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Monday, June 30, 2003 |
old friends, sat on the park bench like bookends
The Cap Times published two interesting articles for ex-Madisonians this weekend.One is about the Vilas neighborhood, where I've lived for all but one year of the last 25, and talks about two residents who were part of FDR's administration.
The other is about Gino's. In my college days, I spent a number of wonderful evening with friends in Old Friends, which was on the second floor of Gino's on State Street. It was a dark space, carpeted, with lots of couches and coffee tables to sit at, and we used to go there for conversation and Irish coffee after a movie or gaming. Eventually, they turned this into a dining room, which was a loss: Old Friends was "affordable elegance" for us, and I don't know of a place to replace it. Gino's is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this coming weekend.
Gargano is proud of the fact that university students never broke a window in his restaurant during the Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s.
He remembers closing Gino's, though, on days when tear gas would billow in from the outside.
"There were no customers on those days anyway," he recalls.
When it comes to the State Street Mall, Gargano says he's not sure it was a good idea. His customers used to like parking in front of his restaurant.
"When I came here 41 years ago, I thought I was in paradise, and I still think that," Gargano says.
"Madison is a good place to raise children, and there are wonderful people who live here."
