![]() ![]() Several of today’s employees have been part of the Tadich Family for over 20 years. John Markovich also served for twenty-seven years, 1943 to 1970. John Skorlich started waiting tables in 1939 and kept at it until he retired twenty-seven years later. John “Duke” Dukich worked there as a waiter from 1924 to 1966, forty-two years. Employees serve loyal customers for generations. The Buich family still owns it and runs it. Tradition is as much a part of Tadich as is the kitchen. Once again, redevelopment forced the restaurant to move this time, in 1967, to its present location at 240 California Street. ![]() By 1934, Tom and his brothers, Mitch and Louie, were the sole owners, and they revived the Coffee Stand’s practice of grilling fish over charcoal, using mesquite exclusively. But Tadich was a forgiving man and hired Tom back in 1923 as a waiter. Five years later Tadich fired Buich for constantly trying to tell him how to run the establishment. Tadich hired a countryman, Tom Buich, as a pantryman. Before long, success required larger quarters, and the Croatians moved their place to Commercial and Kearny and promoted it from Stand to Saloon. In this reclamation process, Coffee Stand was obliged to relocate to the New World Market, the city’s central produce market, at Commercial and Leidesdorff streets and was renamed New World Coffee Stand. But bay fill was expanding the city eastward, and Long Wharf was turning into an extension of Commercial Street. At the time, the shore of San Francisco Bay lapped at the edge of Montgomery Street. Shortly thereafter, the Coffee Stand tent was replaced by a shanty made of corrugated iron. At one point, a ship carrying a load of iron tied up at the pier, and the crew immediately deserted the ship to go off in search of gold. Coffee Stand served fresh fish grilled over charcoal to the merchants, sailors, and argonauts who frequented the pier. Hundreds of sailing ships were tied up there, and the pier was lined with hastily built shops, saloons, markets, and gambling dens. Long Wharf was a pier that reached half a mile into the Bay. ![]() In 1849, Nikola Budrovich, Frano Kosta, and Antonio Gasparich, three immigrants from Croatia, set up a tent on Long Wharf and posted a sign on it that read Coffee Stand. ![]()
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