DVA BRACANI

Adam S. Eterovich

Miner’s Exchange Saloon and Restaurant-1851 San Francisco

DEVCICH-DAVIS, JOHN Goldminer-Saloon-Restaurant-Farm: John Davis-Devcich was born in the village of Sumartin on the Island of Brac, Dalmatia, Croatia, September 20, 1825. There he resided for the first eleven years of his life, when he took up the labors of a sailor, proceeded to Trieste, and afterwards with an uncle, to Constantinople. From the City of Constantinople he found his way to Odessa, in the Black Sea, whence sailed down the Mediterranean to Marseilles in France, where, taking on board a cargo of wheat, a return to the Adriatic was made. The next cruise was along the ports on the Northern Coast of Africa, and, touching at the island of Cyprus, loaded with wine and sailed for Trieste, whence he once more found himself in Turkey’s capital; and finally loading wheat at Odessa for Liverpool. From this last port our subject visited the Cove of Cork, in the south of Ireland, when he went to Ardossan, Scotland, then back to the Black Sea; subsequently to Naples, Genoa, the Black Sea, and Belfast. He shipped on board a British ship bound for Rio de Janeiro. This was in 1837. He there left his ship, and, after a month, proceeded to China and Liverpool returning to the Celestial Empire-- in short, he made eight voyages in all between China and England. He then shipped in Liverpool for New Orleans, Louisiana in 1838, returning to England in the Spring of 1840. He then engaged in the China trade until the discovery of gold in California, when he came to the Pacific Coast in the ship Antelope, arriving in San Francisco on June 16, 1849. Mr. Davis almost immediately proceeded to the mines at Auburn, on the American River, Placer County, but at the end of three months forsook the pick and rocker and established a pack-train between Sacramento and the mines for the purpose of supplying the gold-seekers with groceries. Ill-luck now commenced to make itself felt. Our subject was stricken with mountain fever; during his illness his mules were stolen, and on final recovery, so disgusted was he, he gave a Mexican his packing fixtures, and started to the Mariposa Mines, ultimately returning to Stockton and San Jose, The Mission Delores and San Francisco. Between the last two points naught prevailed but a wild wilderness, through which he passed on foot, his horse having been stolen. Here he met several wagons laden with victims of cholera, which was an epidemic during the summer of 1850. After remaining three months in San Francisco, he erected a house on what is now Commercial Street, and opened a restaurant and lodging house, the Miner’s Exchange Saloon and Restaurant at 6 Commercial Street in 1851. He marred a girl from Scotland and had a large family. He was from the Island of Brac., where he remained until 1851; in that year he sold out and came to his present residence in Contra Costa County, where he owns four hundred and forty-two acres of land. Married in Oakland, this being the first wedding of Westerns to take place in that city, Anna Connor, a native of Scotland, and has six surviving children, viz: Frank, John, Geovienia, Connor, Mary, and William. Mr. Davis, and his son John are members of the Society of California Pioneers. Slocum and Co. “John Davis-Devcich.” In History of Contra Costa County: Slocum and Co., 1882.

Nick’s Melrose Grotto in Hollywood

SLAVICH, NICK Restaurant: I kept seeing John Barrymore sitting on his favorite bar stool, drinking 15-cent sherry and reading a radio script. And you could practically hear Al Jolson’s voice, off in a corner of the dining room, as he hummed through a tune he planned to use on his show. Somebody hollered out “Wanna buy a duck?” as he walked by Joe Penner, and Glenn Miller was discussing some new tunes with song pluggers. Ghosts” No, just memories. But there were at least a million of them when the historic old Melrose Grotto reopened yesterday. You wouldn’t have recognized the old place, which has been shuttered for several months. It’s all sparkling pretty, has something called decor and now it’s known as the Melrose Nickodell. But the spirit still is there, a spirit that has been part of Hollywood’s radio and motion picture industry for many years. Television? No, television’s a Johnny-come lately compared to the old timers. Nick Slavich opened the old grotto back in the depression days and it soon became a popular hangout for the radio and motion picture crowd. One reason was its location, because NBC soon opened up it’s West Coast headquarters next door and the actors, writers, directors, musicians, producer, —practically everybody—naturally gravitated to Nick’s Grotto. Through the years practically all the top names in show business looked upon the Grotto as a second home or office. On any given day you could meet Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Dorothy Lamour, Ray Noble, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, any one of the Barrymores, Parkyakarkus, Ed Wynn and scores of other people up and down the talent ladder. There are a couple of good stories about the old Grotto, too. Nick was telling me about Barrymore’s sherry. “The first day Barrymore came in he ordered a glass of sherry at the bar. The bartender gave him a domestic brand, which sold in those days for 15 cents. “I told the bartender to serve him a better grade of sherry- the 25 cent wine- if he ordered another drink. Well, he did and the bartender switched to the better brand. “Barrymore said: ‘What’s this! You have changed wines, you scoundrel!’ So he went back to the 15 cent sherry.” I also remember those days when old John would sit at the bar, reading a script and never paying his bill. He used to sign all checks and his wife would come in a day or so later to pick them up. Then there was the time the actor stole a turkey. He was a pretty important personality loaded at the bar and decided it would be a good idea to walk out with a cooked turkey. He was very careful to stuff the turkey under his coat and walk out in a nonchalant manner.  It is very difficulty to be nonchalant when you have a turkey under your coat. Actually, everybody in the joint, including Nick, saw the episode and thought the actor gave a bad performance. Nick just put the turkey on the guy’s monthly bill. In the early days, when the Grotto was just getting started, Nick didn’t have a lot of money on hand and the fellows from NBC used to come in to get their paychecks cashed. It was quite an arrangement. Nick would collect the checks, send somebody to the bank to get them cashed while the boys were eating and pay them off after lunch. Everything went great until one day the guy went to the bank and never came back.  He went south with the money. The NBC employees took part of the money that day and the remainder on the following morning.

But eventually the Grotto prospered and Nick carried a lot of hungry radio and film people over the hurdle when they ran out of work and money. If you were a right guy- or gal- and things weren’t going too well, Nick and the Grotto were true friends. A few years ago Nick made a few million dollars or some equally fantastic sum and sold out. The Grotto was never the same and finally the doors were closed. In the meantime, Slavich opened another restaurant, the Nickodell, which almost overnight became the new radio-TV hangout. But I guess there was something about the old Grotto that was a part of Slavich.  He couldn’t forget those years and the memories and he couldn’t see the Grotto as just another broke restaurant. So he reopened the place, now completely remodeled, and all the radio-TV names turned up for the private premiere. Nick was proud as punch. “This place is part of me- it’s in my heart,” he said. Price Tag: And that’s quite a heart, as anybody in radio of TV can tell you.

Born Nikola Slavich-Vladislavich in 1902 in Mirce on the Island of Brac, Dalmatia, Croatia, Nick came to the United States at the age of eleven. He worked in the restaurant business in Los Angeles during the 1920s and opened “Slavich’s Grill” in San Jose, California. He opened two other restaurants throughout his lifetime, including “Nick’s Melrose Grotto” in Hollywood in 1928. Located next to NBC’s west coast headquarters, “Melrose Grotto” became a hot spot for famous radio and film actors during the Depression Days. (L A Daily News 1954)