktails.  It spread to other Joe’s around the city and eventually, nationally.

Tony Rodin and his partner maintained Original Joe’s for 46 years before ownership changes began, but the place just ambled along  — until October 2007, when a fire in the single-room-occupancy hotel above the restaurant caught fire.  Joe’s closed, unable to be rebuilt.

Owners were now Rodin’s daughter Marie and her husband and after years of bureaucratic wrangling, they salvaged most of the furniture and artifacts and just moved Original Joe’s into new quarters at 601 Union Street in the North End.  Not a shabby address  —  it had previously been the site of America’s oldest Italian restaurant, Fior d’Italia  (dating back to 1886, but only 1954 at the Union street address) and then Joe DiMaggio’s from 2006 to 2010  — so it’s always been an Italian restaurant!

Tony Rodin died in 2006 at age 93, so he never faced the fire at his original spot.   But he did see the opening of more Original Joe’s around the Bay Area, even though they are now independently owned.

Nor should our San Francisco treat be confused with another Original Joe’s, since 1998 in Canada, now with 27 locations in four western provinces.

But that’s another story and may remain (by me, at least) unwritten.