I Believe in Credo

A few months ago, I devoted a column to the impending opening of my restaurant, Credo, at 360 Pine Street in the heart of downtown San Francisco. I recounted the doom-and-gloomers and naysayers who scoffed at me. They predicted falling sky.

Today, Credo is open and serving more than 1,000 diners per week.

For our March launch party, we squeezed more than 400 friends into Credo’s 75-seat ground floor dining room. The original skeptic, my wife Janet, opened the night on a humorous note by recounting her initial horrified reaction to my idea.

The famous social justice priest Monsignor Eugene Boyle, now a venerable 88 years old, then blessed the premises.

Our guests enjoyed a short parade of Credo personalities: Mario Maggi, our Milanese executive chef; Tim Felkner, our suave young general manager; Frank Holland, our editor and creative director; and finally my close friend, Lorenzo Petroni.

Lorenzo owns North Beach Restaurant, a renowned destination which is thronged nightly. Who better to help me cut the ribbon?

That was the easy part.

Credo’s grand opening was a lot like some of my experiences as a political consultant.

The campaign launch always turned out to be irrelevant to the final outcome of the election. I usually forgot the details of the announcement by the time the election rolled around; the rough and tumble of the actual campaign quickly replaced the ceremonial perfection of opening day. Read More »

Taking a Chance

“I thought you were a smart businessman,” an astonished colleague exclaimed when he heard I was opening a restaurant. “Even my wife Janet looked at me quizzically and said, “You’re opening a what?!”

I had heard the horror stories all before. “Restaurants don’t make money” is ensconced in the pantheon of aphorisms right next to “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

When I began to tell friends and associates last year that I planned to open an eatery in San Francisco, they practically organized an intervention to deter me.

Coming as it did while the country was plunging headlong into a financial catastrophe, my urban trattoria concept wasn’t wildly embraced.

I countered skeptics with the example of my good friend, Lorenzo Petroni, who began his career as a waiter upon his arrival from Lucca and who now presided over a small empire from his North Beach Restaurant in San Francisco. I also cited the legendary Sirio Maccioni, whose famous restaurant Le Cirque has become an internationally recognized brand.

“But you’re Irish,” folks admonished me while shooting winks at nearby associates.

Nevertheless, I forged ahead with little more than a name: “Credo,” the Latin word for “I believe.” Catholics recognize Credo as the prayer of the mass which enunciates the tenets of the Catholic faith. But this creed is followed immediately by prayers to God for help in daily life.

Let’s just say that I’ve done my share of praying for Credo to get off the ground. Read More »