Pelanconi House/La Golondrina Cafe (Los Angeles, California)

 cafe, street

W-17 Olvera St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Open 7 days a week.

lagolondrina.com/pelanconi.html --

"Built about 1855-57 by Guiseppi Covaccichi (Jose Covaccichi) as a residence, the Pelanconi House is a two-story firebrick building (the oldest still standing in the city) with an exposed basement.

"The basement level has always been exposed and became more so when the street level was lowered about three feet in the late 1920s. The balcony along the second floor was constructed at the time of the building but the present one is not the original wood. The first was originally flat, and the present hipped roof was added in the 1920s.

"In 1929 the building was remodeled and connected to the structure directly behind it facing North Main Street, which had been built by Lorenzo Pelanconi in 1910 as a warehouse for his wine storage. The Pelanconi winery was located where El Paso Inn and the other structures to the north of it stand on the east side of Olvera Street.

"Jose Covacich was born in 1824 in the state of Dalmacia in Italy and was married to Joaquina Elbarria (Echevarria) of Sonora. Covacich bought the property in 1855 from Loretta Valencia. Between 1858 and 1871, the lot changed hands four times-Gracias, Gazzo, Mascarel and Rivera. In 1871, Antonio Pelanconi purchased the property. He had arrived in Los Angeles in 1857 and in 1866 he had married Isabel Ramirez. He died in 1879 and Isabel married his colleague, Giacomo Tononi, in 1881. In 1971, the property was turned over to the children of Antonio and Isabel - Petra, Lorenza, Honorine and Isabel Pelanconi.

"Maps of 1883 and later depict the Pelanconi House as a wine cellar. According to Honorine Pelanconi Vala, the Tononis stored their better wine in the Pelanconi House. The prison gang that graded Olvera Street for Mrs. Sterling discovered some of this wine in the late 1920s.

"Since the 1930s, the building has been rented by the Bonzo family for use as a restaurant, La Golondrina. The restaurant is housed at street level in the exposed basement, while offices are upstairs. Senora Consuelo de Bonzo, first tenant in the building after Mrs. Sterling opened Olvera Street as a Mexican marketplace, was the first restaurateur to serve food described as "Mexican" rather than "Spanish."