Saturday, July 27, 2013

Fly Trap 50 Years -- July 27, 2013

The Fly Trap Restaurant at Sutter and Montgomery Streets closed on 27-July-1963.  My grandfather was a partner and the chef.  The Fly Trap was a businessman's restaurant in the heart of the Financial District.  Only one woman worked there, as a cashier, and female lunch customers were rare. 

Louis Besozzi (the Big Boss) opened it in 1898 as Louis' Fashion.  His brothers had restaurants called Henry's Fashion and Charley's Fashion.  Louis' Fashion became known as the Fly Trap because of strips of fly paper needed because of horse-drawn streetcars. 

Wells Fargo closed the business so they could build a new headquarters building, which they no longer occupy. 

It's probably a good thing it closed because my grandfather would have worked till he died, like 2 of his 3 brothers.  Because of his forced retirement, I grew up spending a lot of time with him. 

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