The Real & Imagined History of Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe
Updated: Mar 15, 2023 17:51
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There are no cigars there. Not anymore, at Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Cafe Store.
North Beach, that righteous, riotous and literarily relevant San Francisco neighborhood of great charm has long become a tourist destination. Arguably, it is now a neighborhood primarily cultivated and sustained through tourism. It’s where all the sailors go during Fleet Week. It’s where burgeoning poets go to connect with the beat ghosts of writerly renown. It is also where I bring the French family whenever they come to visit. I married a handsome French fencing instructor quite some time ago and as a result, I have been graced with members of his family coming to visit every year since. Though we live in the wonderful wilds of West Oakland, I yet, always bring them to Mario’s.
Unlike some of the more conspicuous establishments catering to a romantic representation of the neighborhood’s Italian immigrant history – replete with chianti bottles hung in straw baskets or the famous neon lit strip clubs that beckon saucily from blocks away – Mario’s is a modest, unobtrusive, truly local little joint.

Photo by Russell Mondy

Scene of slaying of gangster Luigi Malvese. Auto in place where Malvese was shot. Lewis Packing Corp. Ltd., 720 Columbus. May 19, 1932. Photo Courtesy of Dick Boyd.

Photo of one of the famous sandwiches from Mario’s FB Page

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