HISTORY OF LAUREL VILLAGE

AND THE RIGOLO CAFE LOCATION

Rigolo Café is located in Laurel Village, a popular, pedestrian section along SF’s California Street that is always bustling, with commercial businesses catering to the surrounding Laurel Heights neighborhood.

 

The area is one of the more well-heeled and sophisticated neighborhoods of San Francisco. It has long maintained an image of conservative elegance, thereby lacking the clash of cultures that bring vibrancy to other parts of the City. The area stands as the stately front door to the former military land of Presidio Park just to the north.

 

Laurel Village is home to some of SF’s most popular shops, markets and restaurants. The building that houses Rigolo Café is also home to Wine Impression, a popular family-owned wine shop. The structure was built in 1948 and its first tenant was Fantasia Confections, a family-owned German Bakery. For four decades Fantasia was extremely popular with locals as a good place to hang out, drink coffee and nibble on fresh-baked treats, until the business was eventually sold in 1989. That same year, Eppler’s Bakery moved in and remained there until 2003. The following year, in 2004, the Mathieux family took over the spot to create Rigolo Café. The family tore everything out to open up the space and expose the original wood ceiling rafters. They re-did the interior and exterior, and put in a 32-foot skylight to bring in natural lighting. The end result was a beautiful, open, welcoming space, and neighbors were excited about the new café. The fun, family-friendly attitude at Rigolo reminded them of the old Fantasia. Old-timers often reminisce about the good old days while enjoying a fresh meal at Rigolo. The Mathieux family hopes to keep Rigolo Café open in Laurel Village for many more decades, outlasting even the popular Fantasia Confections.

 

Before the 1850s, Laurel Village was part of a large tract of sandy but fertile land on a hill. In 1853, a group of wealthy entrepreneurs purchased the land and created a 54-acre cemetery they named Lone Mountain Cemetery, in honor of the conspicuous 500-foot sand hill that stood a half-mile to the south. The peaceful gardens of the new cemetery offered plots to potential customers and a park-like setting for sightseers. The first permanent guest arrived at Lone Mountain Cemetery in June of 1854, and in 1867, the cemetery was renamed Laurel Hill Cemetery. By the late 1800s, it was such a beautiful spot and so elegantly planted with numerous species of ornamental shrubs and rare plants, that it was commonly used as a recreational park. Its location on high ground made it a place where folks came to find safety and pitch tents during the devastating earthquake and city fires of 1906.

 

Between 1900 and 1920, the Jordan Park area next to the cemetery was developed by James Clark Jordan into a neighborhood of wide streets with large Victorian and Edwardian homes set on spacious lots with lawns and gardens. In 1939 and 1940, the bodies from the Laurel Hill Cemetery were moved to Colma, south of San Francisco, and the cemetery was closed. In its place, the slopes of Laurel Heights were developed into a residential, commercial and university neighborhood. The new development included what is now the Laurel Village commercial strip. It also included the University of San Francisco, a campus of the University of California, modern houses, flats and small apartment buildings; all built in the 1940s and ‘50s.

 

Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA