there was an ice cream store and the library down that long hall. I picked out my glasses there and I remember the great smell of pizza slices from the Petrini Deli. Do you remember the sidewalk the meandered from the crosswalk at Sir Francis Drake to the pharmacy? Riding a bike it felt unusual because it wasn't straight.
I agree that the cursive Liquors sign is very tasteful. Does anybody remember if Bon Air shopping center had piped-in background music in the 1960s, '70s, and/or the '80s, or was it only added when the shopping center was expanded in the late 1980s?
You ever notice that even though they have completely remodeled the Bon Air Shopping center, yuppied it up with fancier shops, Mollie Stones, Ben & Jerry's, Peete's Coffee, etc. but they have kept the old neon LIQUOR sign from the old Petrini's Market?
Check it out. It's a nod to the good old days when it was OK to hang a huge neon LIQUOR sign in the suburbs. I love it!
I spent a lot of time in the Greenbrae Pharmacy. There was also a great hardware store down there. I wish there was one there now.
I remember seeing Joe Dimaggio at the Greenbrae Pharmacy. I was little and my mom had to tell me who he was. He was hanging out waiting for the Phamacist, just poking around the store.
I couldn't understand why some lady was asking him to sign her Mr. Coffee Box. At the time he was advertising Mr. Coffees!
There's so much to say about this mid-century classic strip mall. From the Bon Air sign itself, to the Petrini's sign, to the the Greenbrae Pharmacy.
I worked at the Greenbrae Pharmacy from about 1983-1986, during summers and Christmas breaks. I wanted to work there so badly; I perceived it as a "real" job, as opposed to my weekly babysitting gigs. I had to put my name on some sort of waiting list. Then one day the call came. Henry Bracco, the pharmacist, had a coveted postion available. I loved that the pharmacy had a cosmetics department and a liquor department. The woman who ran the cosmetics department was a very glamorous German woman named Gudy. The cosmetics area had stools where the customers could sit and try perfume and other beauty products. It was quite a thrill to be able to stand in for Gudy on days that she didn't work and help people select lipsticks. People--usually residents at the Tam--would call in their orders for late-afternoon delivery.
I usually worked in the front with "Bobbie" (I'm sure many Greenbraeans remember her) and "Peaches." We tracked the film orders, rang up orders on an old cash register, griped about people who would make a small purchase with a 20 dollar bill, but as Bobbie would say, "What the hey..."
Joe DiMaggio came in occasionally, and he used to sit up in the office and talk to Mr. Bracco. We were told NOT to talk to him. When the pharmacy was getting ready to close, he came by and helped reconcile the inventory.
Although I wish the Bon Air sign were still there, and that the pharmacy could have stayed, I have to say that overall the layout of that shopping center is much nicer and has a greater variety of businesses. There was really nowhere to go on lunch breaks 20 years ago--you could practically see the tumbleweeds rolling down the mall from Petrini's.
