By Denise Shelton

Once upon a time – in 2004 – three friends decided to open a restaurant in Alameda. Since they were all Italian (two natives and an Italian-American), they figured it would be a good idea to feature Italian food and wine. They named their restaurant C'era Una Volta, which incidentally is Italian for "once upon a time."

Eventually, one of the friends got homesick and returned to Italy. The others wished him well and redoubled their efforts to make their dream flourish. And flourish it did. But this is not the end of the story.

Read more

Source: http://blog.sfgate.com