San Francisco, CA – Almost 30 years after leaving California to apprentice in Italy, Mario Batali has penned the lease on Animale, a 250-seat restaurant and enoteca planned for the top of Nob Hill’s historic Fairmont Hotel. Batali, host
Senator Bernie Sanders had a heck of an Easter weekend. Dealing a serious blow to Hillary Clinton’s delegate lead, Sanders swept all three primaries, taking Washington, Alaska and Hawaii – all by landslide margins. This late surge has a lot
One morning in the Spring of 1841, Pennsylvania businessman Paul Geddes was on his way to the bank to deposit $7,000 for his employers. Geddes must have been feeling lucky that day; he decided to stop and play a few
This week we read in the news that 2012 presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has filed paperwork in preparation for a 2016 presidential run, with Paul Ryan listed as his running mate. Coming in the wake of a string of primary
Born Arabella Ryan in 1832, Belle Cora was the daughter of a Baltimore minister and a doting mother. She rose to become one of San Francisco’s most celebrated madams. Along with her paramour Charles Cora, Belle opened her first San
At Thursday’s Democratic debate in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton went head-to-head (sans third wheel Martin O’Malley) on the stage for the first time. It was a slugfest relative to earlier debates, signaling an end to the congeniality
A few nights ago I was talking with a bartender friend, and we got caught up in a conversation about the calendar. She told me the story of railwayman Moses Cotsworth, who, vexed by his irregular monthly earnings, created a
Today we see in the news that Pope Francis has tied with Donald Trump for second place in a poll of the world’s most admired men (both lost to Barack Obama, which is no surprise: the sitting US president typically
Just as 2015 has been a milestone year for climate change awareness, it has also been a game changer in the world of sustainable development. Starting with the May publication of the Papal encyclical Laudato Si, a blistering critique
By Joe Bonadio
A first generation Greek-American reared in Nova Scotia, Bay Area entrepreneur Vasilios Pavlounis graduated with a business degree from The University of Halifax in 1986. His life changed course, however, when he saw an ad for a