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)