Like a good recipe, the Italian community still offers the same flavors in Seattle's South End, albeit on a smaller scale, thanks to some essential ingredients that unite their community.
Probably the most obvious, good Italian food and wine, joins other ingredients like a love for Rainier Valley in this recipe that has kept the sense of Italian community alive.
Although the appearance of the community has altered considerably over the years, especially with fewer Italian residents and businesses, some key aspects have remained unchanged.
WHY GARLIC GULCH?
The first ingredient that deserves immediate attention and explanation is garlic.
As one of the largest immigrant groups to first arrive in Rainier Valley the Italian community quickly established their own "Little Italy," what some called "Garlic Gulch," in the early 1900s.
Apart from the fact that garlic isn't, and never was, a main ingredient in every Italian dish, the name today is no more than a reference to the past.
"That's what they called it. We have the reputation that we like garlic, but that isn't true, I don't know where it came from," says Pino Rogano, who owns Da Pino's on Rainier Avenue. "The area here used to be called that because there was more Italians here, but now there's no Italians and it's just a name."
Rogano first moved to Seattle in 1972 and started three restaurants before returning to Italy in 1989. When Rogano moved back to Seattle in 2000 the Italian presence in the Valley had diminished even more than when he'd left 11 years earlier.
Although the general consensus among the Italian community in the Valley today declares a return to what the community was like when people still called it Garlic Gulch is impossible, there's plenty of Italians still talking about what it was like.
WHAT WAS GARLIC GULCH LIKE?
As it was, with Italian groceries and neighbors, the sense of family was quite vivid in the early to mid 1900s.
"The community was beautiful, it was just like a family. We knew each other, we cared about each other. You come to my house, I come to yours, every holiday there was lots to eat and drink. It was a beautiful family," says Mike "The Barber" Prontera.
Prontera first came to Seattle as a prisoner of war during World War II. In 1947 Prontera opened his barbershop on McClellan and Rainier, which he still runs today.
Prontera remembers the gardens that used to line Rainier Avenue South, watching baseball games at Sic Stadium, and never having to lock his door. But what he remembers most, as do the other Italians still in Rainier Valley, is simply the fact that there were so many Italians, and they all knew one another.
"Back then, we didn't have any money, but we had lots of friends," says Prontera.
LITTLE CITY FEEL
"I just thought that everybody had Italians in their neighborhoods because I remember when I was growing up that they were everywhere. It was like a small city when I was growing up," says fourth generation Beacon Hill Italian Joe Fugere, whose great grandparents immigrated to Seattle in 1911.
"My mother would go to the Italian bakery for her bread, the butcher for her meat. And Italians began to learn what different people specialized in and, I remember there was this one woman on Beacon Hill who made ravioli for all the other Italians, and another family who made sausages."
Fugere, one of the few Italians to stay in the Valley, now runs Tutta Bella Pizzeria in Columbia City. He dedicates the restaurant entirely to bringing authentic Italian pizza and espresso to the Valley.
Perhaps not quite the same as the day when your neighbor was making ravioli for the entire block, the restaurant has become one of the links connecting the Italian community.
And Fugere isn't the only one who remembers knowing all his neighbors, either.
"Well, in those days we had Italian schools, Italian pharmacies, two Italian groceries, the Italian Mount Virgin Church, and we all attended Italian schools," says Remo Borrachini, owner of the legendary Seattle bakery, Borrachini's, on Rainier Avenue South. "We knew almost everybody on the block so we were very familiar with all the houses, we never locked our doors and we all attended the same church."
Despised by some and forgotten by others, the term Garlic Gulch has faded just as the Italian community became more scattered over the years. But, even if it doesn't have a name, the Italian community still has a presence in Rainier Valley.
GARLIC GULCH TODAY
No Italian pharmacies, groceries or churches can be found in the South End now, and the Valley is sprinkled with so many different ethnic groups that running into an Italian on the street doesn't seem very likely.
But change didn't infect every corner of Rainier Valley. Though many Italians, as did other groups, left the Valley because of the urban flight in the 1970s during the economic downturn spurred by a Boeing bust, some stayed, and they have no plans to leave anytime soon.
Ada and Vince opened Vince's Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria in 1957, and today Vince Mottola Jr. runs the restaurant, which now has a number of locations. As the Valley changed Vince's food and the restaurant's atmosphere didn't budge.
"I think we're just a comforting source for people because we haven't changed. This restaurant has been a part of the community for so long," says Mottola. "We've been a part of people's lives for so long, and we're kind of that cornerstone you can count on."
And businesses like Vince's and Borrachini's don't intend to leave the Valley either.
"It's been a very stable area for us, and we're not going to move. It's been very gratifying to me; I just love it here," says Borrachini. "We're going to stick around so you can count on Borrachini's to be here another 85 years, at least."
Keystones like Borrachini's, Vince's and Oberto's continue to make the Italian presence visible in the Valley. Newer establishments like Tutta Bella and Da Pino's have expanded on these older ingredients as well, returning more Italian flavor to the community.
But are these scattered restaurants enough to claim a strong sense of community?
MIXED FEELINGS
Well, it seems to depend on the definition of community being used: old or new.
"The old-timers used to get together and make their own wine, play bocce ball, have wine dinners, that's what brings us together, events like this," says Rogano, "but I don't see those events happening very much anymore."
For Ada Mottola the sense of community relied on the people, but those she enjoyed her heritage with have left the Valley.
"It was very close knit. My heritage was still there, people speaking the same language, it was good to have that," says Ada. "No, it's not like that anymore; unfortunately the people, they get old and they die."
Ada also stressed that the affectionate nature of the Italian community hasn't changed.
Based on those definitions of community, it may appear that the Italian community has faded beyond visibility. However, it seems that the deep-rooted ingredients of affection and appreciation for cultural heritage has played a large role in maintaining the Italian community.
"It's very strong. We still have several organizations and they're alive and well. I don't see the community diminishing at all," says Borrachini.
A testament to this, Borrachini says, is the 20th Festa Italiana Seattle, which starts Sept. 28 with the Taste of Italy and continues until Sept. 30. More than 40,000 attended the festival last year, which celebrates "all things Italian" over three days of entertainment, lots of food and laughter.
Although several stated that the times of Garlic Gulch can't return, some are starting to see Italian families return and a rekindling of the larger Italian community.
"I would hope and wish for the Italian community to maybe reconnect and regain what it lost in the '70s when everybody moved out into the suburbs," says Fugere, "but a reconnection of the Italian community and sense of community, I think, is beginning to happen actually."
Maybe with the return of Italian families, a new Little Italy could be established, but some say that's just a dream.
"I miss the getting together, playing bocce with them. I would like to see the old people back, but that's not possible," says Rogano. "The old, good times, they never come back and we all think about the old times... Today is a good time, too."
For now, the businesses still here provide the necessary ingredients keeping the Italian community visible and active.
And even though old times may be missed, opportunities to enjoy the Italian community and celebrate the culture aren't lacking as long as one looks for it.
Jessica Van Gilder may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.
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