Silicon Valley Old Italian Trifecta!

This month’s HEAD Trip takes on three “oldests” in all of Santa Clara County; winery, restaurant and bar. Let’s start with wine.

Padres at Mission Santa Clara planted Santa Clara Valley’s first vineyard in 1798. Fifty-one years later, the California Gold Rush brought French and Italian immigrants to seek their fortune. Many found it, not in gold but in wine.

The state’s first commercial winery, the Almaden Winery was founded in 1852. This original winery has faded from the scene and what remains are now a community park and single family homes. Other wineries including Buena Vista (1857), Gundlach Bundschu (1858) and Inglenook (1879) still remain.

Across the region, immigrant winemakers discovered California’s rich soil and Mediterranean climate and vineyards were planted from coastal valleys to the Sierra Foothills.

Two such immigrants moved to Santa Clara County in 1877. Secondo and Vincenso Picchetti were some of the first settlers along Monte Bello Ridge (Beautiful Mountain) overlooking Cupertino. Not only did they settle in the hills above “The Valley of Hearts Delight”, they were some of the first to plant grapes. The area soon become one of Santa Clara County’s most important wine making areas.

The Picchetti brothers bought 160 acres for $1,500. They grew their ranch to 500 acres by 1904. Taking advantage of the climate and soil, the first grapes the brothers planted were  Zinfandel, Carignane and Petite Sirah. This region is now part of the Santa Cruz Mountains Appellation.

In the early days, they sold grapes to local wineries, but in 1896 they started making their own wine. Picchetti became the 148^th licensed winery in the U.S.

In 1904, the winery and ranch passed to Vencenzo's sons, Antone and John. The family continued commercial winemaking until 1963. After that the family continued on a small scale.

In 1976, the ranch and winery were sold to the Midpeninsula Regional Space District. In 1998, Leslie Pantling took over the winery. Today Picchetti produces around 9,000 cases of tasty wine each year. Grapes are still harvested from three acres of 110 year old Zinfandel vines that allow the dream of two Italian immigrants to continue.

The oldest restaurant in San Jose is Wing’s Chinese in Japantown. Now you may be asking, “Why are we not going to Wings?” Well, on our pre-HEAD Scouting, Liz and I, your Co-Grand Poo-Bahs, ate at Wings. Old yes, good? Not so much. Besides, Picchetti is Italian so why not eat Italian at San Jose’s oldest Italian restaurant?

The original Original Joe’s was opened in San Francisco back in 1937 by business partners, Lou Rocca and Tony "Ante" Rodin (It’s still owned and managed by Rodin's grandchildren). The restaurant initially consisted of 14 bar stools and a sawdust-covered floor. Business grew and soon a full dining room was added. But enough about San Francisco.

By 1956, Lou Rocca decided to open another Original Joe’s. His idea was to go into business with his son. San Jose was booming so it seemed like a good choice. Lou wanted to bring an authentic San Francisco-style Italian restaurant to the South Bay. A clothing store at the corner of First and San Carlos had just closed and it seemed like the perfect location. Lou and his son Lou soon opened their Original Joe’s. Their goal was to serve traditional home-style Italian-American cuisine. To add San Francisco touches, Lou and Lou even imported French bread from San Francisco by Greyhound bus everyday for the first two years of operation.

Now Original Joe’s may not have been the very first Italian restaurant in the county, but today it is the oldest!

Old wine, old restaurants, how about old bars? Let’s go back to 1933,Prohibition is over and a thirsty San Jose cries out for refreshment. Enter Cinebar. Just a block away from San Jose State University between Third and Fourth on San Fernando. True to its dive bar roots, it is open every possible legal hour - 6am to 2am. Dark, dank and equipped with a pool table, what better place to finish our adventure?

So it’s not Italian, Ira drank there and he’s Italian (2^nd generation on his mother’s side, plus he looks really Italian…) Join us! Drink with us! Eat with us! Be hungover with us the next day! It’ll be fun!!!

Join the HEAD Adventure. On Saturday, May 30, meet at the Picchetti Winery (13100 Montebello Rd., Cupertino) at 2pm. Please RSVP.