As a child, Roseann Grimm remembers red sauce simmering on the stove as her grandfather, a fisherman from Amalfi, Italy, started the base for his fish stew: cioppino. In this Melting Spots story, she talks about the dish’s Italian American origins, and explains why it’s still the star of Anchor Oyster Bar’s menu.
This story is part of Melting Spots: An Immigrant Map of San Francisco Food. Explore the map and listen to more stories at CALMIGRATION.ORG/MELTINGSPOTS.
my name is Roseanne grim and I own anchor Oyster Bar I started the restaurant in 1977 so we are about 47 years now I think it’s a culmination of all the things that people expect when they come to San Francisco um the menu reflects that shrimp cocktails clam chowder uh certainly crab and the king of it all is chapeno chapeno is a tomato based stew it has lots of garlic and onions and red bell peppers chapeno sauce on its own tastes like tomato sauce but when you add good fish to it you’re going to develop that taste it has a long history some people say it comes from Italian and Portuguese fishermen in San Francisco my grandfather was one of them he came here from Amalfi Italy and he worked on the salmon and crab boats so we ate a lot of fish I ate a lot of fish growing up and we had a lot of chipino so this is um a memory food for me and as is actually all the dishes are growing up as a teenager my mother would put my brother and I on the bus and go down to the warf and pick up a box of crabs and bring them home the war was a big part of what we did it’s not anymore but then it was there was always big pots on the warf and there were cooking fresh crab my dad would put us in his station wagon at night and drive us down to the warf to get shrimp cocktails and our pajamas and we’d sit in the car and each from cocktails the warf when I was growing up it felt like a a place where locals went for big dinners and we’d go down to buy crab we’d go down to see the ships come in and you know it was the expectation people have when they come to the warf oh this is part of San Francisco but now it feels very overbuilt with tourist shops and t-shirts and we don’t see things of value there anymore the tradition of chipino is important to me because I I grew up in San Francisco I associate with San Francisco and I think it’s really important to keep these Traditions alive and I think we’re doing it at anchor I do