Bancheros

Greetings family and friends!  Today's nostalgic vignette is about Banchero's, one of our favorite "take out" restaurants that has been only a memory for over a decade.....Bill

“Three quarts of lentil soup, two quarts of spaghetti, a quart of ravioli, and a couple loaves of garlic bread”

Can you believe that Banchero’s Italian Dinners has been gone for ten years? The Hayward Area institution closed it’s doors permanently in 2012 after sixty one years of providing inexpensive large portion meals to generations of East Bay families. John Banchero Sr. and his business partner Jack O’Connor established the classic Italian restaurant on Mission Blvd. at the Northern Hayward border in a large surplus quonset hut that still stands forlornly behind a decade old chain link fence. As our family got larger and our parents older it was becoming increasingly difficult for mom to prepare traditional Sunday meals, and too expensive to go out so, we would often substitute Chinese take-out from Dang How on Castro Valley Blvd. or pick-up Italian from Banchero’s. I can clearly picture the deft multi-purposing by John Banchero Jr., and his son Joseph standing behind the counter in the tiny noisy lobby crammed with hungry customers, taking unceasing phone orders and patiently awaiting walk-in’s to make up their minds, seating lucky guests in the dining room, ringing up payments, and calling out the names of customers awaiting take-out orders freshly delivered in brown paper bags from the busy kitchen. Our usual take-out order to feed about a dozen of us typically consisted of three quarts of lentil soup, two quarts of spaghetti, a quart of ravioli, and a couple loaves of garlic bread. The abandoned “Bancheros” sign looming over Mission Blvd. no longer attracts the throngs of hungry guests that would begin lining up on the sidewalk at 3:00pm on Sunday afternoons for coveted dining room seating or a spot in the bar, unaware that they were creating family memories that last a lifetime.  -Bill

Of course you can make their Minestrone.  Click here for the Banchero's recipe