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History of the Hillsborough LaChaîne Bailliage
Alejandro Zaffaroni hosted a dinner at Trader Vic’s restaurant in San Francisco where every wine he served was from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.
Dinners were planned a year or two in advance and members were assigned to host these dinners at their homes or a restaurant of their choice. Members and their spouses spent a great deal of time and effort guaranteeing the dinner and accompanying wines were as perfect as can be. Members and guests were charged a reasonable price for the dinners and usually the hosts absorbed the difference. All the dinners were spectacular in their own way.
The first La Chaine dinner was held at 85 Fagan Drive. It was catered by Mr. Thomasser, whose catering company was the best in San Francisco at that time and prepared a truly gourmet presentation for this first Bailliage Event.
The Hillsborough Chapter of LaChaîne was started by Mr. Herbert Adair, an investor from Los Angeles who relocated to Hillsborough. His friend Allen Chase was, at that time, the Bailli Provincial for the Pacific Northwest, and assisted Mr. Adair in forming a Peninsula chapter, where Mr. Chase inducted all the charter members. Listing of Charter Members. In 1969 the Pacific Northwest included the Pacific Coast of California, Hawaii and Alaska and the Hillsborough Bailli performed all inductions of new members except Hawaii.
Another dinner hosted by Jack Wrather and his wife, Bonita Granville had an English and Scottish theme. For this he had special seafood (periwinkles, cockles, etc.) flown in from Scotland. When the shipment arrived Friday for the dinner Saturday evening, Customs officials said they couldn’t clear the merchandise until Monday morning as it was too late in the afternoon. Jack immediately called President Nixon at the White House. Needless to say, the seafood was cleared Friday afternoon. All the guests were greeted by 6 foot tall waiters in Beefeaters regalia offering champagne to start a spectacular evening.
The Bailli’s who have contributed to the success of the Hillsborough Bailliage over the years:
Vincent De Domenico - 1969
Dr. Benjamin Ichinose - 1977
Ernest de la Ossa - 1980
Frank J. Draeger - 1989
A. James Scholz - 1996
James M. Stanaway - 2002
Vit Eckersdorf - 2004
Harry A. Dokouzian - 2006
Lois Gogol - 2011
Michael Kalkstein - 2017
Hillsborough members attended dinners and events all over the United States. One event that stands out was hosted by the Beverly Hills Bailliage, whose events were most spectacular in that their dinners often surpassed La Chaine National Events in flair, style and the “extraordinary”. When it was time for Bob Six, chairman of Continental Airlines, and his wife, Audrey Meadows, to host an Event he asked the Hillsborough Bailli for assistance in setting up a dinner at Ernie’s in San Francisco. He flew all attending Beverly Hills Bailliage members from Southern California to San Francisco. He also flew in Iranian caviar from Tehran. There were ice sculptures of mermaids with extended arms holding the 2-kilo tins of caviar.
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