Izzy Gomez

Who is Izzy Gomez?

Isadore Gomez was a Portuguese immigrant, chef and restaurateur in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California. In 1943, he was recognized by LIFE magazine as one of San Francisco's most colorful characters. His birthday was celebrated on February 9.

Gomez left his home in Portugal when he was eighteen and made his way to San Francisco. According to his obituary, he arrived in the city penniless and "friends said his unrecorded charities had kept him that way". He landed his first job as a "swamper" in a local gin-joint on the infamous Barbary Coast. He managed to save enough to buy a small bar at 848 Pacific Avenue. During Prohibition, with his Isadore Gomez' Café, he became known as the city's most beloved violator of the Volstead Act. In 1933 he served a thirty-day jail term for bootlegging. Ten years later, in February 1943, Gomez received a Presidential pardon.

One of Gomez's great fans was the Armenian-American writer William Saroyan. His famous play, The Time of Your Life, is about Gomez and is set at Izzy's saloon. Saroyan wrote in his journals that Gomez's place was downtown, "not far from the old Montgomery block, across from the firehouse at First and Pacific". He went on to say: