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was an owner as well. The Things were going great for
restaurant was not doing well the boys. The sausage business
so they wanted Frank Sr. to was running along and the
trade the existing restaurant restaurants were doing well in
for the debt and call it even. their own right. This gave the
Frank Sr. was not interested boys an opportunity to look
in going back to the restau- into other businesses as a way
rant world, but his sons to invest and grow their extra
were. The boys convinced money. Frank Jr. had come to
their father to let them take Napa in the early 80’s and saw
over the restaurant and they the growth that was occurring
would owe him the money. and all the boys agreed that the
The father relented and Napa Valley was a great area to
the boys become restaura- invest in. They bought retail
teurs. By investing some properties and they also became
money and improving the de facto farmers. Not chickens,
food quality the restaurant cows and corn, but grape farm-
became a hit and grew to a ers. Wine grape farmers, to be
small string of eateries here exact.
in the Bay Area. You may At that time you could buy an
also be familiar with that acre of wine growing land for
endeavor, known as Frankie, about $18,000 to $22,000,
Johnnie & Luigi Too! and though the prices were rising
Giorgio’s Italian Restaurants, rapidly. They dove in and ended
which still are operating up with over 240 premium,
in the South Bay cities of grape-growing acres across the
Dublin, Milpitas, San Jose Napa Valley. They trimmed
and Mountain View. their holdings by a little more
than half when prices reached
We Cater... over $250,000 an acre to settle
debts and free up cash.
While You Party. Life was good for Frank and
his brothers. Frank oversaw
Call today, holiday the vineyards and other Napa
bookings are filling fast! properties while his brothers oversaw the sausage and restaurant
business. Life would have continued on that course if not for a
707-750-5295 wrench that was thrown into the brothers’ lives in the form of
a movie. That movie was Sideways, which came out in 2004
907 First Street • Benicia and told the story of two friends’ last jaunt to the Santa Barbara
Hours: 11am-9pm Tues-Thurs 8am-9pm Fri-Sun (not Napa mind you) wine country before one of the friends
upcoming wedding. One of the main characters in the movie
907Grill.com LOVED Pinot Noir and disdained Merlot and famously says
in the movie; “No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am
Serving Fresh NOT drinking any f**king Merlot!” That movie single-hand-
American Cuisine edly created a surge in Pinot Noir sales and a corresponding
Breakfast Lunch drop in Merlot sales. And what, may you ask, caused Frank and
his brothers all the problems? They were not making wine at the
& Dinner time just growing grapes. Grapes that they sold to other wine
makers so they could make wine. Well, the varietal they grew
the most was, you guessed it: Merlot. What is especially ironic
of the situation and that movie is that the wine most loved by
that main character in Sideways was a Cheval Blanc, which is
made from a blend of Cabernet Franc (another wine varietal
that the character hated) and Merlot!
42 Oct/Nov www.localhappeningsmagazine.com
