Description

By Peter C. Gianakura

Book or Audio CD

An American Cafe is a book filled with the richness of small-town life over the course of most of the 20th century. Although it is a deeply personal book, it also has a universal quality because many small towns across America had such a cafe that was the heart and soul of its community. It is paradoxical that even though Mr. Gianakura struggled all of his life with his own ambivalence about the cafe and the road not taken, nevertheless, he and his father managed to create a place that we all loved to visit over and over again. I remember well the last day Pete was open for business when he retired. he wanted to go quietly, but somehow word spread through town, and many of us dropped by to have a last lunch or ice cream soda and to say good-bye to our dear friend.  There were tears galore along with the happy chatter of a cafe overflowing with life. An American Cafe is the story of not just the cafe but of all the people who walked through the doors underneath the sign that read “Serving the Sault Since 1902”