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Tucked behind the dim lights, white tablecloths and elegant wood panels of the dining room at John Bentley’s along El Camino Real is a purple door to the building’s colorful past.
For more than 80 years, the Redwood City institution has been a special-occasion eatery for its devotees – from 1933 to 2002 through three generations of the family-run Fabbro’s, and since then as John Bentley’s – but it’s hiding more secrets than just recipes.
You’d never notice the purple door, for instance, until a family member points it out. It’s got a camouflaged wood panel that opens into a small window, now covered with an elaborate grate.
“I think it used to be bigger,” said Joi Ferrando, descendant of “one of the bootleggers,” explaining that Maria Fabbro, Italian matriarch and head chef of the former Fabbro’s restaurant, used to serve day workers who couldn’t afford to patronize the sit-down restaurant through the window – the original fast food.
The story of the door, and a plethora of other reminiscences and stories, were the focus of a private dinner held in the upper floor of John Bentley’s on Saturday, March 24, where generations of the Fabbro family gathered in the same space some of their family members grew up in. Over an informal family cocktail hour, Fabbro family members talked about their years working at the family and community institution.
A rich history
The restaurant, says Mike Fabbro – who ran the business from 1997 to 2002 – first formally opened its doors for business in 1933, after Prohibition was lifted.
Mike took over the restaurant from his father, Frank, who took over from his father, George Fabbro.
George was well-known as a bootlegger and speakeasy proprietor.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, he and his wife Mary ran a speakeasy out of their home before shuttering it and buying the 2915 El Camino Real building.
In 1933 they opened it as a restaurant and bar downstairs and lived in the apartment’s upstairs with their children.
The site quickly became a Peninsula hotspot, Mike Fabbro said.
George, remembered one relative, was known as a “bon vivant” who went by the nickname “Big Red.” According to the Chronicle, the living room in the upper apartment was home to the first off-track betting machine in the state. Customers could reportedly walk up from the bar to place bets. Eventually the machine was moved to a red shed out back when authorities objected to its living-room location.
Deana Fabbro, who spent time working as a waitress at the restaurant, talked about some of her experiences and those she heard from her mother, who worked as a waitress there for about 40 years. When it started, the restaurant was exclusively open to men — it probably didn’t allow women “in the front door” until the late 1960s, she said.
The restaurant was well-known for its marinated cracked crab, and offered the “best cheesecake in town,” she added. Steak was served with both pasta and potatoes.
Among its frequenters were many of the judges and lawyers of San Mateo County, she said.
Fabbro’s also hosted annual fundraisers for the Catholic Youth Organization, consisting of a golf tournament followed by a steak dinner at Fabbro’s, she said.
John Fabbro, older brother to Mike and son of Frank, worked in the kitchen for a few years in the 1980s. He said he started working at the family restaurant around the time he was 13, and helped run the business as an adult.
John Bentley took over the site in November 2002. Mike Fabbro said he sold the business to him partly because Mr. Bentley’s dad was a dedicated restaurant customer, Mike Fabbro said.
Their cocktail hour over, Fabbros and friends took their seats in Grandpa George’s former gambling apartment – since converted to a private dining room – and broke bread together at their “last soiree.”
The restaurant closes permanently on Saturday, March 31.
The site is slated to be redeveloped into a senior living facility.
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ECR is losing all of its small independent and consumer friendly services and businesses to big bucks developments and more unaffordable housing.
Loved this story, albeit another sad demise of what Menlo Park and Atherton use to be. The wonderful, days of Fabbro’s, Scotty Cambell’s, Ramar Oaks and Atherton Key Club are now just a faint memory of those of us lucky enough to have grown up here through the ’50s & 60s. Even in the 1970’s, our stretch of El Camino harbored fun restaurant/watering holes like The Coach & Six (later became The Refectory) and Butterfields (home to Vince Guaraldi Trio). Thanks to John Bentley for keeping a good thing alive as long as he did. Now we can only expect more office buildings and condos to line the walls of the King’s Highway.
I need a Calso Water…if only it were still around.
Now that the Fabbro story has been told, it’s about time that the John Bentley story is told, since he is closing his restaurant by the end of this month. When asked why he was closing such a popular and successful restaurant, his response was that he could no longer get up before 5am each and every day and put in the 12 plus hours daily. He was exhausted and needed a serious break.
It’s our loss. His food is superb. He is (was) the master of “ying-yang” cooking, combining sweet and savory flavors in exquisite balance. Trained at the California Culinary Academy, he mastered the essence of classic French Cooking; i.e., sauces. He created and trained staff, both “in front” and “in back” that worked with him for decades. He assembled menus and meals that were predictably reliable and superb.
The restaurant prior to the current one on El Camino was in Woodside, in a former fire house. It was small and somewhat funky, but with a loyal customer base and a great reputation. How do I know all this? Full disclosure: In that older restaurant, he took me on as one of the oldest apprentice prep. cooks in the US. He taught me everything. I worked my tail off and loved every minute of it. Why? Because John is one of the neatest guys I have come to know in my long life.
I will remain deeply grateful for his friendship, patience and willingness to let me learn in his kitchen.
Good-by John. We will really, really miss you.
I will so miss John Bentley’s!!!!!!! This is another Amazing and very special restaurant that will no longer be with us!
I too, remember Fabbro’s and Scotty Cambell’s! I was there a month ago. I was trying to get back one more time, but unfortunately I can’t make it! Rest up and be well John! We will miss you and all your amazing food!
Is it true a boutique wheat grass bar is going in the Oasis- operated by a burned out tech. executive? I will never go that- who would.
Rolling Over