Tablehopper's Marcia Gagliardi (S4E7)

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Marcia Gagliardi's family used to own a pizzeria and Italian deli in the Sierra foothills.

In Part 1, the Tablehopper creator and author goes a couple generations back to trace her family's story and how they ended up in Northern California. Her Italian grandparents went back to their homeland shortly before Marcia was born, but we'll get back to that.

Marcia grew up on the Peninsula, one of two daughters for the Gagliardis. She recounts what that experience was like for her, and shares the story of the time she spent in Italy during college. It was at a Christmas dinner there that she discovered just how diligently her dad had kept up their Italian customs in California.

She talks about her family's move to the foothills and back and shares how she and a friend would drive up to The City and arrange deals for their high school classmates, long before the internet. Marcia ends Part 1 with the story of her year in Venice and her return home to finish college at UCLA.

Marcia could've ended up in LA. In fact, if it weren't for the 1994 Northridge earthquake, there might be no Tablehopper.

In Part 2, Marcia talks about coming back to the Bay Area and found a place in the Western Addition (where she still lives today!). She chronicles various jobs at design firms before the 2000 "dotbomb." Not long after that, she started Tablehopper.

We asked Marcia to name three of her favorite San Francisco bars or restaurants in 2006 when she launched her newsletter.

Then Marcia tells us how she got started in 2018 doing My Milligram, a media brand featuring reviews of low-dose and high-quality cannabis products made in California.

She ends the podcast with her outlook on San Francisco in the near future.

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We recorded this podcast at an apartment in the Western Addition in April 2021.