Smith: A less obvious reason shopkeeper is grieving for Arrigoni’s

One block apart in downtown Santa Rosa stand two of the city’s oldest family businesses.

At Fifth and D streets is Pedersen’s Furniture, founded in 1892. And at Fourth and D, the soon-to-close Arrigoni’s deli cafe, which traces its roots to the bustling grocery store that Nate Bacigalupi opened in the 1880s at Fourth and Davis in the Little Italy district.

In the 1920s, young men from both the Traverso and Arrigoni families worked in Bacigalupi’s store. And in 1932, the Traversos and Arrigonis bought it.

Five years later, brothers Frank, James and Pete Arrigoni branched out and opened a market of their own at Fourth and D. Arrigoni’s decades later became the cafe that brothers Raja and Jacob Naber are about to close as they go bittersweetly into at least semi-retirement.

Everyone just up the block at Pedersen’s will be sorry to see the demise of the neighborly restaurant that grew from Nate Bacigalupi’s market. But no one at the furniture store is sadder than co-owner Paul Pedersen.

“Nate Bacigalupi was my great-grandfather,” Paul shares. “His daughter, Irene, married my grandfather, Fred Pedersen Sr.

“So having Arrigoni’s at the end of the block from our store has always been comfortable and familiar.”

Comfortable and familiar. Arrigoni’s sure has been that, even for those of us who only wish we’d had a family tie.

HOW ABOUT A MOVIE? Another family deeply rooted in Sonoma County, the Tocchinis, offer some pretty sweet holiday specials at their theaters.

On Wednesday, Dec. 17, a donation of a new toy, cash or one or more items of nonperishable food will get you into screenings of Christmas films at all five of the Tocchinis’ moviehouses. Their company will match the cash donations up to $1,000 per theater and give the money to the Boys & Girls Club of Central Sonoma County and the Redwood Empire Food Bank.

“Christmas Vacation” will show at the Roxy 14, “The Polar Express” at the Airport Stadium, “Four Christmases” at the Summerfield, “Jingle all the Way” at Third Street and “Love Actually” at Healdsburg’s Raven Film Center.

Show times are 11:30 a.m. and 2:15, 5 and 7:30 p.m.

Also, the Tocchinis, whose family business began in Santa Rosa in 1924, will show Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” at 1 and 7 p.m. this coming Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Dec. 20-22, at the Summerfield and Airport theaters.

Admission: 5 bucks.

WHY DO YOU SUPPOSE a woman who saw two of her sons go to war as Marines, and one of them not return, would hope that women might do a bit of shopping Sunday morning at a Sonoma boutique?

Angela O’Day manages the Chico’s shop on East Napa Street, and she’s thrilled that it will donate 10 percent of the morning’s sales proceeds to Mothers of Military Servicemembers, or MOMS. The local organization ships care packages to troops overseas.

O’Day said the holidays are “the most important time” for the troops to receive the packages. “This is really when they miss their families.”

She and Chico’s invite those who’ll come in between 9 and noon Sunday to bring along comfort items such as socks, toiletries and magazines.

O’Day’s eldest son, Patrick, died in Iraq in 2003. Her son Thomas proudly followed his brother into the Corps.

A SUPPORTIVE BRA and a decent pair of sneakers are all a woman needs to introduce a great change to her life, says the former Megan Blackstone.

A smidge over 30 years after she graduated from Santa Rosa High, her name is now Megan Seafoss. She’s married with three daughters, and she’s living in Connecticut and celebrating the publication of her first book, “See Mom Run.”

Megan praises the day she discovered running as an inexpensive, convenient way to clear her mind and get fit. The multiple marathoner and, now, author said from her new running store in Ridgefield, Conn., that Sonoma County is home to one of the best reasons on Earth to start running.

“There is nothing like Annadel (State Park),” she said. “It’s such a jewel. I could go up and run miles and miles and never see anyone.”

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.