In an email last Wednesday from Depot Hotel owner Gia Ghilarducci, she told this writer: “I have been considering the idea of retirement for almost a year... After all, I have been doing this for over 50 years now.”
Ghilarducci said a few offers for the downtown restaurant and building have already come in.
“With very, very mixed feelings, I did finally decide to sign listing papers with a real estate agent for the first time (Tuesday),” she wrote.
Gia Ghilarducci and her late husband, Michael, bought the old Mazza House (once a hotel when the train stopped at the Sonoma Depot) in 1985, created a restaurant downstairs and a home upstairs, where they raised their children, Gianna and Antonio. Gianna is now married to Sonoma Valley Unified School District Trustee John Kelly, and Antonio (Tony) took over as executive chef when Michael died suddenly in 2014.
Gia and Michael met in high school in San Francisco, after which he studied in City College’s hotel and restaurant administration program. After running three earlier restaurants – Chez Joseph in Oakland’s Jack London Square, Columbus Street (named for his old North Beach neighborhood) in Los Altos, and Liaison in Palo Alto – the Ghilarduccis settled in Sonoma because of Michael’s fascination with wine and vineyards, resulting in the family’s own winery.
Michael, a big boisterous fellow with equally big culinary ideas, and Gia started the Depot Hotel cooking school in 1987, and the classes filled up instantly with regulars. They led culinary cruises and once co-taught with Jacques Pépin at Chateau Villette outside Paris.
Tony Ghilarducci added to his culinary art and craft working with Roland Passot at La Folie, the French Laundry, Redd and El Dorado Kitchen, culminating in serving as executive chef at the Depot Hotel from 2014 through this year, the restaurant’s 35th anniversary.
Tony is ready to move on to a new life in Oregon, having cooked seemingly forever.
Lots of people have their favorite Depot Hotel dishes such as Dungeness crab cannelloni, Caesar salad, veal scaloppini, wild boar ragu or tiramisu. Enjoy those specialties fast in case someone bites on the sale. The Thanksgiving dinner menu looks fabulous. 241 First St. W., Sonoma, 938-2980.
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