Paul & Eddie's Monta Vista Inn
Paul Gaviglio immigrated from Italy with his mother and two siblings in 1914.
His father Giovanni had been living in the Bay area since 1904 working and saving enough to be able to send for his family.
They arrived at Ellis Island and travelled across country on trains to Santa Cruz where Giovanni was working felling trees in Boulder Creek for the Santa Cruz Lumber Company.
These gigantic Sequoia redwoods could make 20 homes from the lumber of a single tree.
It was very dangerous work and he was unfortunately killed by a tree that did not fall in the right way.
Paul’s wife Maria Franco was also the daughter of an immigrant who was living in San Francisco.
He worked with his horses and wagon to haul off garbage and help the military with deliveries before and after the 1906 earthquake.
Eddie was born August 16, 1923 at 328 Mississippi Street in San Francisco’s Mission district.
The house still stands today.
In 1942 his father Paul sold his SF bar The Mission Rendezvous on 24th Street and moved the family to Cupertino.
His first bar there was the Permanente Café on Stevens Creek Road (now Cupertino Road) and what is now Foothill Blvd.
The family lived in a duplex behind the business.
Eddie started going to welding school in 1940, being taught by experienced “bridge men” who had built the Golden Gate, Bay and other bridges of the Bay Area.
Eddie welded at many places in the area including the Permanente Cement and Magnesium Plant in the Los Altos hills during WWII,
bridges across the Sacramento River at Marysville and Yuba City, buildings in San Francisco and San Jose,
overpasses from South San Francisco to Mountain View, as well as The Accent Plant on South Monterey Highway, San Jose.
Eddie was an only child so there was enough room for the family to live in a duplex together even though it was small.
In July 1943 the café plus its little bar burned to the ground.
This gave the family the opportunity to move to a larger house Paul built close by on Santa Paula Street.
In 1987 the home was still there.
Paul and his partner wasted no time in building a new bar.
They took lumber from the duplex to build a temporary back bar that was opened just four days after the fire.
There was no refrigeration yet – just a sink, glasses and booze.
They served hi balls, straight shots and water.
On opening night Eddie played his accordion, and they were open till dawn.
Soon proper refrigeration, furniture, beer, soda and everything else a bar needed was installed.
This was “The New Hoo Hoo House” (aka Hoo Hoo Inn) named after the amazing wooden structure built by the Lumberman’s Fraternity by that name.
It was moved by barge from the 1915 SF World’s Fair to a hill above Cupertino Road.
It served as a very popular roadhouse and dance hall until it burned down in a spectacular fire on August 16, 1928.
Some of the huge sequoia logs weighed over seven tons each.
Sadly, mother Maria died of kidney disease in Palo Alto August 1944.
Now it was just Paul, Eddie and Paul’s best friend and partner Harry Einer Lange who had previously owned the Sausalito Hotel.
He moved to Cupertino and lived with the family as well as helping Paul in all his business ventures.
At the end of 1944 Paul and Harry purchased the Monta Vista Inn from Chester Damico.
At the time it was located on Peninsula Avenue but zoning changes soon gave it a very visible location on what we all know as Stevens Creek Blvd.
Paul managed the Inn and Harry managed the new Hoo Hoo House from 1943 to 1947 when they decided to sell the latter property.
In 1943 Stevens Creek Road was redirected which diverted almost all traffic away.
That road was later named “Old Stevens Creek Road” and today is Cupertino Road.
This is the main reason the new business was invested in.
Harry sold his share of the Monta Vista Inn to Eddie in 1949 when Eddie was still working at the Permanente Plant.
It became known as Paul and Eddie's after the customers just kept calling it that.
Paul believed it was (and still is) the oldest standing building in Monta Vista.
In June 1950 Eddie married Lois Johnson and they moved in to the apartment over the Inn until 1954.
That year Eddie built a house on a lot next door to his dad.
He and his wife had three daughters – Gina, Linda and Rita.
The Inn was known as a wonderful gathering spot for locals and gained a reputation as a sports bar.
They gave away souvenirs such as custom golf clubs and tees as Paul loved the sport.
Paul formally retired in August 1967 from bartending and the every day running of the business.
He was still very active in the community and he and Eddie along with Eddies daughters started the tradition of an old fashioned “grape stomp” to make home made wine.
All through the 1970s Eddie continued to run the bar as well as Vic’s Curve Inn which he owned with Vic Navione.
Paul and Eddie died within a year of each other.
Paul in December 1987 and Eddie in September 1988 both in Los Altos.
In 2023 the Inn celebrated their 80th year as one of Cupertino’s most beloved and iconic businesses.
Researched and written by Alecia Thomas, CHSM Collection Manager, December 2024