Thirty-five years ago two brothers opened a quaint Italian restaurant at 22 Miller Avenue in the tiny town of Mill Valley, CA. In their minds they were just building a business. This was the first of many projects to come, but in these thirty-five years, it has become so much more than that; it became a home.
I have been watching Piazza D’Angelo grow for as long as I can remember. And through every fad that past through the town, every pop up store and side walk sale, it prevailed. With growing trends in cuisine it is difficult to stay relevant but somehow Piazza D’Angelo has managed to grow and keep up while remaining stable for its customers. Anyone who has worked in the service industry will tell you these three words: “It’s not easy.” The restaurant business is not one with a set schedule, there is no clocking in or out, you go far before your first customer comes in and stay significantly past your last. As I watch and assist as my family navigates this whirlwind industry, I begin to recognize that while it may not be easy to manage, this establishment has become the epitome of stability.
I was raised in that restaurant. Napping in the booths and befriending the regulars. And I can’t help but notice all that it has gone through, all it has overcome. Relatives who behaved like strangers and strangers who became family. Tears shed over lost ones but also the announcement of newborns. Champagne stains linger on the ceiling and marks remain from heads forced through walls, both permanent inscriptions left as reminders of it’s best and worst times.
Each day the business is faced with a new adversity. It juggles the lives of eighty different employees, supporting the weight of all of their hardships. Together we cope with everything from childish feuds for which very few can trace the origin, to knee deep flooding. Together we celebrate our biggest accomplishments and we work through any hardship, making sure no one ever has to be alone.
Somehow this perfectly ordinary establishment, that has been playing the same reggae music and serving the same chicken dish since it opened, has become an integral staple in hundreds of lives. Even though it can drive all of us crazy, send us home cursing under our breaths and hitting our steering wheels. Even though it has caused countless arguments and severe misunderstandings. Somehow the simplicity in that faded awning, those two windows overlooking the piazza, the brown booths tearing at the seems, even those oversized vases filled with obscure dry pasta that will never be cooked managed to give us all a sense of stability. More importantly, it gives us hope that if it can last, if it can endure all of that, then so can we.
