If you head west on the old railroad right-of-way, Center Blvd., just before entering the downtown business district of Fairfax you will have to stop at the intersection of Pastori and Center. It you were to travel back more than 100 years you would be at the Pastori rail station named after Charles and Adele Pastori and their popular Italian restaurant. In 1893, the Pastori’s leased the old Charles Fairfax property and called it the Fairfax Villa. Both Adele and Charles were known as excellent chefs and their connections to San Francisco society; Adele was a former performer on stage and Charles a set designer and builder, assured their establishment a continuous and somewhat glittering clientele. Within a few years, they had changed the villa’s name to Pastori’s which enjoyed a world-wide reputation for fine dining.
They purchased the land in 1905 and made the town of Fairfax a culinary destination throughout the Bay Area, adding lodging for overnight and extended visits. They had four children, Ione, Enrico, Clementina and Umberco who grew up on the property, as the family’s living quarters were on the second floor of the villa. The restaurant attracted visitors not only for its fine food, but also its beautifully landscaped grounds and the pleasant and temperate outside dining experience afforded by a large, covered porch and dining area. Period advertisements for the restaurant touted It as, “The Ideal Place. Open the year round. Cooking unsurpassed. Meals served under the trees.”
The Pastori’s were also civic-minded, helping to establish and build the first schoolhouse in Fairfax where Charles served as trustee for many terms, and raising funds for Italian victims of the 1908 Strait of Messina earthquake. At the height of the family’s success tragedy struck in 1911. Charles died of heart failure at 58 years of age and the Villa burned down 6 months later. Undaunted, Adele had the home and restaurant rebuilt on an even grander scale, adding more cottages and rooms for guests and a maple dance floor for parties and events. She also built a platform in one of the large oaks near the dining room,
where it is said Irving Berlin once played a piano that had been hauled aloft in order to serenade the dining guests. Adele and her children operated the establishment until a declining business environment and Prohibition led her to sell the property. It was bought by the San Francisco based Emporium Capwell Department Store in 1925 as a resort for their employees. The company installed a large pool, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, dormitories and additional cottages. The resort was very popular for another 10 years but was closed and leased to the Marin School for Boys in 1937. In 1944, San Francisco businessman, Max Friedman bought the property adding more swimming pools, stabling for horses, additional dance floors and summer cabins and christened it, The Marin Town & Country Club. The popular Club welcomed day visitors and overnight guests for many years until it closed in 1972. The property is now a private residential area, but one can still picture the thousands of guests that have dined, danced, and played near the intersection of Center Blvd. and Pastori Ave.
(Originally appeared as History Watch article in the Marin Independent Journal)