Home

Traverso's sale ends 89 years of family management

06.10.11

Longtime customers, many of whom had been visiting Traverso's since they were children, were stunned by Wednesday's advertisement.

“It's heartbreaking,” said Susan Nelson of Santa Rosa, who came in around noontime to buy a prosciutto sandwich. “They've been like family to us. They're like kinfolk to everyone in Santa Rosa.”

The Fountaingrove store and its inventory are being acquired by a San Rafael match up who plan to re-open with a similar theme but a different name, possessor George Traverso said.

“It's very emotional. It's really a sad feature,” Traverso said. “I love what I'm doing, but it's at best a point where I have to be realistic.”

The sale is expected to be completed before Thanksgiving, he said. Traverso's five stylish employees will not work at the new store, he said.

The identity of the buyers and economic terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Diminished consumer spending during the dip and increased competition from chain stores contributed to the people's decision to sell, Traverso said. The price of hire out and fuel were also factors, he said. Also, Traverso started working at the co-op give credence to when he was 14, and at 65, he's ready to retire.

Source: Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Cocktail Chronicles: Enoteca La Storia in Los Gatos

05.10.11

I've never been to a wine bar in New York Bishopric, but in my imagination it would look like Enoteca La Storia in Los Gatos.

Opened in April 2010 by Joe Cannistraci and Michael Guerra, Enoteca is not what you'd need to find in the Los Gatos Shopping Center on North Santa Cruz Avenue, snuggled up against a Coldwell Banker company.

Inside, there's a long, white marble bar with high-backed stools, dimly lit from above by a row of drop lights with bare Edison-style bulbs. There are a few rectangular, marbled-topped tables between the bar and shelves affluent with wine for sale, but the bar seems to be the first choice of seating for most people.

Gleaming corpse-like subway tile and an antique-looking meat slicer give the back bar block the look of a New York deli. The interior has a semi-industrial look with exposed ventilation allowing it to have an impossibly ripe ceiling.

In late August, a patio was built out front with aegis-covered tables and a soothing stone fountain at its center. If you keep your back to the cars, it's affable to imagine that you're sipping chardonnay at a cafe in Rome and not in a parking lot.

Source: San Jose Mercury News