prepared by Tom White
grilled liver
grilled onions
buttered peas
mashed potatoes
I was asked what I wanted for dinner on this special day. After pondering for a while, a menu item from my childhood I hadn't thought of for decades popped into my mind: Liver and onions!
When I was a kid my father would take me out to lunch! We would go to different places; one was the lunch counter at Woolworths, the "five-and-dime store" store on the corner of Powell and Market Street, which was an Owl Drug Store before that. There were actually two counters at Woolworths, one upstairs and one in the basement, both of them across from showcases filled with various merchandise.
I loved going there as before or after lunch I would watch the cable cars being turned around on the turntable on Powell Street in front; the conductors would do the turning but the public was welcome to join in. I did it quite a few times but the public was banned from joining in sometime in the seventies I think; fear of being sued. Too bad as it was great fun and a thrill to be a part of it especially when you're a kid.
When I was a kid my father would take me out to lunch! We would go to different places; one was the lunch counter at Woolworths, the "five-and-dime store" store on the corner of Powell and Market Street, which was an Owl Drug Store before that. There were actually two counters at Woolworths, one upstairs and one in the basement, both of them across from showcases filled with various merchandise.
Woolworths lunch counter - ca 1950's
photographer unknown
I loved going there as before or after lunch I would watch the cable cars being turned around on the turntable on Powell Street in front; the conductors would do the turning but the public was welcome to join in. I did it quite a few times but the public was banned from joining in sometime in the seventies I think; fear of being sued. Too bad as it was great fun and a thrill to be a part of it especially when you're a kid.
Chrome postcard published by H. S. Crocker Co. - ca 1950
But my very favorite place to have lunch was at Moar's Cafeteria, just a few steps away and across the street from Woolworths at 33 Powell Street. It was my favorite for two reasons; you could order a variety of individual dishes, like tapas I discovered forty years later in Spain (link below), cereal, pasta, vegetables, meats, desserts, etc. It was totally different from eating at home where the whole meal was set with no substitutions. My absolutely favorite items were beef liver with grilled onions, sweet peas and mashed potatoes. It was what I ordered almost every time I went. The second reason was the mosaic murals by Beniamino "Benny" Bufano in the cafeteria.
I could have spent the whole day looking at them while I let my lunch get cold but my father wouldn't let me; they were like no works of art I had ever seen and the detail on them was mesmerizing. By this time I was deep into archeology and was familiar with Ancient Roman art with its mosaic tradition, such as the Judgment of Paris from the Greek legend, made of marble, limestone and glass tesserae tiles in the Atrium House triclinium in Antioch (115–150 AD.). I was later to use this theme for one of my works in an exhibition (link below).
Benny Bufano, mosaic murals - August 19, 1970
Moar’s Cafeteria
Photo: Bill Young, San Francisco Chronicle
Judgment of Paris, Roman mosaic - 115–150 AD
Bufano created the large murals for Moar's Cafeteria in 1950, however, they were removed in the 1970s for BART construction (what a huge mistake, the removal and BART).
Benny Bufano, Moar’s Cafeteria - April 11, 1950
Photo: Art Frisch, San Francisco Chronicle
Beniamino Bufano was born in San Fele, Italy, on October 15, 1890. He came to the United States in 1901 with his mother and 11 or 16 siblings; Bufano was quoted as saying that he was one of 15 children. The date of his birth is also uncertain.
He studied at the Art Students League of New York during 1913–1915 with sculptors Herbert Adams, Paul Manship, and James Earle Fraser and assisted them with their work; he also assisted Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney) at her home studio in Roslyn, New York in about 1913. The relationship ended abruptly as Bufano, charged with making maquettes
from Mrs. Whitney's sketches, consistently altered them to his own
design. After he ignored several requests to reproduce the sketches as
they were, Mrs. Whitney lost patience and smashed Bufano's sculptures on
the floor. He resigned on the spot.
In the fall of 1914, Manship invited Bufano to work with Robert Treat Paine on a commission Manship had received for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Bufano rented a room in the Chinatown section of San Francisco, made some friends there, and became fascinated with Chinese art.
He was given additional sculpture projects at the exposition, panels
for the Arches of Triumph and a festoon over the main door of the Palace of Fine Arts.
Shortly after the United States entered World War I in 1917, Bufano accidentally cut off half of his right index finger. He decided to mail the "trigger finger" to President Woodrow Wilson as a protest against the war. He allowed a legend to develop that he had intentionally severed the finger for this purpose.
In 1917 he returned to California and rented a studio in Pasadena,
where he sculpted portrait heads and took philosophy classes. But he decided San Francisco was where he most wanted to live, and it became his home base for the rest of his life. There is an excellent video of his work with just music, no dialogue (link below).
Beniamino Bufano & sculptures- June 24, 1956
Photo: Gordon Peters, San Francisco Chroniclee
Beniamino Bufano taught at the California College of Arts & Crafts and continued to create art and to be seen as a colorful local
character until his death from heart disease in 1970. In his will he
disinherited his daughter Aloha M. Bufano-Jones (1918–1991) and did not
mention his son Erskine Scott Bufano, leaving everything to an entity he
and patron friends had established called the Bufano Society of the
Arts. Erskine successfully contested the will and became the head of the society. Erskine died in 2010. Bufano is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
California Art Research Archive ~ Beniamino BUFANO (1898-1970)
Fog City Streets ~ Riding a Cable Car in San Francisco
Hoodline.com ~ How Cable Cars Became An Exclusively San Francisco Treat
SF Chronicle ~
Benny Bufano, a San Francisco sculptor who broke the mold
SF beloved cable cars return to streets after 10-day shutdown
San Francisco Days ~ Cable Car Lines/Routes
YouTube links:
Antiques Road Show ~ Beniamino Bufano Bronzes, ca. 1960
Bufano (1 min., 23 secs.)
Bufano sculptures (just music NO talking)
San Francisco's Cable Cars
Powell and Market Cable Car Turnaround in San Francisco
Market St. at Powell St. Cable Car Turn-around aerial view
Liver 'n onions 'n Benny Bufano,
what more could a boy ask for?
Styrous® ~ Sunday, July 12, 2020
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